Until its official recognition as an independent state, Greece did not maintain any permanent diplomatic delegations abroad. Based on the Friendship and Commerce Treaty of 1st November 1832 between Bavaria and Greece, signed at Munich, the Greek kingdom's consular representation to Western Europe was based on Bavarian consuls and vice-consuls. In the following year, the Greek state briskly proceeded to the foundation of consulates or to the accrediting of Bavarian consular representatives to several cities and ports in Europe.

In spring 1833, the general consulates in Paris and Vienna were founded. Within the same year, the Greek kingdom acquired some consular representation in Naples, Marseille, Trieste, Cologne, Strasbourg, Dresden, London, Copenhagen, Odessa, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Riga, Hanover and Magdeburg.
Soon, Greek consular offices were founded along with general consulates in Corfu and St Petersburg, and consulates in Venice, Livorno, Ancona and Hamburg.
In 1833 Michael Tositsas and Andrew Metaxas were appointed as unsalaried consuls in Alexandria, Egypt and Cairo respectively. As the latter refused to leave Greece, the consulate of Alexandria was upgraded to general consulate, following Tositsas's actions.
The issue of the decree on the foundation of a State Secretariat of the Royal House and the Foreign Affairs,that is, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 3rd April 1833, and the issue of consular instructions in 1834, along with other instructions pertaining to consular authorities, would contribute to the upgrading of consular representation of the country abroad.

The diplomatic representation of the country was deficient in the state which was most interested in Greek interests and its aspirations towards liberation, that is, the Ottoman Empire. The Kapi did not welcome the appointment of Greek diplomatic representations, as shown by the cases of Zographos and Mousouros. The Greek consular offices functioned semi-formally on many occasions, and the issue was not settled until the Treaty of Kanlitzas, in 1855.
Despite all the difficulties, however, the Greek government, from the very first years, was quick to appoint consuls and to establish consulates in the Empire, even if only on paper. In 1834, the Kapi consented to the foundation of the consulates of Smyrna, Thessaloniki and Preveza, to which, sooner or later, the vice-consulates of Chios, Rhodes, Volos, Enos, Cassandra, Plovdid, Adrianople, Sofia, Trebizond, Varna and the Dardanelles were subordinated. The vice-consulate of Samos was founded later than these; the last one to be founded was the vice-consulate of Cyprus in 1846.

Despite the delays and problems, the Greek state developed a consular network which became more dense in the 19th century and was enriched by representations to new states which would be created in time.