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Home , Aegean Sea (theme), Angelokastro (Corfu), Byzantine Greece, First Hellenic Republic, Greece, Hellenistic Greece

Greece (Greek: ????da, Elláda [e'laða] ( listen)), officially the (Greek: ???????? ??µ???at?a Elliniki´ Dimokratía [elini'ci ðimokra'ti.a]), also known si nce ancient as (: ????? Ellás ['h?l?s])[8][9][10][11][12 ][13][14][15] is a country located in southeastern . According to the 2011 census, 's population is around 10.8 million. is the nation's capi tal and largest city, followed by , which is commonly referred to as the co-capital. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, , and . S ituated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with to the northwest, the Republic of and to the north a nd to the northeast. Greece consists of nine geographic regions: Macedoni a, , the , , , the Aegean (includ ing the and ), , , and the . The Aeg ean Sea lies to the east of the , the to the , and the Me diterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterran ean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast of islands, of which 227 are inhabited. Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount being the highest peak at 2 ,918 metres (9,573 ft). Greece has one of the longest of any country, and is considered the cr adle of Western , having been the birthplace of , Western p hilosophy, the , ,[16] , , scientific and mathematical principles, and Western , includ ing both and . The were first unified under of Maced on in the fourth century BC. His son the Great rapidly conquered much of the ancient world, spreading Greek culture and science from the eastern Medit erranean to the Indus River. Annexed by in the second century BC, Greece be came an integral part of the Roman and its successor, the Byzantine Empir e. The first century AD saw the establishment of the , whic h shaped the and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World.[17] Falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-, the modern of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of . Greece's rich historical legacy is reflected in large part by its 17 UNESCO Worl d Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe and the world.[18] Greece is a democratic and with an advanced high-income econom y, a high and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the , Greece was the tenth member to join the European Communit ies (precursor to the ) and has been part of the since 20 01. It is also a member of numerous other international , including the , Organization (NATO), Organisation f or Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), WTO, OSCE, and the OIF. Greece' s unique cultural heritage, subsequently large industry, and prominent s hipping sector classify it as a . It is the largest economy in the B alkans, where it is an important regional investor. Contents 1 Etymology 2 2.1 Ancient and Classical periods 2.2 Hellenistic and Roman periods (323 BC AD) 2.3 Medieval period (4th century 1453) 2.4 Ottoman rule (15th century 1821) 2.5 Modern Greece 2.5.1 Greek War of Independence (18211832) 2.5.2 2.5.3 Expansion, disaster, and reconstruction 2.5.4 2, reconstruction, and authoritarian rule 2.5.5 3 and climate 3.1 Islands 3.2 Climate 3.3 Ecology 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 Financial crisis (2010present) 5.3 Energy 5.4 5.5 Maritime industry 5.6 Tourism 5.7 Transport 5.8 Telecommunications 5.9 Science and technology 6 Demographics 6.1 Cities 6.2 Religion 6.3 Languages 6.4 Migration 6.5 Education 6.6 Health 7 Culture 7.1 Theatre 7.2 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 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10.1 Specific 10.2 Bibliography 11 External links 11.1 Government 11.2 General information Etymology Main article: 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 coun try Hellas or Ellada (Greek: ????? or ????da) and its official name is the Helle nic Republic, in English it is referred to as Greece, which comes from the term Graecia as used by the Romans, which literally means 'the land of the Gree ks', and derives from the G?a????. However, the name Hellas is someti mes used in English as well.[citation needed] History Main article: Ancient and Classical periods Main articles: and displaying the Minoan ritual of "bull leaping", found in , Crete. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern , dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the cave, in the Greek provin ce of Macedonia.[19] All three stages of the stone age (, , and ) are represented in Greece, for example in the .[20 ] Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC,[19] are th e oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which f arming spread from the to Europe.[21] Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period (750-550 BC) The on the of Athens is one of the best known symbols of cla ssical Greece. Greece is home to the first advanced in Europe and is considered t he birthplace of Western civilization,[22][23][24][25] beginning with the Cyclad ic civilization on the islands of the at around 3200 BC,[26] the Mino an civilization in Crete (27001500 BC),[25][27] and then the Mycenaean civilizati on on the mainland (19001100 BC).[27] These civilizations possessed , the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as , and the Mycenaeans in , an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the ns, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a of regional upheaval k nown as the Age collapse.[28] This ushered in a period known as 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.[29] The and the , the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by in the 8th or 7th centu ries BC[30][31] With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms an d city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Blac k Sea, Southern ("") and Asia Minor. These states and their c olonies reached great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cul tural boom, that of classical Greece, expressed in , drama, science, and philosophy. In 508 BC, instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens.[32][33] By 500 BC, the Persian Empire controlled the Greek city states in Asia Minor and Macedonia.[34] Attempts by some of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overt hrow Persian rule failed, and Persia invaded the states of mainland Greece in 49 2 BC, but was forced to withdraw after a defeat at the in 490 BC. A second invasion by the followed in 480 BC. Following decisive Gr eek victories in 480 and 479 BC at Salamis, , and , the Persians we re forced to withdraw for a second time, marking their eventual withdrawal from all of their European territories. Led by Athens and , the Greek victories in the -Persian Wars are considered a pivotal moment in world history,[35] as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as Golden Age of Athens, the s eminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civ ilization. on his horse Bucephalus Lack of political unity within Greece resulted in frequent conflict between Gree k states. The most devastating intra-Greek war was the (431404 BC), won by Sparta and marking 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 (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 and launched an invasion of the P ersian Empire with the combined forces of all Greek states in 334 BC. Undefeated in battle, Alexander had conquered the Persian Empire in its entirety by 330 BC . By the time of his death in 323 BC, he had created one of the largest in history, stretching from Greece to . His empire split into several kingd oms upon his death, the most famous of which were the , Ptolemaic , the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Many Greeks migra ted to , , and the many other new Hellenistic cities i n Asia and Africa.[36] Although the political unity of Alexander's empire could not be maintained, it resulted in the Hellenistic civilization and spread the Gr eek language and Greek culture in the territories conquered by Alexander.[37] Gr eek science, technology and mathematics are generally considered to have reached their peak during the .[38] Hellenistic and Roman periods (323 BC 4th century AD) Main articles: and Roman Greece See also: Wars of Alexander the Great and The mechanism (c. 100 BC) is believed to be the earliest mechanical (National Archaeological , Athens). After a period of confusion following Alexander's death, the , descended from one of Alexander's generals, established its control over Macedon and most of the Greek city-states by 276 BC.[39] From about 200 BC the Roman Re public became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and engaged in a series of wars with Macedon.[40] Macedon's defeat at the Battle of in 168 BC signall ed the end of Antigonid power in Greece.[41] In 146 BC Macedonia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman .[40][42] The process was completed in 27 BC when the annexed the r est of Greece and constituted it as the senatorial province of .[42] Despi te their military superiority, the Romans admired and became heavily influenced by the achievements of Greek culture, hence 's famous statement: Graecia c apta ferum victorem cepit ("Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror c aptive").[43] The epics of Homer inspired the of , and authors such as wrote using Greek styles. Roman heroes such as Scipio Afr icanus, tended to study philosophy and regarded Greek culture and science as an example to be followed. Similarly, most Roman emperors maintained an admiration for things Greek in . The Roman Emperor visited Greece in AD 66, and performed at the , despite the rules against non-Greek part icipation. was also particularly fond of the Greeks; before he became em peror he served as an eponymous of Athens. Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenized East were instrumental in the sprea d of early in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,[44] and Christianity's ear ly leaders and writers (notably St ) were mostly Greek-speaking, though gene rally not from Greece itself.[45] The was written in Greek, and so me of its sections (Corinthians, Thessalonians, Philippians, Revelation of St. J ohn of ) attest to the importance of churches in Greece in early Christian ity. Nevertheless, much of Greece clung tenaciously to , and ancient Gre ek religious practices were still in vogue in the late 4th century AD,[46] when they were outlawed by the Roman emperor in 391-392.[47] The last re corded Olympic games were held in 393,[48] and many were destroyed or da maged in the century that followed.[49] In Athens and rural areas, paganism is a ttested well into the sixth century AD[49] and even later.[50] The closure of th e Neoplatonic Academy of Athens by the emperor Justinian in 529 is considered by many to mark the end of antiquity, although there is evidence that the Academy continued its activities for some time after that.[49] Some remote areas such as the southeastern Peloponnese remained pagan until well into the AD .[51] Medieval period (4th century 1453) Main articles: and Frankokratia See also: and Stato da Màr The Byzantine Empire at the death of II in 1025 , a 10th-century walled in . 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 , its language and literary culture was Greek and its religion wa s predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian.[52] 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 and in the 4th and 5th centuries and the Slavic invasion of Greec e in the resulted in a dramatic collapse in imperial authority in th e Greek peninsula.[53] Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government re tained formal control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly the de nsely populated walled cities such as Athens, Corinth and , while so me mountainous areas in the interior held out on their own and continued to reco gnize imperial authority.[53] Outside of these areas, a limited amount of Slavic settlement is generally thought to have occurred, although on a much smaller sc ale than previously thought.[54][55] 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 .[56][57] This process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while at the same tim e many were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor and those that remained were assimilated.[54] 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.[56] Following the and the to the "" in 1 204 mainland Greece was split between the Greek (a Byzantine successor state) and Frankish rule[58] (known as the Frankokratia), while some islands came under Venetian rule.[59] The re-establishment of the Byzantine impe rial capital in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by the empire's recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankish Principality of Achaea in the Peloponnese and the rival Greek Despotate of Epirus in the north both remain ed important regional powers into the , while the islands remained l argely under Genoese and Venetian control.[58] In the 14th century, much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Byzantine Empir e at first to the and then to the Ottomans.[60] By the beginning of the 15 th century, the Ottoman advance meant that Byzantine territory in Greece was lim ited mainly to its then-largest city, Thessaloniki, and the Peloponnese (Despota te of the ).[60] After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the O ttomans. However, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoma n conquest of mainland Greece.[61] With the Turkish conquest, many Byzantine Gre ek scholars, who up until then were largely responsible for preserving Classical Greek knowledge, fled to the West, taking with them a large body of literature and thereby significantly contributing to the .[62] Ottoman rule (15th century 1821) Main article: See also: Phanariotes The Byzantine of successfully repulsed the Ottomans during t he First Great Siege of 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.[63] While most of mainland Greece and the was under Ottoman control b y the end of the 15th century, 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 in 1809 until their unification with Gr eece in 1864.[64][page needed] While Greeks in the Ionian Islands and Constantinople lived in prosperity, and G reeks living in Constantinople achieved positions of power within the Ottoman ad ministration,[64][page needed] much of the population of mainland Greece suffere d the economic consequences of the Ottoman conquest. Heavy taxes were enforced, and in later years the enacted a policy of creation of hereditary estates, effectively turning the rural Greek populations into serfs.[65] 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 , C hristians faced several types of intended to highlight their infe rior status in the Ottoman Empire. Discrimination against , particular ly when combined with harsh treatment by local Ottoman authorities, led to conve rsions to Islam, if only superficially. In the , many "crypto-Christ ians" returned to their old religious allegiance.[64][page needed] The White Tower of Thessaloniki, one of the best-known Ottoman structures remain ing in Greece The nature of Ottoman administration of Greece varied, though it was invariably arbitrary and often harsh.[64][page needed] Some cities had governors appointed by the , while others (like Athens) were self-governed . Mou ntains regions in the interior and many islands remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for many centuries.[64][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 in 1571, t he Epirus peasants' revolts of 16001601, the of 16841699, and the Russi an-instigated Orlov Revolt in 1770, which aimed at breaking up the Ottoman Empir e in favor of Russian interests.[64][page needed] These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed.[66][67] 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 wealth y and dispersed Greek merchant class. These merchants came to trade wit hin the Ottoman Empire, establishing communities throughout the Mediterranean, t he Balkans, and . Though the Ottoman conquest had cut Greece off f rom significant European intellectual movements such as the and the Enlightenment, these ideas together with the ideals of the and romantic began to penetrate the Greek world via the mercantile dias pora.[64][page needed] In the late 18th century, , the first revolu tionary to envision an independent Greek state, published a series of documents relating to Greek independence, including but not limited to a national a nd the first detailed map of Greece, in , and was murdered by Ottoman agen ts in 1798.[64][page needed][68] Modern Greece Main article: Greek War of Independence (18211832) Main article: Greek War of Independence See also: Modern Greek Enlightenment, Greek Declaration of Independence, and Fir st Hellenic Republic The sortie of Messolonghi, during the Greek War of Independence (18211830), by Th eodoros Vryzakis. In the late eighteenth century, an increase in secular learning during the Moder n Greek Enlightenment led to the revival among Greeks of the diaspora of the not of a Greek nation tracing its existence to ancient Greece, distinct from the other Orthodox peoples, and having a right to political . One of the or ganizations formed in this intellectual milieu was the , a secret o rganization formed by merchants in in 1814.[69] Appropriating a long-stan ding tradition of Orthodox messianic prophecy aspiring to the resurrection of th e eastern Roman empire and creating the impression they had the backing of Tsari st , they managed amidst a crisis of Ottoman trade, from 1815 onwards, to engage traditional strata of the Greek Orthodox world in their liberal nationali st cause.[70] The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolution in the Peloponnese, the and Constantinople. The first of these revolts bega n on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities under the leadership of Alexand Ypsilantis, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the nort h spurred the Greeks of the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 the Man iots declared war on the Ottomans.[71] By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Ottomans and by October 1821 the Greeks under 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 in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea. In 1822 and 1824 the Turk s and ravaged the islands, including and , committing whole sale massacres of the population.[71] This had the effect of galvanizing public opinion in western Europe in favor of the Greek rebels.[64][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 put under siege by the since April 1825fell in April 1826. Although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese and Athens had been retaken. After years of negotiation, three Great Powers, Russia, the United Kingdom and F rance, decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greec e. Following news that combined OttomanEgyptian fleets were going to attack the G reek of , the allied fleet intercepted the OttomanEgyptian fleet at N avarino. After a week-long standoff, a battle began which resulted in the destru ction of the OttomanEgyptian fleet. A French expeditionary force was dispatched t o supervise the evacuation of the Egyptian army from the Peloponnese, while the Greeks proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828. As a result of years of negotiation, the nascent Greek state was finally recognized under the L ondon Protocol in 1830. Kingdom of Greece See also: Kingdom of Greece The Entry of King Otto in Athens, , 1839. The territorial evolution of Kingdom of Greece until 1947. In 1827, , from Corfu, was chosen as the first governor of t he . Following his assassination in 1831 and the subseque nt conference a year later, the Great Powers of Britain, and Russia insta lled Bavarian Otto von Wittelsbach as monarch.[