Antiquity during the Archaic period (800–480 BC) In
Archaic Greece, the trading and
colonizing activities of Greeks from the
Balkans and
Asia Minor propagated Greek culture, religion and language around the Mediterranean and
Black Sea basins. Greek
city-states were established in
Southern Italy (the so-called "
Magna Graecia"), northern
Libya, eastern Spain, the south of France, and the Black Sea coast, and the Greeks founded over 400 colonies in these areas.
Alexander the Great's conquest of the
Achaemenid Empire marked the beginning of the
Hellenistic period, which was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization in Asia and Africa; the Greek ruling classes established their presence in
Egypt,
West Asia, and
Northwest India. Many Greeks migrated to the new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as geographically dispersed as
Uzbekistan and
Kuwait.
Seleucia,
Antioch and
Alexandria were among the
largest cities in the world during Hellenistic and Roman times. Greeks spread across the
Roman Empire, and in the eastern territories the
Greek language (rather than
Latin) became the
lingua franca. The Roman Empire was Christianized in the fourth century AD, and during the late
Byzantine period the
Greek Orthodox form of
Christianity became a hallmark of Greek identity.
Middle Ages In the seventh century, Emperor
Heraclius adopted
Medieval Greek as the official language of the
Byzantine Empire. Greeks continued to live around the
Levant, Mediterranean and Black Sea, maintaining their identity among local populations as traders, officials, and settlers. Soon afterwards, the
Arab-Islamic Caliphate seized
the Levant,
Egypt,
North Africa and
Sicily from the
Byzantine Greeks during the
Byzantine–Arab Wars. The Greek populations generally remained in these areas of the Caliphate and helped translate ancient Greek works into Arabic, thus contributing to
early Islamic philosophy and
science (which, in turn, contributed to
Byzantine science, and later, to Western science).
Fall of Byzantium and exodus to Italy After the
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars, which resulted in the
fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the
Ottoman conquest of Greek lands, many Greeks fled
Constantinople (now
Istanbul) and found refuge in Italy. They brought ancient Greek writings that had been lost in the West, contributing to the
Renaissance. Most of these Greeks settled in
Venice,
Florence, and
Rome.
Fall of the Empire of Trebizond and exodus to Russia and Georgia (Karyes),
Corsica (founded by
Maniot refugees), with a Greek church in the background Between the fall of the
Empire of Trebizond to the Ottomans in 1461 and the second
Russo-Turkish War in 1828–29, thousands of
Pontic Greeks migrated (or fled) from the
Pontic Alps and
eastern Anatolia to
Georgia and other southern regions of the
Russian Empire, and (later) to the Russian province of
Kars in the
South Caucasus. Many Pontic Greeks fled their homelands in Pontus and northeastern Anatolia and settled in these areas to avoid Ottoman reprisals after being suspected of supporting the Russian invasions of eastern Anatolia in the
Russo-Turkish Wars from the late 18th to the early 20th century. Others resettled in search of new opportunities in trade, mining, farming, the church, the military, and the bureaucracy of the
Russian Empire.
Modern era Ottoman Empire Greek Orthodox Church in
Balwyn North,
Melbourne 's two Greek Orthodox churches Greeks spread through many provinces of the
Ottoman Empire and took major roles in its economic life, particularly the
Phanariots (wealthy Greek merchants who claimed noble Byzantine descent during the second half of the 16th century). The Phanariots helped administer the Ottoman Empire's Balkan domains in the 18th century; some settled in present-day
Romania, influencing its political and cultural life. Other Greeks settled outside the southern Balkans, moving north in service to the Orthodox Church or as a result of population transfers and massacres by Ottoman authorities after Greek rebellions against Ottoman rule or suspected Greek collaboration with Russia in the Russo-Turkish wars fought between 1774 and 1878.
Greek Macedonia was most affected by the population upheavals, where the large Ottoman Muslim population, residing there since some generations (often including those of
Greek-convert descent), could form local militias to harass and exact revenge on the Greek-speaking Christian Orthodox population; this often forced the inhabitants of rural districts, particularly in the more vulnerable lowland areas, to abandon their homes. A larger-scale movement of Greek-speaking peoples in the Ottoman period was
Pontic Greeks from northeastern Anatolia to Georgia and parts of southern Russia, particularly to the province of
Kars Oblast in the
southern Caucasus after the short-lived Russian occupation of
Erzerum and the surrounding region during the 1828–29
Russo-Turkish War. An estimated one-fifth of Pontic Greeks left their homeland in the mountains of northeastern Anatolia in 1829 as refugees, following the Tsarist army as it withdrew back into Russian territory (since many had collaborated with – or fought in – the Russian army against the Muslim Ottomans to regain territory for Christian Orthodoxy). The Pontic Greek refugees who settled in Georgia and the southern Caucasus assimilated with preexisting
Caucasus Greek communities. Those who settled in Ukraine and southern Russia became a sizable proportion of cities such as
Mariupol, but generally assimilated with Christian Orthodox Russians and continued to serve in the Tsarist army. In 1788,
Ali Pasha of Ioannina destroyed
Moscopole. This predominantly ethnic
Aromanian settlement historically had an important Greek influence. This is why some members of the
Aromanian diaspora that settled in places such as
Vienna in
Austria have been considered as Greeks and part of a Greek diaspora as well.
19th century During and after the
Greek War of Independence, Greeks of the diaspora established the fledgling state, raised funds and awareness abroad and served as senior officers in Russian armies which fought the Ottomans to help liberate Greeks under Ottoman subjugation in
Macedonia,
Epirus, and
Thrace. Greek merchant families had contacts in other countries; during the disturbances, many set up home bases around the Mediterranean (notably
Marseille in France,
Livorno,
Calabria and
Bari in Italy and
Alexandria in Egypt), Russia (
Odesa and
Saint Petersburg), and Britain (London and
Liverpool) from where they traded (typically textiles and grain). Businesses frequently included the extended family, and they brought schools teaching Greek and the
Greek Orthodox Church. As markets changed, some families became
shippers (financed through the local Greek community, with the aid of the
Ralli or
Vagliano Brothers). The diaspora expanded across the
Levant,
North Africa,
India and the United States. Many leaders of the Greek struggle for liberation from Ottoman Macedonia and other parts of the southern Balkans with large Greek populations still under Ottoman rule had links to the Greek trading and business families who funded the Greek liberation struggle against the Ottomans and the creation of a
Greater Greece. The terrible devastation of the island of
Chios in the
1822 massacre caused a great dispersion of the islanders, leading to the creation of a specific
Chian diaspora. After the
Treaty of Constantinople, the political situation stabilised; some displaced families returned to the newly independent country to become key figures in cultural, educational and political life, especially in Athens. Financial assistance from overseas was channeled through these family ties, providing for institutions such as the
National Library and sending relief after natural disasters.
20th century During the 20th century, many Greeks left the traditional homelands for economic and political reasons; this resulted in large migrations from
Greece and
Cyprus to the
United States,
Australia,
Canada,
Brazil, the
United Kingdom,
New Zealand,
Argentina, the
United Arab Emirates,
Singapore,
Germany,
Norway,
Belgium,
Georgia,
Italy,
Armenia,
Russia,
Chile,
Mexico and
South Africa, especially after World War II (1939–1945), the
Greek Civil War (1946–1949) and the
Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in 1974. After
World War I, most Pontian and Anatolian Greeks living in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) were victims of Muslim Turkish intolerance for Christians in the Ottoman Empire. More than 3.5 million Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians were killed in the regimes of the Young Turks and Mustafa Kemal, from 1914 to 1923. Greeks in Asia Minor fled to modern Greece, and the
Russian Empire (later the
Soviet Union) was also a major destination. Mass population transfers in the Soviet Union led to the displacement of thousands of
Pontic Greeks and Greek communists in the 1940s, creating a sizable Greek diaspora in Central Asia. Following the persecution and mass killing of the
Greek Operation starting in the late 1930s, mass
deportations of Soviet Greeks took place throughout the 1940s, forcing over 30,000 Greeks of
Crimea and the larger
Black Sea region into Central Asia, especially to
Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan. After the defeat of the
Democratic Army of Greece and the
Communist Party of Greece in 1949, another wave of Greeks entered Central Asia, as the Soviet Union sent around 11,000
refugees of the Greek Civil War to
Tashkent. In the early 1980s, with the
decriminalisation of the Greek Communist Party, many returned to Greece. However, there is still
a Greek community in Uzbekistan which survives to this day. After the
Greek Civil War, many communist Greeks and their families fled to neighboring Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and the Soviet-dominated states of Eastern Europe (especially Czechoslovakia). Hungary founded a village (
Beloiannisz) for Greek refugees, and many Greeks were resettled in the former
Sudetenland region of northeastern Czechoslovakia around
Krnov. Sweden also admitted large numbers of Greeks, and over 17,000 Greek-Swedish descendants live in the country. Although many immigrants later returned to Greece, these countries still have a number of first- and second-generation Greeks who maintain their traditions. With the
fall of Communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Greeks of the diaspora immigrated to modern Greece's main urban centers of Athens, Thessaloniki, and Cyprus; many came from Georgia. Pontic Greeks are Greek-speaking communities originating in the Black Sea region, particularly from the
Trebizond region, the
Pontic Alps, eastern Anatolia, Georgia, and the former Russian south-Caucasus
Kars Oblast. After 1919–1923, most of these Pontic Greek and Caucasus Greek communities resettled in
Greek Macedonia or joined other Greek communities in southern
Russia and
Ukraine. == Greek nationality ==