Georgia (country) This article is about the country. For the U.S. state, brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. see Georgia (U.S. state). For other uses, see Georgia Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council (disambiguation). of Europe, and the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development. It contains two de facto in- Coordinates: 42°00′N 43°30′E / 42.000°N 43.500°E dependent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Georgia ( i/ˈdʒɔːrdʒə/; Georgian: საქართველო, tr. gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a major part of the Sakartvelo, IPA: [sɑkʰɑrtʰvɛlɔ]) is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads international community consider the regions to be part of Georgia’s sovereign territory under Russian military of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to [7] the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the occupation. south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Geor- gia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 1 Etymology sq mi), and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the Main article: Name of Georgia (country) government elected through a representative democracy. “Georgia” probably stems from the Persian designation During the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The king- doms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century. A unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various regional powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and successive dynasties of Iran. In the late 18th century, the eastern Georgian Kingdom of “Gorgania” i.e. Georgia on Fra Mauro map Kartli-Kakheti forged an alliance with the Russian Em- pire, which directly annexed the kingdom in 1801 and of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th cen- conquered the western Kingdom of Imereti in 1810. Rus- turies adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān and Arabic sian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in ĵurĵan/ĵurzan. Lore-based theories were given by the various peace treaties with Iran and the Ottomans. Fol- traveller Jacques de Vitry, who explained the name’s ori- lowing the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia obtained gin by the popularity of St. George amongst Georgians,[8] its short-lived independence and established first-ever re- while traveller Jean Chardin thought that “Georgia” came public led by the Social-Democrats in 1918, only to be from Greek γεωργός (“tiller of the land”). As Prof. invaded by Soviet Russia in 1921 and subsequently ab- Alexander Mikaberidze adds, these century-old expla- sorbed into the Soviet Union as the Georgian Soviet So- nations for the word Georgia/Georgians are rejected by cialist Republic. the scholarly community, who point to the Persian word gurğ/gurğān (“wolf”[9]) as the root of the word.[10] Start- Since the establishment of the modern Georgian repub- ing with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was lic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from later adopted in numerous other languages, including civil and economic crisis for most of the 1990s. Fol- Slavic and West European languages.[10][11] This term it- lowing the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003, Geor- self might have been established through the ancient Ira- gia pursued a strongly pro-Western foreign policy, aimed nian appellation of the near-Caspian region, which was at NATO and European integration, and introduced referred to as Gorgan (“land of the wolves”[12]).[10] a series of democratic and economic reforms, which brought about mixed results, but strengthened state in- The native name is Sakartvelo (საქართველო; “land of stitutions. The country’s Western orientation soon led to Kartvelians”), derived from the core central Georgian re- the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the gion of Kartli, recorded from the 9th century, and in ex- tended usage referring to the entire medieval Kingdom 1 2 2 HISTORY of Georgia by the 13th century. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi (ქართველები, i.e. "Kartvelians"). The medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is de- rived from the Karts, the latter being one of the proto- Georgian tribes that emerged as a dominant group in ancient times.[10] The name Sakartvelo (საქართველო) consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i (ქართველ-ი), specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Geor- gian region of Kartli, or Iberia as it is known in sources of the Eastern Roman Empire.[13] Ancient Greeks (Strabo, Herodotus, Plutarch, Homer, etc.) and Romans (Titus Livius, Tacitus, etc.) referred to early western Georgians Ancient Georgian states of Colchis and Iberia, 500–400 BC as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians (Iberoi in some Greek sources).[14] derived from the local practice of using fleeces to sift gold dust from rivers.[20] Known to its natives as Egrisi or Lazica, Colchis was also the battlefield of the Lazic 2 History War fought between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Persia. Main article: History of Georgia (country) After the Roman Republic completed its brief conquest of what is now Georgia in 66 BC, the area became a pri- mary objective of what would eventually turn out to be over 700 years of protracted Irano–Roman geo-political 2.1 Prehistory rivalry and warfare.[21][22] Main article: Prehistoric Georgia From the first centuries A.D, the cult of Mithras, pagan beliefs, and Zoroastrianism were commonly practised in Georgia.[23] In 337 AD King Mirian III declared Chris- The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by tianity as the state religion, giving a great stimulus to Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era. The proto- the development of literature, arts, and ultimately play- Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th [15] ing a key role in the formation of the unified Georgian century BC. nation,[24][25] The acceptance led to the slow but sure de- The earliest evidence of wine to date has been found cline of Zoroastrianism,[26] which until the 5th century in Georgia, where 8000-year old wine jars were AD, appeared to have become something like a second uncovered.[16][17] Archaeological finds and references in established religion in Iberia (eastern Georgia), and was ancient sources also reveal elements of early political and widely practised there.[27] In the ensuing period, until the state formations characterized by advanced metallurgy course of the 7th century, what is now Georgia remained and goldsmith techniques that date back to the 7th cen- dominated by the Romans and Sasanians. tury BC and beyond.[15] In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, associated with the Shulaveri-Shomu culture.[18] 2.3 Middle Ages up to Early Modern Pe- riod 2.2 Antiquity Located on the crossroads of protracted Roman–Persian Wars, the early Georgian kingdoms disintegrated into The classical period saw the rise of a number of early various feudal regions by the early Middle Ages. This Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the made it easy for the remaining Georgian realms to fall west and Iberia in the east. In the 4th century BC, a uni- prey to the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century. fied kingdom of Georgia – an early example of advanced Despite the capture of Tbilisi in 645 AD by Muslims, state organization under one king and an aristocratic hi- Kartli-Iberia retained considerable independence under erarchy – was established.[19] local rulers. In Greek mythology, Colchis was the location of the The Kingdom of Georgia reached its zenith in the 12th Golden Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts in to early 13th centuries. This period during the reigns Apollonius Rhodius' epic tale Argonautica. The incor- of David IV (called David the Builder, r. 1089–1125) poration of the Golden Fleece into the myth may have and his granddaughter Tamar (r. 1184–1213) has been 2.3 Middle Ages up to Early Modern Period 3 ated Tbilisi.[33] At the height of its dominance, the King- dom’s influence spanned from the south of modern-day Ukraine, to the northern provinces of Persia, while also maintaining religious possessions in the Holy Land and Greece. The 29-year reign of Tamar, the first female ruler of Georgia, is considered the most successful in Georgian history.[34] Tamar was given the title “king of kings” (mepe mepeta).[28] She succeeded in neutralizing opposi- tion and embarked on an energetic foreign policy aided by the downfall of the rival powers of the Seljuks and Byzan- tium. Supported by a powerful military élite, Tamar was able to build on the successes of her predecessors to con- solidate an empire which dominated the Caucasus, and extended over large parts of present-day Azerbaijan, Ar- menia, and eastern Turkey as well as parts of northern Iran,[35] until its collapse under the Mongol attacks within two decades after Tamar’s death in 1213.[36] The revival of the Kingdom of Georgia was set back after Tbilisi was captured and destroyed by the Khwarezmian leader Jalal ad-Din in 1226.[37] The Mongols were ex- pelled by George V of Georgia, son of Demetrius II of Queen Tamar of Georgia presided over the “Golden Age” of the Georgia, who was named “Brilliant” for his role in restor- medieval Georgian monarchy.