Greece From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Hellas" redirects here. For other uses of "Hellas" and "Greece", see Hellas (di sambiguation) and Greece (disambiguation). Hellenic Republic ÅëëçíéêÞ Äçìïêñáôßá Flag Coat of arms Motto: Åëåõèåñßá Þ ÈÜíáôïò, "Freedom or Death" (traditional) Anthem: ?ìíïò å?ò ô?í ?ëåõèåñßáí "Hymn to Liberty" MENU0:00 Location of Greece (dark green) in Europe (green & dark grey) in the European U nion (green) [Legend] Location of Greece (dark green) in Europe (green & dark grey) in the European Union (green) [Legend] Capital and largest city Athens 37°58?N 23°43?E Official languages Greek Ethnic groups (2011)a [1][2]) 91.6% Greek 4.4% Albanian 0.7% Bulgarian 3.3% others Demonym Greek Government Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic - President Karolos Papoulias - Prime Minister Antonis Samaras - Speaker Vangelis Meimarakis Legislature Parliament Formation - Independence declared from the Ottoman Empire 1 January 1822 - Recognized 3 February 1830 - Current constitution 11 June 1975 - Joined the EU 1 January 1981 Area - Total 131,957 km2[3] (97th) 50,949 sq mi - Water (%) 0.8669 Population - 2011 census 10,816,286[4] (78th) - Density 82[5]/km2 (120th) 212/sq mi GDP (PPP) 2014 estimate - Total $271 billion[6] (42nd) - Per capita $24,574[6] (39st) GDP (nominal) 2014 estimate - Total $249.449 billion[6] (40st) - Per capita $22,594[6] (35th) Gini (2012) 34.3[7] medium HDI (2013) Decrease 0.860[8] very high · 29th Currency Euro ( )b (EUR) Time zone EET (UTC+2) - Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3) Date format dd/mm/yyyy Drives on the right Calling code +30 ISO 3166 code GR Internet TLD .grc a. Greek census results represent citizenship, since Greece does not collec t data on ethnicity b. Before 2002, the Greek drachma. c. The .eu domain is also used, as in other European Union member states. Greece (Greek: ÅëëÜäá, Ellada, pronounced [e?la?a] ( listen)), officially the Hellenic Repub lic (ÅëëçíéêÞ Äçìïêñáôßá [elini?ci ?imokra?ti.a] Elliniki? Dimokratia)[9] and known since anci reek: ?ëëÜò), is a country in Southern Europe.[10] According to the 2011 census, Greece' s population is around 11 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest ci ty. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Western Asia, and A frica,[11][12][13] and shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Re public of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north and Turkey to the northeast. The c ountry consists of nine geographic regions: Macedonia, Central Greece, the Pelop onnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands (including the Dodecanese and Cycla des), Thrace, Crete, and the Ionian Islands. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south . Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longe st coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast nu mber of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited). Eighty percen t of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest, at 2,9 17 m (9,570 ft). Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilization of Ancient Greece, which bega n with the Aegean Civilizations of the Bronze Age. Considered the cradle of all Western civilization, Greece is the birthplace of democracy,[14] Western philoso phy,[15] the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political sci ence, major scientific and mathematical principles,[16] and Western drama,[17] i ncluding both tragedy and comedy. The cultural and technological achievements of Greece greatly influenced the world, with many aspects of Greek civilization be ing imparted to the East through Alexander the Great's campaigns, and to the Wes t through its incorporation into the Roman Empire. This rich legacy is partly re flected by the 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in Greece, ranking it 6th in Europe and 13th in the world. The modern Greek state, which comprises most of the historical core of Greek civilization, was established in 1830 following th e war of independence from the Ottoman Empire. Greece is a democratic,[18] developed country with an advanced high-income econo my, a high standard of living[19][20] and a very high Human Development Index.[2 1] Greece is a founding member of the United Nations, a member of what is now th e European Union since 1981 (and the eurozone since 2001[22]), and is also a mem ber of numerous other international institutions, including the Council of Europ e, NATO[a], OECD, OSCE and the WTO. Greece's economy is also the largest in the Balkans, where Greece is an important regional investor.[23][24][25] Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Earliest settlements to 3rd century BC 2.2 Hellenistic and Roman periods (323 BC 4th century AD) 2.3 Medieval period (4th century 1453) 2.4 Ottoman period (15th century 1821) 2.5 Greek War of Independence (1821 1832) 2.6 19th century 2.7 20th century to present 3 Geography and climate 4 Politics 4.1 Political parties 4.2 Law and Justice 4.3 Foreign relations 4.4 Military 4.5 Administrative divisions 5 Economy 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Eurozone entry 5.3 Debt crisis (2010 ) 5.4 Energy 5.5 Agriculture 5.6 Maritime industry 5.7 Tourism 5.8 Transport 5.9 Telecommunications 5.10 Science and technology 6 Demographics 6.1 Cities 6.2 Migration 6.3 Religion 6.4 Languages 6.5 Education 6.6 Health 7 Culture 7.1 Theatre 7.2 Philosophy 7.3 Literature 7.4 Cinema 7.5 Cuisine 7.6 Music and dances 7.7 Sports 7.8 Mythology 7.9 Public holidays and festivals 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10.1 Bibliography 11 External links 11.1 Government 11.2 General information Etymology Main article: Name of Greece The names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names us ed in other languages, locations and cultures. Although the Greeks call the cou ntry Hellas or Hellada (Greek: ÅëëÜò or ÅëëÜäá) and its official name is the Hellenic Republic lish it is referred to as Greece, which comes from the Latin term Graecia as use d by the Romans, which literally means 'the land of the Greeks', and derives fro m the Greek name Ãñáéêüò. However, the name Hellas is sometimes used in English as well. History Main article: History of Greece Earliest settlements to 3rd century BC Main article: Ancient Greece
Minoan fresco at Akrotiri of Santorini.
The Lion Gate, Mycenae. Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period (750-550 BC). The earliest evidence of human presence in the Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the northern Greek province of Macedonia.[ 26] Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC,[26] are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via whic h farming spread from the Near East to Europe.[27] Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered t he birthplace of Western civilization,[28][29][30][31][32] beginning with the Cy cladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC,[33] the Minoan civilization in Crete (2700 1500 BC),[32][34] and then the Mycenaean civili zation on the mainland (1900 1100 BC).[34] These civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenea ns in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Myceneans gradually absorbed the Min oans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse.[35] This ushered in a period known as the Gre ek 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.[36] The Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 8th or 7th centu ries BC.[37][38] With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms a nd city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Bla ck Sea, Southern Italy (Latin: Magna Graecia, or Greater Greece) and Asia Minor. These states and their colonies reached great levels of prosperity that resulte d in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of classical Greece, expressed in arch itecture, drama, science, mathematics and philosophy. In 508 BC, Cleisthenes ins tituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens.[39][40] By 500 BC, the Persian Empire controlled territories ranging from their home of Iran all the way to what is now northern Greece, Macedonia, southern Ukraine, Bu lgaria, and Romania, and posed a threat to certain Greek states. Attempts by the Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule failed, and Persia in vaded the states of mainland Greece in 492 BC, but was forced to withdraw after a defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. A second invasion followed in 480 BC. Despite a heroic resistance at Thermopylae by Spartans and other Greeks, Per sian forces sacked Athens. Following successive Greek victories in 480 and 479 BC at Salamis, Plataea and M ycale, the Persians were forced to withdraw for a second time. The military conf licts, known as the Greco-Persian Wars, were led mostly by Athens and Sparta. Th e fact that Greece was not a unified country meant that conflict between the Gre ek states was common.
The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is one of the best known symbols of cla ssical Greece. The most devastating intra-Greek war in classical antiquity was the Peloponnesia n War (431 404 BC), which marked the demise of the Athenian Empire as the leading power in ancient Greece. Both Athens and Sparta were later overshadowed by Thebe s and eventually Macedon, with the latter uniting the Greek world in the League of Corinth (also known as the Hellenic League or Greek League) under the guidanc e of Phillip II, who was elected leader of the first unified Greek state in hist ory. Following the assassination of Phillip II, his son Alexander III ("The Great") a ssumed the leadership of the League of Corinth and launched an invasion of the P ersian Empire with the combined forces of all Greek states in 334 BC. Following Greek victories in the battles of Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, the Greeks marc hed on Susa and Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of Persia, in 330 BC. The Emp ire created by Alexander the Great stretched from Greece in the west to Pakistan in the east, and Egypt in the south. Before his sudden death in 323 BC, Alexander was also planning an invasion of Ar abia. His death marked the collapse of the vast empire, which was split into sev eral kingdoms, the most famous of which were the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic E gypt. Other states founded by Greeks include the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Greco-Indian Kingdom in India. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch, Sele ucia and the many other new Hellenistic cities in Asia and Africa.[41] Although the political unity of Alexander's empire could not be maintained, it brought ab out the dominance of Hellenistic civilization and the Greek language in the terr itories conquered by Alexander for at least two centuries, and, in the case of p arts the Eastern Mediterranean, considerably longer.[42] Hellenistic and Roman periods (323 BC 4th century AD) Main articles: Hellenistic Greece and Roman Greece See also: Wars of Alexander the Great and Roman Empire
The Antikythera mechanism (c. 100 BC) is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog computer (National Archaeological Museum, Athens).
Detail of the Alexander Mosaic, depicting Alexander the Great on his horse Bucep halus.
The Roman-era Rotunda in Thessaloniki. After a period of confusion following Alexander's death, the Antigonid dynasty, descended from one of Alexander's generals, established its control over Macedon by 276 BC, as well as hegemony over most of the Greek city-states.[43] From abo ut 200 BC the Roman Republic became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and e ngaged in a series of wars with Macedon.[44] Macedon's defeat at the Battle of P ydna in 168 BC signaled the end of Antigonid power in Greece.[45] In 146 BC Mace donia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman p rotectorate.[44][46] The process was completed in 27 BC when the Roman Emperor Augustus annexed the r est of Greece and constituted it as the senatorial province of Achaea.[46] Despi te their military superiority, the Romans admired and became heavily influenced by the achievements of Greek culture, hence Horace's famous statement: Graecia c apta ferum victorem cepit ("Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror c aptive").[47] Greek science, technology and mathematics are generally considered to have reached their peak during the Hellenistic period.[48] Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenized East were instrumental in the sprea d of early Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,[49] and Christianity's ear ly leaders and writers (notably St Paul) were generally Greek-speaking,[50] thou gh none were from Greece. Greece itself had a tendency to cling on to paganism a nd was not one of the influential centers of early Christianity: in fact, some a ncient Greek religious practices remained in vogue until the end of the 4th cent ury,[51] with some areas such as the southeastern Peloponnese remaining pagan un til well into the 10th century AD.[52] Medieval period (4th century 1453) Main articles: Byzantine Greece and Frankokratia See also: Byzantine Empire and Stato da Mar
The Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent under Justinian I, in 555 AD. The Roman Empire in the east, following the fall of the Empire in the west in th e 5th century, is conventionally known as the Byzantine Empire (but was simply c alled "Roman Empire" in its own time) and lasted until 1453. With its capital in Constantinople, its language and literary culture was Greek and its religion wa s predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian.[53] From the 4th century, the Empire's Balkan territories, including Greece, suffere d from the dislocation of the Barbarian Invasions. The raids and devastation of the Goths and Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries and the Slavic invasion of Greec e in the 7th century resulted in a dramatic collapse in imperial authority in th e Greek peninsula.[54] Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government re tained control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly cities such a s Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica, while some mountainous areas in the interior held out on their own and continued to recognize imperial authority.[54] Outsid e of these areas, a limited amount of Slavic settlement is generally thought to have occurred, although on a much smaller scale than previously thought.[55][56]
Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, remain of the Knights perio d of the island.
Mystras Palace, remain of the Despotate of the Morea. The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces began toward the end of the 8th century and most of the Greek peninsula came under imperial control again, in stages, d uring the 9th century.[57][58] This process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while at the same tim e many Slavs were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor and those that remained were assimilated.[55] During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stability resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from strong economic growth much str onger than that of the Anatolian territories of the Empire.[57] Following the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Constantinople to the "Latins" in 1 204 most of Greece quickly came under Frankish rule [59] (initiating the period known as the Frankokratia) or Venetian rule in the case of some of the islands.[ 60] The re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople in 1261 was a ccompanied by the recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankish Principality of Achaea in the Peloponnese remained an important regional power into the 14th century, while the islands remained largely under Genoese and Vene tian control.[59] In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Empire as first the Serbs and then the Ottomans seized imperial territory.[61] By the beginning of the 15th century, the Ottoman advance meant that Byzantine territory in Greec e was limited mainly to the Despotate of the Morea in the Peloponnese.[61] After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Morea was the last remn ant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans. However, this, too , fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of mainland Gree ce.[62] With the Turkish conquest, many Byzantine Greek scholars, who up until t hen were largely responsible for preserving Classical Greek knowledge, fled to t he West, taking with them a large body of literature and thereby significantly c ontributing to the Renaissance.[63] Ottoman period (15th century 1821) Main article: Ottoman Greece See also: Phanariotes
The Byzantine castle of Angelokastro successfully repulsed the Ottomans during t he first great siege of Corfu in 1537, the siege of 1571, and the second great s iege of Corfu in 1716 causing them to abandon their plans to conquer Corfu.[64]
The White Tower of Thessaloniki, one of the best-known Ottoman structures remain ing in Greece. While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control b y the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670 respectively. The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped long-term Ottoman rule was the Ionian Isla nds, which remained Venetian until their capture by the First French Republic in 1797, then passed to the United Kingdom in 1809 until their unification with Gr eece in 1864.[65][page needed] While Greeks in the Ionian Islands and Constantinople lived in prosperity, Greek s living in Constantinople achieving positions of power within the Ottoman admin istration,[65][page needed] much of the population of mainland Greece suffered t he economic consequences of the Ottoman conquest. Heavy taxes were enforced, and in later years the Ottoman Empire enacted a policy of creation of hereditary es tates, effectively turning the rural Greek populations into serfs.[66] The Greek Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were considered by the Ottoman governments as the ruling authorities of the entire O rthodox Christian population of the Ottoman Empire, whether ethnically Greek or not. Although the Ottoman state did not force non-Muslims to convert to Islam, C hristians faced several types of discrimination intended to highlight their infe rior status in the Ottoman Empire. Discrimination against Christians, particular ly when combined with harsh treatment by local Ottoman authorities, led to conve rsions to Islam, if only superficially. In the 19th century, many "crypto-Christ ians" returned to their old religious allegiance.[65][page needed] The nature of Ottoman administration of Greece varied, though it was invariably arbitrary and often harsh.[65][page needed] Some cities had governors appointed by the Sultan, while others (like Athens) were self-governed municipalities. Mou ntains regions in the interior and many islands remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for many centuries.[65][page needed] When military conflicts broke out between the Ottoman Empire and other states, G reeks usually took arms against the Empire, with few exceptions. Prior to the Gr eek revolution, there had been a number of wars which saw Greeks fight against t he Ottomans, such as the Greek participation in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, t he Epirus peasants' revolts of 1600 1601, the Morean War of 1684 1699, and the Russi an-instigated Orlov Revolt in 1770, which aimed at breaking up the Ottoman Empir e in favor of Russian interests.[65][page needed] These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed.[67][68] The 16th and 17th centuries are regarded as something of a "dark age" in Greek h istory, with the prospect of overthrowing Ottoman rule appearing remote with onl y the Ionian islands remaining free of Turkish domination. Corfu withstood three major sieges in 1537, 1571 and 1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of t he Ottomans. However in the 18th century, there arose through shipping a wealthy and dispersed Greek merchant class. These merchants came to dominate trade with in the Ottoman Empire, establishing communities throughout the Mediterranean, th e Balkans, and Western Europe. Though the Ottoman conquest had cut Greece off fr om significant European intellectual movements such as the Reformation and the E nlightenment, these ideas together with the ideals of the French Revolution and romantic nationalism began to penetrate the Greek world via the mercantile diasp ora.[65][page needed] In the late 18th century, Rigas Feraios, the first revolut ionary to envision an independent Greek state, published a series of documents r elating to Greek independence, including but not limited to a national anthem an d the first detailed map of Greece, in Vienna, and was murdered by Ottoman agent s in 1798.[65][page needed][69] Greek War of Independence (1821 1832) Main article: Greek War of Independence See also: Modern Greek Enlightenment, Greek Declaration of Independence and Firs t Hellenic Republic
The sortie of Messolonghi, during the Greek War of Independence (1821 1830), by Th eodoros Vryzakis. In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends) was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolution in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities and Constantinople. T he first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities u nder the leadership of Alexandros Ypsilantis, but it was soon put down by the Ot tomans. The events in the north spurred the Greeks of the Peloponnese into actio n and on 17 March 1821 the Maniots declared war on the Ottomans.[70] By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Ottomans and by October 1821 the Greeks under Theodoros Kolokotronis had captured Tripol itsa. The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, Macedon ia and Central Greece, which would soon be suppressed. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea. In 1822 and 1824 the Turk s and Egyptians ravaged the islands, including Chios and Psara, committing whole sale massacres of the population.[70] This had the effect of galvanizing public opinion in western Europe in favor of the Greek rebels.[65][page needed] Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecuti ve civil wars. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt , who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress th e revolt in return for territorial gain. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in Fe bruary 1825 and had immediate success: by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponne se was under Egyptian control, and the city of Missolonghi