Prehistory and Aegean civilisations " (13th century BC) in
Mycenae|left The
Apidima Cave in
Mani, in southern Greece, has been suggested to contain the oldest remains of
early modern humans outside of Africa, dated to 200,000 years ago. However others suggest the remains represent
archaic humans. All three stages of the
Stone Age are represented in Greece, for example in the
Franchthi Cave.
Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe, as Greece lies on the route by which farming spread from the
Near East to Europe. Greece is home to the first advanced civilisations in Europe and is often considered the birthplace of Western civilisation. The earliest of them was the
Cycladic culture which flourished on the islands of the
Aegean Sea, starting around 3200 BC, and produced an abundance of folded-arm and other
marble figurines. From BC to 1100 BC,
Crete, a major cultural and economic centre, was home to the
Minoan civilisation known for its
colourful art,
religious figurines, and
monumental palaces. The Minoans wrote
their undeciphered language using scripts known as
Linear A and
Cretan hieroglyphs. On the mainland, the
Mycenaean civilisation developed around 1750 BC and lasted until BC. The Mycenaeans possessed an
advanced military and built
large fortifications. They
worshipped many gods and used
Linear B to write the earliest
attested form of
Greek known as
Mycenaean Greek.
Ancient Greece (750–550 BC) The collapse of the
Mycenaean civilisation ushered in the
Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the year of the first
Olympic Games. The
Iliad and the
Odyssey, the foundational texts of
Western literature, are believed to have been composed by
Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.
Poetry shaped beliefs to the
Olympian gods, but
ancient Greek religion had no priestly class or systematic dogmas and encompassed other currents, such as popular cults, like
that of Dionysus,
mysteries and
magic. At this time, many kingdoms and
city-states emerged across the Greek peninsula, some of which went on to establish
a number of colonies in
Asia Minor, the shores of the
Black Sea, and
southern Italy (also known as
Magna Grecia). The Greek city-states reached great prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of
classical Greece, expressed in
architecture,
drama,
science,
mathematics and
philosophy. In 508 BC,
Cleisthenes instituted the world's first
democratic system of government in
Athens. on the
Acropolis of Athens, icon of classical Greece By 500 BC, the
Persian Empire controlled the Greek city states in Asia Minor and Macedonia. Attempts by Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule
failed, and Persia
invaded the states of mainland Greece in 492 BC, but was forced to withdraw after defeat by
Athens at the
Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. In response, a number of Greek city-states formed the Hellenic League in 481 BC, led by
Sparta, which was the first recorded union of Greek states since the mythical union of the
Trojan War. After the death of
Leonidas at the
battle of Thermopylae, during the
second Persian invasion of Greece, the Achaemenid navy was decisively defeated in 480 BC at
Salamis by an allied Greek navy led by
Themistocles, and the
Achaemenid army was finally defeated at
Plataea in 479 BC, marking the eventual withdrawal of the Persians from all their European territories. The Greek victories in the
Greco-Persian Wars are a pivotal moment in history, as the 50 years of peace afterwards are known as the
Golden Age of Athens, a seminal period that laid many foundations of Western civilisation. Lack of political unity resulted in frequent conflict between Greek states. The most devastating intra-Greek war was the
Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which marked the demise of the
Athenian Empire and the emergence of
Spartan and later
Theban hegemony. Weakened by constant wars among them during the 4th century BC, the Greek
poleis were subjugated to the
rising power of the
Argead kingdom of Macedon under king
Philip II into an alliance known as the
Hellenic League. After Philip's assassination at
Aigai in 336 BC, his son
Alexander became
king of Macedon and established himself as leader of a
Panhellenic campaign against the
Persian Empire and abolished it. Undefeated in battle, he marched to the banks of the
Hydaspes, until his untimely death in 323 BC in Babylon. Alexander's empire fragmented, inaugurating the
Hellenistic period. After
fierce conflict amongst themselves, the
generals that succeeded Alexander and their successors founded large personal kingdoms, such as that of the
Ptolemies in
Egypt, the
Seleucids in
Syria,
Mesopotamia,
Anatolia and
Iran,
Lysimachus in
Thrace and
Anatolia,
Antigonids and
Pyrrhus of Epirus in
Greece. The newly founded
poleis of these kingdoms, such as
Alexandria and
Antioch, were settled by Greeks as members of a ruling minority. As a result, during the centuries that followed a vernacular form of
Greek, known as
koine, and Greek culture was
spread, while the Greeks
adopted Eastern deities and cults. Greek science, technology, and mathematics reached their peak during the Hellenistic period. Aspiring to maintain their autonomy and independence from the
Macedonian Greek Antigonid kings and other Hellenistic kingdoms, many
poleis of Greece united in
koina or
sympoliteiai i.e. federations, like the
Aetolian and
Achaean League, while after the establishment of economic relations with the East, a stratum of wealthy
euergetai dominated their internal life.
Roman province (146 BC – 4th century AD) in Athens, built in 161 AD In 280 BC
Pyrrhus of
Epirus campaigned in Italy against the Romans in order to help
Tarentum. From about 200 BC the
Roman Republic became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and engaged in a
series of wars with Macedon. Macedon's defeat at the
Battle of Pydna in 168 BC signalled the end of
Antigonid power. In 146 BC, Macedonia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman protectorate. The process was completed in 27 BC, when emperor
Augustus annexed the rest of Greece and constituted it as the
senatorial province of
Achaea. Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenised East were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and Christianity's early leaders and writers were mostly Greek-speaking, though not from Greece itself. The
New Testament was written in Greek, and some sections attest to the importance of churches in Greece in
early Christianity. Nevertheless, much of Greece clung to paganism, and ancient Greek religious practices were still in vogue in the late 4th century AD, when they were outlawed by the Roman emperor
Theodosius I in 391–392. The last recorded Olympic games were held in 393, and many temples were destroyed or damaged in the century that followed. The closure of the
Neoplatonic Academy of Athens by Emperor Justinian in 529 is considered the end of antiquity, although there is evidence that the academy continued.
Medieval period (4th–15th centuries) in 1025 The Roman Empire in the east, following the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, is known as the
Byzantine Empire, but called "Kingdom of the Romans" in its own time. With its capital in
Constantinople, its language and culture were Greek and its religion was predominantly
Eastern Orthodox Christian.
Byzantine Greeks self-identified as
Rhōmaîoi (, "Romans", a term which in the Greek language had become synonymous with Christian Greeks). The Empire's Balkan territories, including Greece, suffered from the dislocation of
barbarian invasions; raids by
Goths and
Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries and the
Slavic invasion in the 7th century resulted in a collapse in imperial authority in the Greek
peninsula. The imperial government retained control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly the populated walled cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica. However, the view that Greece underwent decline, fragmentation and depopulation is considered outdated, as cities show institutional continuity and prosperity between the 4th and 6th centuries. In the early 6th century, Greece had approximately 80 cities according to the
Synekdemos chronicle, and the 4th to the 7th century is considered one of high prosperity. Until the 8th century, almost all of modern Greece was under the jurisdiction of the
Holy See of
Rome. Byzantine
Emperor Leo III moved the border of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople westward and northward in the 8th century. The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces during the
Arab–Byzantine wars began in the 8th century. Most of the Greek peninsula also came under imperial control again. This process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while many Slavs were captured and resettled in Asia Minor. During the late 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries, under the
Macedonian dynasty, the empire recovered lost territories and experienced a
cultural revival in spheres such as philosophy and the arts. This period has been dubbed the "
Golden Age" of Byzantium. During the 11th and 12th centuries, under the
Komnenos dynasty, the return of stability resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from economic growth.
Constantinople was captured by the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, becoming the capital of the
Latin Empire, which briefly ruled much of the former Byzantine lands. Three Greek rump states–the
Despotate of Epirus, the
Empire of Nicaea, and the
Empire of Trebizond–were established by fleeing Byzantine aristocrats who resisted the
Latin rule. The
recapture of Constantinople as the imperial capital in 1261 by the Empire of Nicaea was accompanied by the empire's recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, while the islands remained under Genoese and Venetian control. During the
Paleologi dynasty (1261–1453), a new era of Greek patriotism emerged accompanied by a deliberate embrace of ancient Greek culture. In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Byzantine Empire to the
Serbs and then the
Ottomans.
Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and by 1460, the Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece was complete.
Venetian possessions and Ottoman rule (15th century – 1821) During the 15th to early 19th centuries, while much of
mainland Greece and the
Aegean islands fell under
Ottoman control,
Venice retained several key territories. Notably,
Crete remained under
Venetian rule until 1669, and the
Ionian Islands were governed by Venice until 1797. These islands were subsequently ceded to
French and later
British control. While some Greeks in the Ionian islands and
Constantinople lived in prosperity, and Greeks of Constantinople (
Phanariots) achieved power within the Ottoman administration, much of Greece suffered the economic consequences of Ottoman conquest. Heavy taxes were enforced, and in later years the Ottoman Empire enacted a policy of creation of hereditary estates, effectively turning the rural Greek populations into
serfs, while the Ottoman conquest had cut Greece off from European historical developments. (Greek
klepht) by
Theophilos Hatzimihail. The
Greek Orthodox Church and the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were considered by the Ottoman governments as the ruling authorities of the entire
Orthodox Christian population of the Ottoman Empire, whether ethnically Greek or not. Although the Ottoman state did not force non-Muslims to convert to
Islam, Christians faced discrimination. Discrimination, particularly when combined with harsh treatment by local Ottoman authorities, led to conversions to Islam, if only superficially. In the 19th century, many "
crypto-Christians" returned to their old religious allegiance. The nature of Ottoman administration of Greece varied, though it was invariably arbitrary and often harsh. Some cities had governors appointed by the
Sultan, while others, like Athens, were self-governed municipalities. Mountainous regions in the interior and many islands remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for centuries. The 16th and 17th centuries are regarded as a "dark age" in Greek history. However, prior to the Greek Revolution of 1821, there had been wars which saw Greeks fight against the Ottomans, such as the Greek participation in the
Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the
Morean War of 1684–1699, and the
Russian-instigated
Orlov revolt in 1770. These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed. Many Greeks were conscripted as Ottoman subjects to serve in the Ottoman army and especially the navy, while the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, responsible for the Orthodox, remained in general loyal to the Empire.
Modern nation-state Greek War of Independence (1821–1832) '', depicting the
third siege of Missolonghi, painted by
Theodoros Vryzakis In the 18th century, Greek merchants came to dominate trade within the Ottoman Empire, established communities throughout the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Europe, and used their wealth to fund educational activities that brought younger generations into contact with Western ideas. In the 18th century, an increase in learning during the
Modern Greek Enlightenment led to the emergence among
Westernised Greek-speaking
elites of the
notion of a Greek nation. A secret organisation formed in this milieu was the
Filiki Eteria, in 1814. They engaged
traditional strata of the Greek Orthodox world in their liberal nationalist cause. The first revolt began on 6 March 1821 in the
Danubian Principalities, but was put down by the Ottomans. This spurred the Greeks of the
Peloponnese and on 17 March the
Maniots declared war on the Ottomans. By October 1821 the Greeks had captured
Tripolitsa. There were revolts in Crete,
Macedonia and
Central Greece, which were suppressed. In 1822 and 1824 the Turks and Egyptians ravaged the islands, committing
massacres. This galvanised opinion in western Europe in favour of the Greeks. The
Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II negotiated with
Mehmet Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son
Ibrahim Pasha with an army, in return for territorial gain. By the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control. Three
great powers,
France,
Russian Empire, and the
United Kingdom, each sent a navy. The allied fleet destroyed the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet at the
Battle of Navarino, and the Greeks captured Central Greece by 1828. The
nascent Greek state was recognised under the
London Protocol in 1830.
Kingdom of Greece '', painted by
Peter von Hess in 1839 In 1827,
Ioannis Kapodistrias, was chosen by the
Third National Assembly at Troezen as the first governor of the
First Hellenic Republic. Kapodistrias established state, economic and military institutions. Tensions appeared between him and local interests and, following his assassination in 1831 and the
London Conference of 1832, Britain, France and Russia installed Bavarian Prince
Otto von Wittelsbach as
monarch. Otto's reign was
despotic, and in its first 11 years of independence Greece was ruled by a Bavarian oligarchy led by
Josef Ludwig von Armansperg and, later, by Otto himself, as King and Premier. In 1843 an
uprising forced Otto to grant a
constitution and
representative assembly. Despite the
absolutism of Otto's reign, it proved instrumental in developing institutions which are still the bedrock of Greek administration and education. Reforms were taken in education, maritime and postal communications, effective civil administration and the
legal code.
Historical revisionism took the form of de-
Byzantinification and de-
Ottomanisation, in favour of promoting Ancient Greek heritage. The capital was moved from
Nafplio, where it had been since 1829, to
Athens, then a smaller town. The
Church of Greece was established as Greece's
national church and 25 March, the day of
Annunciation, was chosen as the anniversary of the
Greek War of Independence to reinforce the link between Greek identity and
Orthodoxy. Otto
was deposed in 1862 because of the Bavarian-dominated government, heavy taxation, and a failed attempt to annex Crete from the Ottomans. In 1875
parliamentary majority as a requirement for government was introduced, curbing the power of the monarchy to appoint
minority governments. Corruption, coupled with increased spending to fund infrastructure like the
Corinth Canal, overtaxed the weak economy and forced the declaration of
public insolvency in 1893. from 1832 to 1947 Greeks were united, however, in their determination to liberate the
Hellenic lands under Ottoman rule; the
Cretan Revolt (1866–1869) had raised nationalist fervour. When war broke out between
Russia and the Ottomans in 1877, Greek sentiment rallied to Russia, but Greece was too poor and concerned about British intervention, to enter the war. Greeks in Crete continued to stage revolts, and in 1897, the Greek government, bowing to popular pressure, declared war on the Ottomans. In the ensuing
Greco-Turkish War of 1897, the badly trained and equipped Greek army was defeated. Through the intervention of the Great Powers, however, Greece lost little territory, while Crete was established as an
autonomous state under
Prince George of Greece. With state coffers empty, fiscal policy came under
International Financial Control. The government, aiming to quell
Komitadjis and detach the
Slavophone peasants of the region from
Bulgarian influence, sponsored a
guerrilla campaign in Ottoman-ruled
Macedonia, known as the
Macedonian Struggle, which ended with the
Young Turk Revolution in 1908.
Expansion, disaster, and reconstruction Amidst dissatisfaction with the seeming inertia and unattainability of
national aspirations, military officers organised a
coup in 1909 and called on
Cretan politician
Eleftherios Venizelos, who conveyed a vision of national regeneration. After winning
two elections and becoming prime minister in 1910, Venizelos initiated fiscal, social, and
constitutional reforms, reorganised the military, made Greece a member of the
Balkan League, and led it through the
Balkan Wars. By 1913, Greece's territory and population had doubled, annexing Crete,
Epirus, and
Macedonia. The struggle between
King Constantine I and charismatic Venizelos over foreign policy on the eve of the First World War dominated politics and divided the country into
two opposing groups. During parts of the war, Greece had two governments: A royalist
pro-German one in
Athens and a
Venizelist pro-
Entente one in
Thessaloniki. They united in 1917, when Greece entered the war on the side of the Entente. during the
Greek genocide in 1922. After the war, Greece attempted expansion into
Asia Minor, a region with a large native Greek population, but was defeated in the
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), contributing to a flight of
Asia Minor Greeks. These events overlapped with the
Greek genocide (1914–22), when Ottoman and Turkish officials contributed to the death of several hundred thousand Asia Minor Greeks, along with similar numbers of
Assyrians and a larger number of
Armenians. The resultant Greek exodus from Asia Minor was made permanent, and expanded, in an official
population exchange between Greece and Turkey, as part of the
Treaty of Lausanne which ended the war. The following era was marked by instability, as over 1.5 million propertyless Greek refugees from Turkey (some of whom could not speak Greek) had to be integrated into Greek society. The refugees made a dramatic population boost, as they were more than a quarter of Greece's prior population. Following the catastrophic events in Asia Minor, the monarchy was abolished
via a referendum in 1924 and the
Second Hellenic Republic was declared. In 1935, a royalist general-turned-politician
Georgios Kondylis took power after a coup and abolished the republic, holding
a rigged referendum, after which
King George II was restored to the throne.
Dictatorship, World War II, and reconstruction An agreement between Prime Minister
Ioannis Metaxas and George II followed in 1936, which installed Metaxas as head of a dictatorship known as the
4th of August Regime, inaugurating
authoritarian rule that would last until 1974. Greece remained on good terms with Britain and was not allied with the
Axis. celebrate the liberation from the Axis powers, October 1944. Postwar Greece would soon experience the
Greek Civil War and political polarisation In October 1940,
Fascist Italy demanded the surrender of Greece, but it
refused, and, in the
Greco-Italian War, Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania. French general
Charles de Gaulle praised the fierceness of the Greek resistance, but the country fell to urgently dispatched
German forces during the
Battle of Greece. The Nazis proceeded to administer Athens and Thessaloniki, while other regions were given to Fascist Italy and Bulgaria. Over 100,000 civilians died of starvation during the winter of 1941–42, tens of thousands more died because of reprisals by Nazis and
collaborators, the economy was ruined, and most
Greek Jews (tens of thousands) were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps. The
Greek Resistance, one of the most effective resistance movements, fought against the Nazis. The German occupiers committed
atrocities, mass executions, and wholesale slaughter of civilians and destruction of towns and villages in reprisals. Hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost 1 million Greeks left homeless. The Germans executed around 21,000 Greeks, the Bulgarians 40,000, and the Italians 9,000. Following liberation, Greece annexed the
Dodecanese Islands from Italy and regained
Western Thrace from Bulgaria. The country descended into a
civil war between
communist forces and the anti-communist Greek government, which lasted until 1949, with the latter's victory. The conflict, one of the earliest struggles of the
Cold War, resulted in further economic devastation, population displacement and political polarisation for the next thirty years. Although the post-war period was characterised by social strife and marginalisation of the left, Greece experienced
rapid economic growth and recovery, propelled in part by the U.S.
Marshall Plan. In 1952, Greece joined
NATO, reinforcing its membership in the
Western Bloc of the Cold War.
King Constantine II's quick acceptance of
George Papandreou's informal resignation as prime minister in 1965 prompted an era of political turbulence that was later called
Iouliana, and culminated in a coup in 1967 by the
Greek junta, led by
Georgios Papadopoulos. Civil rights were suspended, political repression intensified, and human rights abuses, including torture, were rampant. Economic growth remained rapid before plateauing in 1972. The brutal suppression of the
Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973 set in motion the fall of the regime, resulting in a counter-coup that established brigadier
Dimitrios Ioannidis as the new junta strongman. On 20 July 1974,
Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus in response to a Greek-backed Cypriot coup, triggering a crisis in Greece that led to the regime's collapse and restoration of democracy through
Metapolitefsi.
Third Hellenic Republic by
Constantine Karamanlis of the documents for the accession of Greece to the
European Communities in 1979 The former prime minister
Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited back from self-exile and the
first multiparty elections since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. A democratic and republican
constitution was promulgated in 1975 following a
referendum which chose not to restore the monarchy. Meanwhile,
Andreas Papandreou, George Papandreou's son, founded the
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in response to Karamanlis's conservative
New Democracy party, with the two political formations dominating government over the next four decades. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980. Greece became the tenth member of the
European Communities in 1981, ushering in sustained growth. Investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the
European Union and growing revenue from tourism, shipping, and a fast-growing service sector raised the
standard of living. In 1981,
Andreas Papandreou came to power and implemented an
ambitious program of social reforms. He recognised civil marriage, the dowry was abolished, while expanding access to education and health care. However, he made controversial
foreign policy decisions that fueled the rise of
terrorism in Greece. Papandreou's tenure has been associated with corruption (see
Koskotas and
Yugoslav corn scandals) and the
first constitutional crisis of the new republic, while
his economic policies failed to address the persistent
stagflation and chronic budget deficits that exacerbated Greece's economic problems. The country adopted the euro in 2001 and successfully hosted the
2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. In 2010, Greece suffered from the
Great Recession and related
Eurozone crisis. Due to the adoption of the euro, Greece could no longer
devalue its currency to regain competitiveness. In the 2012 elections, there was major political change, with new parties emerging from the collapse of the two main parties, PASOK and New Democracy. In 2015,
Alexis Tsipras was elected as prime minister, the first outside the two main parties. The
Greek government-debt crisis, and subsequent austerity policies, resulted in social strife. The crisis ended around 2018, with the end of the bailout mechanisms and return of growth. In 2019,
Kyriakos Mitsotakis became Greece's new prime minister, after his centre-right New Democracy won the
election. In 2020, Greece's parliament elected a non-partisan candidate,
Katerina Sakellaropoulou, as the first female
President of Greece. In February 2024, Greece became the first Orthodox Christian country to recognise same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. In 2023, Greece became a member of the Three Seas Initiative. == Geography ==