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About
the country
Capital(and
largest city): Athens
Official languages: Greek
Government: Parliamentary republic
President: Karolos Papoulias
Prime Minister: Kostas Karamanlis
First known Greek civilizations: c.3000 BC
Last previously independent state: 1461
Independence from the Ottoman Empire: 25 March
1821
Recognized: 1829
Accession to EU: 1 January 1981
Area Total: 131,990 km2 (96th), 50,944 sq
mi
Water (%): 0.8669
Population: 2005 estimate 11,244,118 (74th),
2001 census 10,964,020
Density: 84/km2 (108th), 218/sq mi
Currency: EURO
Time zone: EET (UTC+2), Summer (DST) EEST
(UTC+3)
The
earliest civilization to appear around Greece was theMinoan civilization
inCrete, which lasted approximately from 2700 (Early Minoan) BC
to 1450 BC, and on the Early Helladic period on the Greek mainland
from ca. 2800 BC to 2100 BC.
Mycenaean Greece (Bronze Age)
Mycenaean Greece, also known as Bronze Age Greece, is the Late Helladic
Bronze Age civilization of Ancient Greece. It lasted from the arrival
of the Greeks in the Aegean around 1600 BCto the collapse of their
Bronze Age civilization around 1100 BC. It is the historical setting
of the epics of Homer and much other Greek mythology. The Mycenaean
period takes its name from the archaeological site Mycenae in the
northeastern Argolid, in the Peloponnesos of southern Greece.Athens,Pylos,Thebes
and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites.
Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around
1400 BC the Mycenaeans extended their control toCrete, center of
the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script
called Linear A to write their early form of Greek The Mycenaean
era script is called Linear B.
Around 1100 BCthe Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities
were sacked and the region entered what historians see as a dark
age. During this period Greece experienced a decline in population
and literacy.
Greek Dark Ages
The Greek Dark Ages (ca.1200BC-800BC) refers to the period of Greek
history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean
civilization in the 11th century BC to the rise of the first Greek
city-states in the 9th century BC and the epics of Homer and earliest
writings in alphabetic Greek in the 8th century BC.
Ancient Greece 
Cape
Sounion in Attica, looking out to the Aegean islands.
There
are no fixed or universally agreed dates for the beginning or the
end of the Ancient Greek period. In common usage it refers to all
Greek history before the Roman Empire, but historians use the term
more precisely. Some writers include the periods of the Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations, while others argue that these civilizations
were so different from later Greek cultures that they should be
classed separately. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was
taken to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776 BC,
but most historians now extend the term back to about1000BC. The
traditional date for the end of the Ancient Greek period is the
death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The following period is
classed as Hellenistic.
Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational
culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence
in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts
of Europe .Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential
on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art
and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the Renaissanse
in Western Europe and again during various neo-Classical revivals
in 18th and 19th centuryEurope and the Americas.
Hellenistic Greece
 Philip
V of Macedon, "the darling of Hellas", wearing the royal
diadem.
The Hellenistic period of Greek history begins with the death
of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ends with the annexationof
the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC.
The great centres of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch,
capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively.
Roman Period
 Militarily
Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the
land (187 BC onwards), though Greek culture would in turn conquer
Roman life. Although the period of Roman rule in Greece is conventionally
dated as starting from the sacking of Corinth by the RomanLucius
Mummius in 123 BC, Macedonia had already come under Roman control
with the defeat of its king, Perseus, by the Roman Aemilius Paullus
at Pydna in 168 BC.
Byzantine Empire
The history of the Byzantine Empire is described by scholar August
Heisenberg as the history "of the Roman state of the Greek
nation, that turned Christian". The division of the empire
into East and West and the subsequent collapse of the WesternRoman
Empire were developments that constantly accentuated the position
of the Greeks in the empire and eventually allowed them to become
identified with it altogether. The leading role of Constantinople
began when Costantine the Great turned Byzantium into the new capital
of the Roman Empire, henceforth to be known as Costantinople, placing
the city at the centre of Hellenism a beacon for the Greeks that
lasted to the modern era.
Empress Theidora and her retinue (fresco from Basilica of San
Vitale, 6th century).
The
figures of Constantine the Great and Justinian dominated during
324–610. Assimilating the Roman tradition, the emperors sought
to provide the basis for subsequent developments and for the formation
of the Byzantine Empire.
Ottoman
Rule and the Rise of Modern Greece
 The
Battle of Navarino, in October 1827, marked the effective end of
Ottoman Rule in Greece.
When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations occurred. The first
migration entailed the Greek intelligentsia migrating to Western
Europe and influencing the advent of the Renaissance. The second
migration entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula
and resettling in the mountains. Greece being mostly mountainous,
the Ottomans could not conquer the entire Greek peninsula since
they created neither a military nor an administrative presence in
the mountains. There existed many Greek mountain clans all across
the peninsula and islands. The Sfakiots of Crete, the Souliots of
Epirus, and the Maniots of the Peloponnese were the most resilient
mountain clans throughout the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the
19th century up until the 17th century, many Greeks began to migrate
from the mountains to the plains. The millest system contributed
to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various
peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. The Greek Orthodox
Church, an ethno-religious institution, helped the Greeks from all
geographical areas of the peninsula (i.e., mountains, plains, and
islands) to preserve their ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage
during the harsh years of Ottoman rule.
The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. On March
25, 1821(also the same day as the Greek Orthodox day of the Annunciatio
of the Theotokos ), the Greeks rebelled and declared their ihnependence
, but did not achieve it until 1829.
World War I and the Greco-Turkish War
In World War I, Greece sided with the entete powers against Tyrkey
and the other Central Powers. In the war's aftermath, the Great
Powers awarded parts of Asia Minor to Greece, including the city
of Smyrna (known as Izmir today) which had a majority Greek population.
At that time, however, the Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, overthrew the Ottoman government, organised a military
assault on the Greek troops, and defeated them. Immediately afterwards,
over one million native Greeks of Turkey had to leave for Greece
as a population exchange with hundreds of thousands of Muslims living
in the Greek state.
World War 2
Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces,
Greece made a decisive contribution to the Allied efforts in World
War II. At the start of the war Greece sided with the Allies and
refused to give in to Italian demands. Italy invaded Greece on 28
October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter
struggle. This marked the first Allied victory in the war.Hitler
then reluctantly stepped in, primarily to secure his strategic southern
flank: troops from Germany,Bulgaria and Italy successfully invaded
Greece, overcoming Greek, British,Australian and New Zealand units.
However, when the Germans attempted to seize Crete in a massive
attack by paratroops—with the aim of reducing the threat of
a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt— the Cretan civilians
and Allied Forces, offered fierce resistance. The Greek campaign
delayed German military plans against Russia and it is argued that
German invasion of the Soviet Union started fatally close to winter.
Junta
In 1967, the Greek military seized power in a coup d’etat,
overthrew the centre right government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
and established the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 which became
known as the Régime of the Colonels. The Central Intelligense
Agency was involved in the coup and President Cliton later apologised
for the interference. In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek
monarchy. In 1974, dictator Papadopoylos denied help to the U.S.
and rumor has it that as a result the U.S., through Kissiger’s
efforts, initiated a second coup. Colonel Ioannides was appointed
as the new head-of-state.
Many hold Ioannides responsible for the coup against President Makarios
of Cyprus—the coup seen as the pretext for the first wave of
the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 . The Cyprus events and the
outcry following a bloody suppression of Athens Polytechnic uprising
in Athens led to the implosion of the military régime.
Restoration of democracy
In1975, following a referendum to confirm the deposition of King
Constantine II, a democratic republican constitution came into force.
Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned
and founded the sosialist PASOK party, which won the elections in
1981 and dominated the country's political course for almost two
decades. Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and adopted the
Eyro as its currency in 2001.
Famous
Ancient People
 Most
of the Greek names known to modern readers flourished in this age.
Among the poets Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,
Aristophanes and Sappho were active. Famous politicians include
Themistocles, Pericles, Lysander, Epaminondas, Alcibiades,Philip
II of Makedon , and his son Alexander the Great.Plato wrote, as
did Aristotel,Heraclitus of Ephesus, Parmenides, Democritus, Herodotus,
Thucydides and Xenofon. Almost all of the mathematical knowledge
formalized in Euclid’s Element at the beginning of the Hellenistic
period was developed in this era.
 Plato
(sculptor)
Birth:
c.428-427 BC,Athens
Death: C348-347BC, Athens
School/tradition: Platonism
Main interests: Rhetoric, Art, Literature, Epistemology, Justice,
Virtue, Politics, Education, Family, Militarism
Notable ideas: Platonism realism
Influenced: Aristotel, Neoplatonism, Cicero, Plutarx, Stoicism,
Anselm, Dekcrtes, Hobbes, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heideger Aristotle,
and countless other western philosophers and theologians
 Phidias
(or Pheidias) (c.490-c.430BC), Phidias designed the temple of
thegoddess Athena on theAthenian Acropolis (Athena Parthenos inside
theParthenon and the Athena Promachos) and the colossal seated Statue
of Zeus at Olympia in the 5th century BC.
 Praxiteles
Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the
greatest of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC, who has left
an imperishable mark on the history of art.
 Scopas
or Skopas (c395BC-350 BC.) was an Ancient Greek scylptor and
architect, born on the island of Paros. Scopas worked with Praxiteles,
he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus , especially
the reliefs.
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