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History of Greece

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   This article is part of the series on:

   History of Greece
   Prehistory of Greece
   Cycladic Civilization
   Minoan Civilization
   Mycenaean Civilization
   Greek Dark Ages
   Ancient Greece
   Ancient Greece
   Hellenistic Greece
   Roman Greece
   Medieval Greece
   Byzantine Empire
   Ottoman Greece
   Modern Greece
   Greek War of Independence
   Kingdom of Greece
   Axis Occupation of Greece
   Greek Civil War
   Military Junta
   The Hellenic Republic

   The History of Greece traditionally encompasses the study of the Greek
   people, the areas they ruled historically, and the territory now
   composing the modern state of Greece.

   The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied significantly through
   the ages, and as a consequence the history of Greece is similarly
   elastic in what it includes. Each era has its own related sphere of
   interest.

   The first Greeks arrived in Europe some time before 1500 BC, and at its
   peak, Greek civilization spread from Greece to Egypt and to the Hindu
   Kush mountains. Since then Greek minorities have remained in former
   Greek territories (e.g., Turkey, Italy, and Libya, Levant, etc.), and
   Greek emigrants have assimilated into differing societies across the
   globe (e.g. North America, Australia, Northern Europe, South Africa
   etc.). However, today most Greeks live in the modern states of Greece
   (independent since 1821) and Cyprus (independent since 1960).

Aegean civilization: prehistoric Greece

   The earliest civilization to appear around Greece was the Minoan
   civilization in Crete, 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.

   Little specific information is known about the Minoans (even the name
   is a modern appellation, from Minos, the legendary king of Crete). They
   have been characterized as a pre-Indo-European people, apparently the
   linguistic ancestors of the Eteo-Cretan speakers of Classical
   Antiquity, their language being encoded in the undeciphered Linear A
   script. They were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas
   trade, taking advantage of the land's rich natural resources. Timber at
   that time was an abundant natural resource that was commercially
   exploited and exported to nearby lands such as Cyprus, Egypt and the
   Aegean Islands.

   Although the causes of their demise are uncertain, they were eventually
   invaded by the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece. Their invasion took
   place around 1400 BCE, and in conjunction with the Thera eruption, they
   present a likely scenario for the final end of the Minoan civilization.
   According to this theory, the Minoan fleet and ports were irrevocably
   destroyed by the colossal Mediterranean waves. Possible climatic
   changes affected crops for many years, which in turn could have led to
   famine and social breakdown. The Mycenaean invaders wrote the final
   chapter to a civilization that flourished for some 1600 years.

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 BC to 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 to Crete, centre 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.

   The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholoi), large
   circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and straight entry
   passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form
   of military equipment with the deceased. The nobility were frequently
   buried with gold masks, tiaras, armour, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans
   were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent
   mummification.

   Around 1100 BC the 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. The Greeks themselves have traditionally blamed this decline
   on an invasion by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, although
   there is scant archaeological evidence for this view.

Greek Dark Ages

   The Greek Dark Ages (ca. 1200 BC– 800 BC) 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.

   The collapse of the Mycenaean coincided with the fall of several other
   large empires in the near east, most notably the Hittite and the
   Egyptian. The cause may be attributed to an invasion of the sea people
   wielding iron weapons. When the Dorians came down into Greece they also
   were equipped with superior iron weapons, easily dispersing the already
   weakened Mycenaeans. The period that follows these events is
   collectively known as the Greek Dark Ages.

   Archaeology shows a collapse of civilization in the Greek world in this
   period. The great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed
   or abandoned. The Greek language ceased to be written. Greek dark age
   pottery has simple geometric designs and lacks the figurative
   decoration of Mycenaean ware. The Greeks of the dark age lived in fewer
   and smaller settlements, suggesting famine and depopulation, and
   foreign goods have not been found at archaeological sites, suggesting
   minimum international trade. Contact was also lost between foreign
   powers during this period, yielding little cultural progress or growth
   of any sort.

   Kings ruled throughout this period until eventually they were replaced
   with an aristocracy, then still later, in some areas, an aristocracy
   within an aristocracy—an elite of the elite. Warfare shifted from a
   focus on cavalry to a great emphasis on infantry. Due to its cheapness
   of production and local availability, iron replaced bronze as the metal
   of choice in the manufacturing of tools and weapons. Slowly equality
   grew among the different sects of people, leading to the dethronement
   of the various Kings and the rise of the family.

   Families began to reconstruct their past in attempts to link their
   bloodlines with heroes from the Trojan War, more specifically Heracles.
   While most of this was legend, some were sorted by poets of the school
   of Hesiod. Most of these poems are lost, though, but some famous
   "storywriters", as they were called, were Hecataeus of Miletus and
   Acusilaus of Argos.

   It is thought that the epics by Homer contain a certain amount of
   tradition preserved orally during the Dark Ages period. The historical
   validity of Homer's writings is vigorously disputed; see the article on
   Troy for a discussion.

   At the end of this period of stagnation, the Greek civilization was
   engulfed in a renaissance that spread the Greek world as far as the
   Black Sea and Spain. Writing was relearned from the Phoenicians,
   eventually spreading north into Italy and the Gauls.

Ancient Greece

   Cape Sounion in Attica, looking out to the Aegean islands.
   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 about 1000 BC. 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. Not everyone
   treats the Ancient and Hellenic periods as distinct, however, and some
   writers treat the Ancient Greek civilization as a continuum running
   until the advent of Christianity in the third century AD.

   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 Renaissance
   in Western Europe and again during various neo-Classical revivals in
   18th and 19th century Europe and The Americas.

   The basic unit of politics in Ancient Greece was the polis, sometimes
   translated as city-state. "Politics" literally means "the things of the
   polis." Each city was independent, at least in theory. Some cities
   might be subordinate to others (a colony traditionally deferred to its
   mother city), some might have had governments wholly dependent upon
   others (the Thirty Tyrants in Athens was imposed by Sparta following
   the Peloponnesian War), but the titularly supreme power in each city
   was located within that city. This meant that when Greece went to war
   (e.g., against the Persian Empire), it took the form of an alliance
   going to war. It also gave ample opportunity for wars within Greece
   between different cities.

   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 Macedon, and his son Alexander the Great. Plato wrote, as
   did Aristotle, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Parmenides, Democritus,
   Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon. Almost all of the mathematical
   knowledge formalized in Euclid's Elements at the beginning of the
   Hellenistic period was developed in this era.

   Two major wars shaped the Ancient Greek world. The Persian Wars
   (500–448 BC) are recounted in Herodotus's Histories. Ionian Greek
   cities revolted from the Persian Empire and were supported by some of
   the mainland cities, eventually led by Athens. (The notable battles of
   this war include Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea.)

   In order to prosecute the war, and subsequently to defend Greece from
   further Persian attack, Athens founded the Delian League in 477 BC.
   Initially, each city in the League would contribute ships and soldiers
   to a common army, but in time Athens allowed (and then compelled) the
   smaller cities to contribute funds so that it could supply their quota
   of ships. Revolution from the League could be punished. Following
   military reversals against the Persians, the treasury was moved from
   Delos to Athens, further strengthening the latter's control over the
   League. The Delian League was eventually referred to pejoratively as
   the Athenian Empire.

   In 458 BC, while the Persian Wars were still ongoing, war broke out
   between the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League, comprising
   Sparta and its allies. After some inconclusive fighting, the two sides
   signed a peace in 447 BC.

   That peace, it was stipulated, was to last thirty years: instead it
   held only until 431 BC, with the onset of the Peloponnesian War. Our
   main sources concerning this war are Thucydides's History of the
   Peloponnesian War and Xenophon's Hellenica.

   The war began over a dispute between Corcyra and Epidamnus; the latter
   was a minor enough city that Thucydides has to tell his reader where it
   is. Corinth intervened on the Epidamnian side. Fearful lest Corinth
   capture the Corcyran navy (second only to the Athenian in size), Athens
   intervened. It prevented Corinth from landing on Corcyra at the Battle
   of Sybota, laid siege to Potidaea, and forbade all commerce with
   Corinth's closely situated ally, Megara (the Megarian decree).

   There was disagreement among the Greeks as to which party violated the
   treaty between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues, as Athens was
   technically defending a new ally. The Corinthians begged Sparta for
   aid. Fearing the growing might of Athens, and witnessing Athens'
   willingness to use it against the Megarians (the embargo would have
   ruined them), Sparta declared the treaty to have been violated and the
   Peloponnesian War began in earnest.

   The first stage of the war (known as the Archidamian War for the
   Spartan king, Archidamus II) lasted until 421 BC with the signing of
   the Peace of Nicias. The Athenian general Pericles recommended that his
   city fight a defensive war, avoiding battle against the superior land
   forces led by Sparta, and importing everything needful by maintaining
   its powerful navy: Athens would simply outlast Sparta, whose citizens
   feared to be out of their city for long lest the helots revolt. This
   strategy required that Athens endure regular sieges, and in 430 BC it
   was visited with an awful plague which killed approximately a quarter
   of its people, including Pericles. With Pericles gone, less
   conservative elements gained power in the city and Athens went on the
   offensive. It captured 300–400 Spartan hoplites at the Battle of Pylos.
   This represented a significant fraction of the Spartan fighting force
   which the latter decided it could not afford to lose. Meanwhile, Athens
   had suffered humiliating defeats at Delium and Amphipolis. The Peace of
   Nicias concluded with Sparta recovering its hostages and Athens
   recovering the city of Amphipolis.

   Those who signed the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC swore to uphold it for
   fifty years. The second stage of the Peloponnesian War began in 415 BC
   when Athens embarked on the Sicilian Expedition to support an ally (
   Segesta) attacked by Syracuse and to conquer Sicily. Initially, Sparta
   was not going to aid its ally, but Alcibiades, the Athenian general who
   had argued for the Sicilian Expedition, defected to the Spartan cause
   upon being accused of grossly impious acts and convinced them that they
   could not allow Athens to subjugate Syracuse. The campaign ended in
   disaster for the Athenians.

   Athens' Ionian possessions rebelled with the support of Sparta, as
   advised by Alcibiades. In 411 BC, an oligarchical revolt in Athens held
   out the chance for peace, but the Athenian navy, which remained
   committed to the democracy, refused to accept the change and continued
   fighting in Athens' name. The navy recalled Alcibiades (who had been
   forced to abandon the Spartan cause after reputedly seducing the wife
   of Agis II, a Spartan king) and made him its head. The oligarchy in
   Athens collapsed and Alcibiades proceeded to reconquer what had been
   lost.

   In 407 BC, Alcibiades was replaced following a minor naval defeat at
   the Battle of Notium. The Spartan general Lysander, having fortified
   his city's naval power, won victory after victory. Following the Battle
   of Arginusae, which Athens won but was prevented by bad weather from
   rescuing some of its sailors, Athens executed or exiled eight of its
   top naval commanders. Lysander followed with a crushing blow at the
   Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC which virtually destroyed the Athenian
   fleet. Athens surrendered one year later, ending the Peloponnesian War.

   The war had left devastation in its wake. Discontent with the Spartan
   hegemony that followed (including the fact that it ceded Ionia and
   Cyprus to the Persian Empire at the conclusion of the Corinthian War
   (395–387 BC); see Treaty of Antalcidas) induced the Thebans to attack.
   Their general, Epaminondas, crushed Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in
   371 BC, inaugurating a period of Theban dominance in Greece. In 346 BC,
   unable to prevail in its ten year war with Phocis, Thebes called upon
   Philip II of Macedon for aid. Macedon quickly conquered the exhausted
   cites of Greece. The basic unit of politics from that point was the
   empire, and the Hellenistic Age had begun.

Hellenistic Greece

   Philip V of Macedon, "the darling of Hellas", wearing the royal diadem.
   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 annexation of the Greek
   peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of
   Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and
   culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent of
   Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence.
   During the Hellenistic period the importance of "Greece proper" (that
   is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world
   declined sharply. The great centres of Hellenistic culture were
   Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria
   respectively. (See Hellenistic civilization for the history of Greek
   culture outside of Greece in this period.)
   The restored Stoa of Attalus, Athens.
   The restored Stoa of Attalus, Athens.

   Athens and her allies revolted against Macedon upon hearing that
   Alexander had died, but was defeated within a year in the Lamian War.
   Meanwhile, a struggle for power broke out among Alexander's generals,
   which resulted in the break-up of his empire and the establishment of a
   number of new kingdoms (see the Wars of the Diadochi). Ptolemy was left
   with Egypt, Seleucus with the Levant, Mesopotamia, and points east.
   Control of Greece, Thrace, and Anatolia was contested, but by 298 BC
   the Antigonid dynasty had supplanted the Antipatrid.

   Macedonian control of the Greek city-states was intermittent, with a
   number of revolts. Athens, Rhodes, Pergamum and other Greek states
   retained substantial independence, and joined the Aetolian League as a
   means of defending it. The Achaean League, while nominally subject to
   the Ptolemies was in effect independent, and controlled most of
   southern Greece. Sparta also remained independent, but generally
   refused to join any league.

   In 267 BC Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against
   Macedon, in what became the Chremonidean War, after the Athenian leader
   Chremonides. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence
   and her democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a
   political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest and most
   cultivated city in Greece. In 225 Macedon defeated the Egyptian fleet
   at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, under its rule as
   well.

   Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC invaded Achaea
   and seized control of the League. The remaining Acheans preferred
   distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied with the former. In 222 BC
   the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans and annexed their city—the
   first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a foreign power.

   Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler with both the talent and
   the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against
   the ever-increasing power of Rome. Under his auspices the Peace of
   Naupactus ( 217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek
   leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except
   Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum.

   In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy
   Carthage. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their
   nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and
   Pergamum, now the strongest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian
   War broke out in 212, and ended inconclusively in 205, but Macedon was
   now marked as an enemy of Rome.

   In 202 BC Rome defeated Carthage, and was free to turn her attention
   eastwards. In 198 the Second Macedonian War broke out for obscure
   reasons, but basically because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of
   the Seleucids, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in
   Greece deserted him and in 197 he was decisively defeated at the Battle
   of Cynoscephalae by the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flaminius.

   Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a moderate man and an admirer of
   Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman
   ally, but was otherwise spared. At the Isthmian Games in 196, Flaminius
   declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were
   placed at Corinth and Chalcis. But the freedom promised by Rome was an
   illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League
   which Rome ultimately controlled, and aristocratic constitutions were
   favoured and actively promoted.

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
   Roman Lucius 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. The Romans divided the region into four
   smaller republics, and in 146 BC Macedonia officially became a Roman
   province, with its capital at Thessalonica. The rest of the Greek
   city-states gradually and eventually paid homage to Rome ending their
   de jure autonomy as well. The Romans left local administration to the
   Greeks without making any attempt to abolish traditional political
   patterns. The agora in Athens continued to be the centre of civic and
   political life.

   Caracalla's decree in 212 AD, the Constitutio Antoniniana, extended
   citizenship outside of Italy to all free adult males in the entire
   Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal
   status with the city of Rome itself. The importance of this decree is
   historical rather than political. It set the basis for integration
   where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be
   applied throughout the entire Mediterranean as was once done from
   Latium into all of Italy. In practice of course, integration did not
   take place uniformly. Societies already integrated with Rome, such as
   Greece, were favored by this decree, in comparison with those far away,
   too poor or just too alien such as Britain, Palestine or Egypt.

   Caracalla's decree did not set in motion the processes that lead to the
   transfer of power from Italy and the West to Greece and the East, but
   rather accelerated them, setting the foundations for the rise of Greece
   as a major power in Europe and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages.

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 Western Roman 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 Constantine the Great
   turned Byzantium into the new capital of the Roman Empire, henceforth
   to be known as Constantinople, placing the city at the centre of
   Hellenism a beacon for the Greeks that lasted to the modern era.

   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. Efforts to secure the borders of the Empire and
   to restore the Roman territories marked the early centuries. At the
   same time, the definitive formation and establishment of the Orthodox
   doctrine, but also a series of conflicts resulting from heresies that
   developed within the boundaries of the empire marked the early period
   of Byzantine history.

   In the first period of the middle Byzantine era (610–867) the empire
   was attacked both by old enemies ( Persians, Langobards, Avars and
   Slavs) as well as by new ones, appearing for the first time in history
   ( Arabs, Bulgarians). The main characteristic of this period was that
   the enemy attacks were not localized to the border areas of the state
   but they were extended deep beyond, even threatening the capital
   itself. At the same time, these attacks lost their periodical and
   temporary character and became permanent settlements that transformed
   into new states, hostile to Byzantium. Those states were referred by
   the Byzantines as Sclavinias. Changes were also observed in the
   internal structure of the empire which was dictated by both external
   and internal conditions. The predominance of the small free farmers,
   the expansion of the military estates and the development of the system
   of themes, brought to completion developments that had started in the
   previous period. Changes were noted also in the sector of
   administration: the administration and society had become immiscibly
   Greek, while the restoration of Orthodoxy after the iconoclast
   movement, allowed the successful resumption of missionary action among
   neighbouring peoples and their placement within the sphere of Byzantine
   cultural influence. During this period the state was geographically
   reduced and economically damaged, since it lost wealth-producing
   regions; however, it obtained greater lingual, dogmatic and cultural
   homogeneity.

   From the late 8th century, the Empire began to recover from the
   devastating impact of successive invasions, and the reconquest of
   Greece began. Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor were brought in as
   settlers. The Slavs were either driven out or assimilated and the
   Sclavinias were eliminated. By the middle of the 9th century, Greece
   was Greek again, and the cities began to recover due to improved
   security and the restoration of effective central control.

Economic prosperity

   When the Byzantine Empire was rescued from a period of crisis by the
   resolute leadership of the three Komnenoi emperors Alexios, John and
   Manuel in the twelfth century, Greece prospered. Recent research has
   revealed that this period was a time of significant growth in the rural
   economy, with rising population levels and extensive tracts of new
   agricultural land being brought into production. The widespread
   construction of new rural churches is a strong indication that
   prosperity was being generated even in remote areas. A steady increase
   in population led to a higher population density, and there is good
   evidence that the demographic increase was accompanied by the revival
   of towns. According to Alan Harvey in his book ‘’Economic expansion in
   the Byzantine Empire 900-1200’’, towns expanded significantly in the
   twelfth century. Archaeological evidence shows an increase in the size
   of urban settlements, together with a ‘notable upsurge’ in new towns.
   Archaeological evidence tells us that many of the medieval towns,
   including Athens, Thessaloniki, Thebes and Corinth, experienced a
   period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the eleventh century
   and continuing until the end of the twelfth century. The growth of the
   towns attracted the Venetians, and this interest in trade appears to
   have further increased economic prosperity in Greece. Certainly, the
   Venetians and others were active traders in the ports of the Holy Land,
   and they made a living out of shipping goods between the Crusader
   Kingdoms of Outremer and the West while also trading extensively with
   Byzantium and Egypt.

Artistic revival

   The 11th and 12th centuries are said to be the Golden Age of Byzantine
   art in Greece. Many of the most important Byzantine churches in around
   Athens, for example, were built during these two centuries, and this
   reflects the growth of urbanisation in Greece during this period. There
   was also a revival in the mosaic art with artists showing great
   interest in depicting natural landscapes with wild animals and scenes
   from the hunt. Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an
   increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. With its love
   of luxury and passion for colour, the art of this age delighted in the
   production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout
   the whole of the Christian world.
   Byzantine Church in the Agora, Athens
   Byzantine Church in the Agora, Athens

   Beautiful silks from the work-shops of Constantinople also portrayed in
   dazzling colour animals -lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins-
   confronting each other, or representing Emperors gorgeously arrayed on
   horseback or engaged in the chase. In the provinces, regional schools
   of Architecture began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a
   range of cultural influences. All this suggests that there was an
   increased demand for art, with more people having access to the
   necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work.

   Yet the marvellous expansion of Byzantine art during this period, one
   of the most remarkable facts in the history of the empire, did not stop
   there. From the tenth to the twelfth century Byzantium was the main
   source of inspiration for the West. By their style, arrangement, and
   iconography the mosaics of St. Mark's at Venice and of the cathedral at
   Torcello clearly reveal their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the
   Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalu,
   together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale,
   demonstrate the influence of Byzantium οn the Norman Court of Sicily in
   the twelfth century. Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived
   from the Byzantine. Romanesque art owes much to the East, from which it
   borrowed not only its decorative forms but the plan of some of its
   buildings, as is proved, for instance, by the domed churches of
   south-western France. Princes of Kiev, Venetian doges, abbots of Monte
   Cassino, merchants of Amalfi, and the Norman kings of Sicily all looked
   to Byzantium for artists or works of art. Such was the influence of
   Byzantine art in the twelfth century, that Russia, Venice, southern
   Italy and Sicily all virtually became provincial centres dedicated to
   its production.

The Fourth Crusade

   The year 1204 marks the beginning of the late Byzantine period, when
   probably the most important event for the Empire occurred.
   Constantinople was lost for the Greek people for the first time, and
   the empire was conquered by Latin crusaders and would be replaced by a
   new Latin one, for 57 years. In addition, the period of Latin
   occupation decisively influenced the empire's internal development, as
   elements of feudality entered aspects of Byzantine life. In 1261 the
   Greek empire was divided between the former Greek Byzantine Comnenos
   dynasty members (Epirus) and Palaiologos dynasty (the last dynasty
   until the fall of Constantinople). After the gradual weakening of the
   structures of the Greek Byzantine state and the reduction of its land
   from Turkish invasions, came the fall of the Greek Byzantine Empire, at
   the hands of the Ottomans, in 1453, when the Byzantine period is
   considered to have ended.

   It must be pointed out that the term "Byzantine" is a contemporary one
   established by historians. People used to call the Empire from the 10th
   century on as the Greek Empire as well as Romeo-Greek before that time;
   that's why Greeks call themselves sometimes as Romioi in a colloquial
   form. The Romeo term was used sometimes because of the legal tradition
   left in many aspects of the political administration of the Empire. It
   must also be added that many empires all around Europe had been using
   this term, in addition to the Greek Byzantines, like the Carolingians,
   or the Heiliges Römisches Reich (Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium) of the
   Germans looking themselves as the legitimate heirs of the Roman 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.
   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 16th century up
   until the 17th century, many Greeks began to migrate from the mountains
   to the plains. The millet 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 years of Ottoman
   rule. The Greeks living in the plains during Ottoman occupation were
   either Christians who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule or
   Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the
   Greek Orthodox faith). Many Greeks became Crypto-Christians in order to
   avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by
   maintaining their secret ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. However,
   Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians were
   deemed Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks, even if they didn't adopt
   Turkish language. On the other hand, this population has played an
   immense role for the creation of modern Greek culture, as Turkish
   traditions and customs were learned during the entire occupation
   period. The most obvious traces of Ottoman influence on Greek culture
   today are reflected in Greek music and in the Greek kitchen.

The modern Greek state

   The expansion of Greece from 1832 to 1947, showing territories awarded
   to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres but lost in 1923 under the Treaty of
   Lausanne (click to enlarge)
   The expansion of Greece from 1832 to 1947, showing territories awarded
   to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres but lost in 1923 under the Treaty of
   Lausanne (click to enlarge)

   The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. On March 25,
   1821 (also the same day as the Greek Orthodox day of the Annunciation
   of the Theotokos), the Greeks rebelled and declared their independence,
   but did not achieve it until 1829. The big European powers saw the war
   of Greek independence, with its accounts of Turkish atrocities, in a
   romantic light (see, for example, the 1824 painting Massacre of Chios
   by Eugène Delacroix). Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the
   cause, including Lord Byron. At times the Ottomans seemed on the point
   of suppressing the Greek revolution but for the threatened direct
   military intervention of France, England or Russia. The Russian
   minister for foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek,
   returned home as President of the new Republic following Greek
   independence. That republic disappeared when the European powers helped
   turn Greece into a monarchy; the first king, Otto came from Bavaria and
   the second, George I from Denmark.

   During the 19th and early 20th centuries, in a series of wars with the
   Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic
   Greek population of the Ottoman Empire. (The Ionian Islands were
   returned by England upon the arrival of the new king from Denmark in
   1863, and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans without a fight). As a
   result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 Epirus, southern Macedonia, Crete
   and the Aegean Islands were annexed into Greece. Greece reached its
   present configuration in 1947.

World War I and the Greco-Turkish War

   In World War I, Greece sided with the entente powers against Turkey 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 İzmir today) which had a majority Greek population . At that
   time, however, the Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
   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 (see Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922).

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 (see
   Greco-Italian War). 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.

   During the years of Occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany, thousands of
   Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps or of starvation.
   The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite
   efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many Christian Greeks to
   shelter Jews. The economy was devastated. After liberation, Greece
   experienced an equally bitter civil war—between communist insurgents
   and government forces (that encompassed republicans, liberals,
   royalists and conservatives) ; it lasted until 1949.

Postwar recovery

   In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece developed rapidly, initially with the
   help of the U.S. Marshall Plans' grants and loans, and later through
   growth in the tourism sector. In 1967, the Greek military seized power
   in a coup d'état, 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
   Intelligence Agency was involved in the coup and President Clinton
   later apologised for the interference. In 1973, the régime abolished
   the Greek monarchy. In 1974, dictator Papadopoulos denied help to the
   U.S. and rumor has it that as a result the U.S., through Kissinger'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 (see Greco-Turkish relations). The
   Cyprus events and the outcry following a bloody suppression of Athens
   Polytechnic uprising in Athens led to the implosion of the military
   régime. A charismatic exiled politician, Konstantinos Karamanlis,
   returned from Paris as interim prime minister and later gained
   re-election for two further terms at the head of the conservative Nea
   Dimokratia party.

Restoration of democracy

   In 1975, 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 socialist PASOK party, which won the elections in 1981
   and dominated the country's political course for almost two decades.

   Since the restoration of democracy, the stability and economic
   prosperity of Greece have remarkably grown. Greece joined the European
   Union in 1981 and adopted the Euro as its currency in 2001. New
   infrastructure, funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism,
   shipping, services, light industry and the telecommunications industry
   have brought Greeks an unprecedented standard of living. Tensions
   continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the
   delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea but relations have
   considerably thawed following successive earthquakes—first in Turkey
   and then in Greece—and an outpouring of sympathy and generous
   assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks.

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