The conditions that favoured the outbreak and spread of the Greek Revolution in the Peloponnese and central Greece - that is, the work of the chief regional agents of the Philiki Etaireia, the area's distance from the powerful military centres of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman army's preoccupation with the repression of the Ali Pasha rebellion - did not exist in regions such as Macedonia and Thessaly. Nonetheless, Pilio in south-eastern Thessaly, the peninsulas of Mount Athos and Kassandra in Chalkidiki, the region of Olympos and Naousa in west Macedonia were significant centres of insurrection. But these insurrections remained regional movements. The prime mover of the uprising in the twenty-four villages of Pilio was the priest and scholar Anthimos Gazis, who had been initiated into the Philiki Etaireia early on. Despite his hesitancy with regard to the Revolution, he gained the support of the powerful armatole family of Pilio, the Basdekis family, and declared for the Revolution at the beginning of May. The rebels first besieged Volos and then Velestino. But, on the appearance of the troops of Mahmud Dramali, pasha of Larisa, the sieges ceased and the uprising was stamped out. Only small groups who had found refuge there in 1822, after the repression of the uprising in western Macedonia, remained on the eastern side of Pilio with Karatasos as a leader. Finally, they capitulated in July 1823 under the pressure of Mehmed Reshid pasha (Kutahye).

The revolutionary movement in Chalkidiki was to a large extent the work of the merchant and banker Emmanouil Pappas. Pappas moved there in 1817 from Constantinople and was initiated into the Philiki Etaireia. When the Greek Revolution broke out in the Danubian principalities and the Peloponnese he went to Chalkidiki and began to prepare for the Revolution, which broke out in May 1821. Pappas was supported by many monasteries on Mount Athos, while the peninsula of Kassandra was an important revolutionary centre as well. Nevertheless, the powerful Ottoman forces which rushed to Chalkidiki managed to stifle the uprising, showing great cruelty to the inhabitants of the region. This was the attitude of the Ottoman powers toward the people of western Macedonia and especially Veroia and Naousa. The Revolution broke out at the end of February with Karatasos as the prime mover but it did not last. That is how the insurrection of the armed men of Olympos, led by the Lazos family, under captain Diamantis and N. Kasomoulis, ended as well. The armed men who played an important role in the insurrections of these regions finally found refuge in the Peloponnese and central Greece where the Revolution seemed to be holding strong, and followed the orders of the Greek Revolutionary Administration.