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Prehistory and Antiquity The shores of Greece's Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilizations in Europe, namely the Minoan and the Mycenaen. Plato has described how the Greeks live round the Aegean Archipelago "like frogs around a pond"; their name has always been associated with the sea. After the internal struggle between Spartans and Athenians, all parts of Greece were united under the rule of Alexander the Great and aimed at the defeat of the 'eastern threat' of the Persians. Alexander led the Greeks to a victorious campaign which established a Greek Empire and introduced a new era in world history, the Hellenistic.
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Militarily, Greece declined allowing the Romans to conquer the land (168 BC onwards). Greece became a province of the Roman Empire, but Greek culture continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean. When the Roman Empire finally split in two, the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, centered around Constantinople (known in ancient times as Byzantium), remained Greek in nature, encompassing Greece itself. During the period of the Byzantine Empire Greece experienced fluctuating fortunes, but it succeeded in Hellenising and institutionalizing most of its new invaders. From the late 8th century, the Empire began to recover from the devastating impact of successive invasions, and the re-conquest of Greece began. Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor were brought in as settlers. Slaves were either driven out or assimilated. By the middle of the 9th century, Greece was dominated by those of Hellenic heritage once more, and Greek cities began to recover due to improved safeguards against barbarous incursion and restored central governance. A number of contemporary Greek historians have chronicled those centuries. The invasions of the Turks after the battle of Manzikert in 1071 and the ensuing civil wars largely passed the region by, and Greece continued its provincial existence unharmed. When the Byzantine Empire was rescued by the resolute leadership of the three Comnenus emperors Alexius I, John II and Manuel I Comnenus, Greece prospered. Archaeological evidence tells us that many of the medieval towns, including Athens, Thessaloniki, Thebes and Corinth, experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the eleventh century and continuing until the end of the twelfth century. The growth of the towns attracted the Venetians, and this interest in trade appears to have further increased economic prosperity in Greece. The 11th and 12th centuries are said to be the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Greece. During the Crusading epochs between 1204 and 1458, Greece was hit by a series of western European armies in the name of religion. The end of an era arrived with the Fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453 to the Ottoman Empire. The empire had been for centuries the center of Christendom from the ancient classical world of the Roman Empire to the dawn of the Renaissance. Throughout this medieval era it had remained a source of constancy. But during the 15th century, Greece was gradually conquered by the Ottomans. |
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While the Ottomans were completing the main conquest of the Greek Mainland, two Greek migrations occurred. The first saw the Greek intelligentsia migrate to Western Europe — especially to Italy — and contribute to the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration of Greeks left the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettled in the mountains, the islands and Greek regions outside Ottoman control. In the mountainous regions, the Ottomans were unable to create a permanent military and administrative presence. As a result some Greek mountain clans across the peninsula, as well as some islands, were able to maintain a status of independence. The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. The Orthodox Church, a religious institution with a keen sense of its national character, contributed to the Greeks from all geographical areas of the peninsula (i.e. mountains, plains, and islands) to preserve their ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage during the years of the Ottoman rule (although at the time it was not strictly speaking a "Greek" church — the Greek Church was instituted after the liberation). Eventually, religion played an integral part in the formation of the Modern Greek and other post-Ottoman national identities.
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The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. On March 25, 1821 the Greeks rebelled and declared their independence, which was finally recognized in 1829. Much of Europe saw the Greek War of Independence, with its accounts of Turkish atrocities, in a romantic light (see, for example, the 1824 painting the Massacre of Chios by Eugène Delacroix). Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause. In 1830, the Russian ex-minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, a noble Greek from the Ionian Islands, was chosen as President of the new Republic. However, the Great Powers soon dissolved that republic and installed a "Greek" monarchy. The first king, Otto of Bavaria, was of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach and the subsequent line from the German-Danish House of Oldenburg. During the 19th and especially the early 20th centuries, in a series of wars with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire (the Ionian Islands were 'donated' by Britain in 1863, and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans without a fight). As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 Crete, Chios, Samos, most of Epirus and southern Macedonia were incorporated into Greece. Greek territory and population expanded until reaching its present configuration, in 1947. The War of Independence also set in motion significant internal changes including the establishment of major new cities and centers of trade. The first was Ermoupoli (also often spelled "Hermoupolis", on the island of Syros (often called "Syra" in the 19th century). Thousands of Greek islanders found themselves compelled to flee from their homes, and Syros was the island on which a great many eventually settled. Their numbers increased greatly following the massacre of Chios in 1822 and the devastation of Psara in 1824. The new city of Ermoupoli was soon established, more than half of its inhabitants originated from Chios. In a very short time Ermoupoli became the main city in Greece. Thousands of ships were built and launched at Syros in the 19th century. The Greek Steamship Company of Ermoupoli was the first in Greece. The first telegraph station in Greece was established there in 1858, eventually followed by the Eastern Telegraph Company in the 1870s with more than 100 employees making Syros a major hub in their globe-spanning telegraph network. The second major city to grow forth from the springboard of the War of Independence was Athens itself and it became the capital. The third major center to emerge was Piraeus with its three natural harbors. By the 1880s it had grown enormously as a center for shipbuilding and as a general hub of shipping. Soon one the largest construction initiative in Europe took place, the creation of the Corinth Canal between 1881 and 1893. |
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In World War I, Greece sided with the entente powers against the Ottoman Empire and the other Central Powers. In the war's aftermath, the Great Powers awarded a small part of Asia Minor to Greece, centered around the city of Smyrna (known as Izmir today) which had a majority of Greek population. At that time, however, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, denounced the Sultan's government in Istanbul and formed a new one in Ankara. During the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) the Turks eventually defeated the Greek armies and regained control of Asia Minor. Soon afterwards, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, fixing the borders to this date. A population exchange was included in the agreement and immediately afterwards, around five hundred thousand Muslims then living in mainland Greek territory left for Turkey in exchange for more than 1.22 million Greek residents of Asia Minor (excluding Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos). In 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas established an authoritarian conservative dictatorship in Greece known as the 4th of August Regime. Greece under Metaxas is compared to Spain at the time, although it lacked the political violence associated with Francisco Franco's regime. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, a referendum was held resulting in a controversial 'yes' to restore the monarchy, under King Constantine I. |
On 28 October 1940, the Italian dictator Mussolini demanded that Greece allows Axis troops to enter the country and to surrender its arms. Though Greece was alone and most of Europe occupied by the Axis, the Greek government gave a simple negative response — thereby immediately siding with the Allies. Okhi means "no" in Greek, which is what thousands of anti-Axis Greek demonstrators shouted that day. The Italian troops poured over from Albania. The Greek counter-attack along the Albanian front gave the Allies their first victory against fascism (see Greco-Italian War). Mussolini's armies were saved from defeat with the intervention of Italy's Axis ally, Germany, since Hitler and his generals needed to secure their strategic southern flank. German forces whose ranks included troops from Bulgaria and Italy successfully invaded and began occupying Greece on April–May 1941 (Battle of Greece). Germany held onto the country until 1944 when German troops withdrew. In May 1941, to reduce the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt, the Germans attempted to seize Crete in a massive attack by paratroopers. Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians offered fierce resistance. Crete fell, but it is pointed out by historians that the whole Greek campaign delayed German plans to initiate German invasion against the Soviet Union, thereby extending the campaign into the punishing Russian winter. In addition, the extremely heavy losses of paratroop forces sustained by the Germans in Crete foiled a planned German campaign in the Middle East against British-held Iraq and its oil fields. During the years of Nazi occupation, hundreds of thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, concentration camps and starvation. During the freezing winter of 1941–1942 the occupying forces implemented a country-wide, systematic confiscation of all foodstuffs as punishment for delaying critical German war plans in Eastern Europe. Ultimately, the threat of a general rebellion was used by the Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens to convince the Germans to relent and abandon the confiscation of food in the spring of 1942. Greek partisan resistance to the occupation was fierce, often with bitter retaliation from the occupiers. Perhaps the most ignominious example of this is the massacre at Kalavryta, where the entire male population (1258 men) of the city of Kalavrita was executed on a single day, 13th December 1943. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many Greeks to shelter their fellow Jewish Greek citizens. The Jewish community of Thessaloniki suffered the heaviest toll by far. During the war the Greek economy languished. After liberation, Greece experienced an equally bitter Greek Civil War between the communist-led Democratic Army and the Hellenic Army that lasted until 1949, when the communists were defeated in the battle of Grammos-Vitsi. |
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During the 1950s and 1960s, Greece experienced gradual and consistent economic growth, aided by significant grants and loans by the United States through the Marshall Plan. However, starting in 1965, a series of turbulent political events unfolded that led to severe political uncertainty. The crisis eventually got out of hand for both the elected government and King Constantine II and ended dramatically in the early hours of April 21, 1967. That morning, a coordinated effort by a number of Colonels and other military officials succeeded in a coup d'etat and they soon managed to establish a fierce military junta. General elections planned by the conservative government to be held on May 28 never took place. In the following years, a number of supporters of the left wing as well as a number of politicians and communists were arrested and brutally tortured by the regime. Other politicians, however, evaded capture and found political refuge in such European countries as France and Sweden. Nevertheless, the then head of state, former King Constantine officially acknowledged the new regime and it was duly recognized by the international community. Diplomatic relations continued unabated. In 1973, however, the junta abolished the Greek monarchy. Later that same year, in October of 1973, the head of the junta, colonel George Papadopoulos appointed politician Spiros Markezinis as the Prime Minister. A few weeks later, on November 14, law students that opposed the regime realized that the obvious parody of this "government" would not end unless they took some serious form of action. Therefore they decided to take control of the Athens Law School and in so doing they inspired the students of the Athens Polytechnic School, who imitated them. It should be noted that institutions of higher education in Greece are considered to provide political asylum. By November 16, however, the streets around the Polytechnic School resembled a battlefield, leaving no choice for the junta than to respond with military tactics. In the early hours of November 17, a tank smashed the gate of the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic School causing bloodshed. Twenty students were killed. However, the now-famous Athens Polytechnic Uprising marked the beginning of a series of events that would eventually result to the end of Papadopoulos' rule. One week later, on November 25 both Papadopoulos and Markezinis were overthrown by a countercoup headed by junta hardliner Brigadier Ioannides. A new head, Phaedon Gizikis, and a new Prime Minister, Adamantios Androutsopoulos, were appointed by the regime. Ioannides, however, had even more in his mind. The following July, he backed a planned coup d'etat to overthrow the Cypriot President, Archbishop Makarios. This gave a pretext for neighboring Turkey to intervene militarily, allegedly to protect the Turkish minority that resided on the island response to a Greek coup by EOKA-B.Turkey invaded Cyprus on July 20, 1974 and managed to occupy the northern part or a third of its territory. The colonels did not succeed in either predicting the Turkish action or in effectively mobilizing their armed forces in order to prevent it. This signaled the end for the regime that collapsed within a matter of days. |
In the evening of July 23, 1974, ex Premier Constantine Karamanlis was invited back from Paris where he had found a political refuge. In the morning hours of the following day, the plane carrying him landed in Athens amidst massive celebrations by cheering crowds that could not believe that the ordeal they had to endure for seven years was over. Karamanlis was immediately appointed as the interim prime minister under President Gizikis. Karamanlis founded the conservative Nea Dimokratia party and he then won the elections. Democracy had finally been restored and a democratic republican constitution came into force in 1975. In addition, a referendum held that same year, confirmed the will of the overwhelming majority of the Greek people to abolish the monarchy — this time democratically. Therefore former King Constantine II and his family remained in Britain and were not allowed free access to the country until 2004. Meanwhile, yet another prominent figure of the past, charismatic politician Andreas Papandreou had also returned from the United States and he had already founded the Panhellenic Socialist Party or PASOK. Karamanlis won the 1977 parliamentary elections as well but he resigned in 1980, giving his way to George Rallis. However, Papandreou won the elections held on October 18, 1981 by landslide and he formed the first socialist government in the history of the nation. Papandreou dominated the Greek political course for almost 15 years, up until his death in June 23, 1996. |
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The country became the tenth member of the European Union on January 1, 1981. Over the course of the last 25 years, and particularly during this past decade, Greece has experienced a remarkable economic growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast growing service sector have raised the standard of living to unprecedented levels. The country adopted the Euro in 2001. |
Relations between Greece and neighboring Turkey had improved partially, after successive earthquakes hit both countries in the summer of 1999. The so called "earthquake diplomacy" generated an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance provided by ordinary Greeks and Turks in each case. These acts were encouraged from the top and took many foreigners by surprise, preparing the public for a breakthrough in bilateral relations, which had been marred by decades of hostility over anti-Greek pogroms, territorial disputes and the situation in the divided island of Cyprus. In January 1996, the countries reached the brink of war after a Turkish military invasion on the islets of Imia/Kardak, situated in the southeastern Aegean Sea. While Greece quoted the treaties and conventions that the islets belong to Greece, Turks claimed that the relevant articles were rather unclear. The crisis was diffused after the personal intervention of U.S President Bill Clinton. Ten years later, Greece has become one of the key supporters of Turkey's struggle to enter the European Union. Yet, despite the confidence Greece and Cyprus have shown, voting YES for Turkey in order to begin its entry negotiations with the European Union in October 2005, certain key issues remain unresolved. Furthermore, Turkey still denies access to Cypriot vessels to its territory, an obligation towards the EU with a 2006 deadline. Turkey defends that this restriction regarding Cypriot vessels was taken after the trade embargo decision against the northern, Turkish occupied, Cyprus. The issue remains as a deadlock that EU, Greece and Turkey must agree on a common ground giving equal trade rights to both nations in Cyprus. Other unfulfilled obligations include Christian minority rights, acknowledgement of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and the role of the Ecumenical Patriarch. In May 2006, Greco-Turkish relations entered a new phase of tension, after the mid-air collision of a Greek F-16 with a Turkish F-16 resulting to the death of the Greek pilot. Constant airspace violations and provocations by Turkey as well as a multitude of internal political problems faced by the Turkish government, have led Greece to fear that relations with that neighboring, muslim country may have entered a cold war period. |
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On September 5, 1997, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2004 Olympic Games to Athens. Certain foreign media raised some concerns over Greece's ability to meet specific construction deadlines as well as its ability to handle a potential terrorist attack. By the end of the Games, a number of international media apologized, on page, for their harsh criticism of Greek preparations. In effect, the 2004 Olympic Games were widely hailed as a spectacular success |
Greece Information: Inside
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