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Abstract: Who were the Greeks who settled in Vienna, Budapest, Trieste and in a number of other cities of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 18th century, gaining control over the majority of trade connections with the Levant and making Greek the principal language of the Balkans not only for commercial and religious use but also with regard to culture? What were the characteristics of these settlements? Did they differ from the traditional approach of the 16th and 17th century Diaspora, which tended to centre the settlement around the Orthodox church as a form of defence and identification? What role did national awareness play in assimilating and being assimilated? And what was the relationship between cosmopolitanism and national awareness? These are some of the issues tackled in this paper by examining the history of the «plebaja greca», which emigrated in order to escape poverty and the tyranny of the Turks, grew wealthy through commerce and became part of a cosmopolitan elite.