ALL THE HISTORY OF GREECE

I want with a simple pleasure to go back in time to show a story that we can really understand how it all started in ancient Greece with its olympic games, culture, art and religion to simplify and have an idea about a beautiful place of beautiful historic buildings and that reigned many gods and that history can tell us how long we have to understand their value more than attachment to our natures and that culture begins in art moving to a more divine field in which man follows certain commandments of great gods until the nowadays when we can decipher a good narration of old writings by certain men who were in the history of humanity until the present day and we will have to go back in time and see how it all started and know how to understand the true cause of living and conquering life and let's talk a little about their culture and have a good lesson.

Culture in Greece:

The Parthenon is an enduring symbol of ancient Greece and Athenian democracy

The culture of Greece evolved over thousands of years, starting in Mycenaean Greece and continuing mainly in classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Eastern Greek continuation, the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire). Other cultures and nations such as the Latin and Frankish states, the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Genoese Republic, and the British Empire also left their influence on modern Greek culture, although historians attribute the Greek War of Independence to the revitalization of an entity. unique and cohesive of its multifaceted culture.

In ancient times, Greece was the cradle of Western culture. Modern democracies owe a debt to Greek beliefs in government by the people, trial by jury, and equality before the law. The ancient Greeks pioneered many fields that rely on systematic thinking, including biology, geometry, history, philosophy, physics, and mathematics. They introduced important literary forms such as epic and lyrical poetry, history, tragedy, and comedy. In the search for order and proportion, the Greeks created an ideal of beauty that strongly influenced Western art.

art and architecture

Laocoon and His Sons, Hellenistic Period

Artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric Cycladic and Minoan civilizations, both influenced by local traditions and the art of Ancient Egypt. Ancient Greek sculpture was composed almost entirely of marble or bronze; with cast bronze becoming the preferred medium for major works in the early 5th century. Marble and bronze are easy to form and very durable. Chryselephantine sculptures , used for temple cult images and luxury works, used gold, most often in leaf and ivory form for all or parts (faces and hands) of the figure, and probably gems and other materials, but were much less common and only fragments survive. By the early 19th century, systematic excavation of ancient Greek archaeological sites had produced a multitude of sculptures with traces of remarkably multicolored surfaces. It was not until published findings by the German archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann , at the end of the 20th century, that the painting of ancient Greek sculptures had become an established fact.

The art and architecture of Greek societies exists from the early Iron Age (11th century BC ) to the end of the 1st century BC Before that (Bronze Age), Greek art from the mainland and islands (with the exception of Crete, where there was a different tradition called Minoan art) is known as Mycenaean art, and later Greek art, called Hellenistic art, is considered an integral part of the culture of the Roman Empire (Roman art). The Greeks, initially a group of relatively autonomous tribes that had common cultural factors, such as language and religion, settled in the Peloponnese at the beginning of the first millennium BC, giving rise to one of the most influential cultures of antiquity. After the Orientalizing phase (between the 11th century BC and 650 BC), whose artistic manifestations were inspired by Mesopotamian culture, Greek art experienced a first moment of maturity during the archaic period, which lasted until 475 BC. economic development and the increase in international relations, the aesthetic and formal foundations that would characterize later Greek artistic productions were defined at this time.

After Greek independence, modern Greek architects tried to combine traditional Greek and Byzantine elements and motifs with Western European movements and styles. Patras was the first city in the modern Greek state to develop a city plan. In January 1829, Stamatis Voulgaris , Greek engineer in the French army, presented the plan for the new city to Governor Ioánnis Kapodistrias , who approved it. Voulgaris applied the orthogonal rule in the urban complex of Patras .

theater

The ancient theater of Epidaurus is still used today for shows of Greek dramas.

Theater in its western form was born in Greece. The city-state of Classical Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and military power during this period, was its center, where it was institutionalized as part of a festival called Dionysia, which honored the god Dionysus. Tragedy (late 6th century BC ), comedy (486 BC) and satire were the three dramatic genres that emerged there. During the Byzantine period, theatrical art was heavily oppressed. According to Marios Ploritis , the only surviving form was folk theater (Mimos and Pantomimos ), despite official state hostility.

Later, during the Ottoman period, the main theatrical folk art were the Karagiozis . The renaissance that led to modern Greek theater took place in Venetian Crete. Significant playwrights include Vitsentzos Kornaros and Georgios Chortatsis . Modern Greek theater was born after independence from Greece in the early 19th century and was initially influenced by Heptanean theater and melodrama such as Italian opera. The Nobile Theater of San Giacomo say Corfù was the first theater and opera house in modern Greece and the site where the first Greek opera, the Parliamentary Candidate of Spyridon , was performed. Xyndas (based on a uniquely Greek libretto). During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Athenian theater scene was dominated by revues, musical comedies, operettas and nocturnes, and notable playwrights, including Spyridon . Samaras and others. The National Theater of Greece opened in 1900 as the Royal Theater.

Literature

bust of homer

Greek literature can be divided into three main categories: ancient, Byzantine, and modern Greek literature. Athens is considered the birthplace of Western literature. At the beginning of Greek literature are Homer's two monumental works: the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although dates of composition vary, these works were created around 800 BC or later. In the classical period, many of the genres of Western literature became more prominent. Lyrical poetry, odes, pastorals, elegies, epigrams; dramatic comedy and tragedy performances; historiography, rhetorical treatises, philosophical dialectics, and philosophical treatises emerged in this period. The two main lyrical poets were Sappho and Pindar. The classical era also saw the beginnings of the drama genre. Of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical era, only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: those by Aeschylus , Sophocles, and Euripides. Aristophanes' surviving plays are also a treasure trove of comic presentation, while Herodotus and Thucydides are two of the most influential historians of this period. The greatest achievement in prose of the fourth century was in philosophy, with the works of the three great philosophers.

Byzantine literature refers to the literature of the Byzantine Empire, written in Attic, Medieval and Modern Greek, and is the expression of the intellectual life of the Byzantine Greeks during the Christian Middle Ages. Although popular Byzantine literature and modern Greek literature began in the 11th century, the two are indistinguishable.

Konstantinos Kavafis , whose work was primarily inspired by the Hellenistic past, while Odysseas Elytis (center) and Giórgos Seféris (right) were representatives of the 1930s generation and winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in common Modern Greek, emerging from late Byzantine times in the 11th century. The Cretan Renaissance poem, Erotokritos , is undoubtedly the masterpiece of this period of Greek literature. It is a verse novel written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553-1613). Later, during the period of Greek Enlightenment ( Diaphotism ), writers such as Adamantios Korais and Rigas Feraios prepared with his works the Greek Revolution (1821-1830).

Major figures in modern Greek literature include Dionysios Solomos , Andreas Kalvos , Angelos Sikelians , Emmanuel Rhoides , Demetrius Vikelas , Kostis Palamas , Penelope Delta, Yiannis Ritsos , Alexandros Papadiamantis , Nikos Kavvadías , Andreas Embirikos , Kostas Karyotakis , Gregorios Xenopoulos , Konstantinos Kavafis , Kostas Kariotakis and Kiki Dimoula . Two Greek authors received the Nobel Prize for Literature: Giórgos Seféris in 1963 and Odysseas Elytis in 1979.

Philosophy

Most Western philosophical traditions began in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC . The first philosophers are called "Pre-Socratics", meaning that they came before Socrates, whose contributions mark a turning point in Western thought. The Presocratics were from the western or eastern colonies of Greece and only fragments of their original writings survive, in some cases just a sentence. A new period of philosophy began with Socrates. Like the Sophists, he entirely rejected the physical speculations in which his predecessors had indulged and made the thoughts and opinions of people his starting point. Aspects of Socrates were first united by Plato, who also combined them with many of the principles laid down by earlier philosophers, and developed all this material into the unity of an overarching system. Aristotle, Plato's most important disciple, shared with his teacher the title of the greatest philosopher of antiquity. Plato's student preferred to start from the facts given by experience. Except for these three most important Greek philosophers, other known schools of Greek philosophy from other founders during ancient times were Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism, and Neoplatonism.

Byzantine philosophy refers to the distinctive philosophical ideas of the philosophers and scholars of the Byzantine Empire, especially between the 8th and 15th centuries. It was characterized by a Christian worldview, but one that could draw ideas directly from the Greek texts of Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonists . On the eve of the fall of Constantinople, Gemistus Pletho attempted to restore the use of the term "Hellenic" and advocated a return to the Olympian gods of the ancient world. After 1453, several Greek Byzantine scholars who fled to Western Europe contributed to the Renaissance. In the modern period, Diaphotismos (Greek: Δι αφωτισμός, "illumination", "illumination") was the Greek expression of the Age of Enlightenment and its philosophical and political ideas. Some notable representatives were Adamantios Korais , Rigas Feraios and Theophilos Kairis . Other modern-day Greek philosophers or political scientists include Cornelius Castoriadis , Nicos Poulantzas and Christos Yannaras .

cooking

Feta cheese with olives, typical mezes of Greek cuisine

Greek cuisine is characteristic of the healthy Mediterranean diet, which is epitomized by Cretan dishes. Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into a variety of local dishes such as moussaka , pastitsio , Greek salad, fasolada , spanakopita and souvlaki . Some dishes can be found in ancient Greece, such as skordalia (a thick puree of walnuts, almonds, garlic and olive oil), lentil soup, retsina (white or rose wine sealed with pine resin) and pasteli (roasted chocolate bar with sesame seeds). ) with honey) . All over Greece, people often enjoy eating small plates like meze , with various sauces such as tzatziki , grilled octopus and small fish, feta cheese , dolmades (rice, raisins and pine kernels wrapped in vine leaves), various types of pulses, olives and cheeses. Olive oil is added to almost every dish.

Some sweet desserts include melomakarona , diples , and galaktoboureko , and drinks such as ouzo , metaxa , and a variety of wines, including retsina . Greek cuisine differs widely from different parts of the mainland and from island to island. He uses some flavorings more often than other Mediterranean cuisines: oregano leaves, mint, garlic, onion, dill and bay leaf. Other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme, and fennel seeds. Many Greek recipes, especially in the northern parts of the country, use "sweet" spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon and cloves in stews.

sports

The Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics at the Olympic Stadium in Athens

Greece is the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games of antiquity, first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, and has hosted the modern Olympic Games twice, the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics and the 2004 Summer Olympics. parade of nations, Greece is always called first, as the founding nation of the modern Olympics. The nation has competed at every Summer Olympic Games, one of only four countries to do so. Having won a total of 110 medals (30 gold, 42 silver and 38 bronze), Greece is ranked 32nd for gold medals in the all-time Olympic medal count. The all-time best performance was at the 1896 Summer Olympics, when Greece finished second in the medal table with 10 gold medals.

The Greek national football team, ranked 12th in the world in 2014 (and having reached 8th in the world in 2008 and 2011), were crowned European champions at Euro 2004 . The Greek Super League is the highest professional football league in the country, consisting of sixteen teams. The most successful are Olympiacos , Panathinaikos and AEK Athens . The Greek national basketball team has a decades-long tradition of excellence in the sport, being considered one of the main basketball powers in the world; in 2012, it ranked 4th in the world and 2nd in Europe. They won the European Championship twice in 1987 and 2005.

Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games were a religious and athletic festival in Ancient Greece, held every four years at the sanctuary of Olympia, in honor of Zeus. The traditional date attributed to the first edition of the Olympic Games is 776 BC .

The Olympic Games were the most important Pan-Hellenic Games, having been banned by the Christian Emperor Theodosius I in 393, as a manifestation of pagan rituals. An important source on the games is Pausanias (2nd century AD ), author of the book Description of Greece, a guide to Greece based on his travels through the territory. Another important source is a treatise on gymnastics by Philostratus of Lemnos (2nd-3rd century AD ).

sculpture and ceramics represented not only athletes but the sport itself. As for sculpture, which had bronze and marble as its favorite materials, many works survive only as copies from the Roman era. Of some statues, only the base remained, where inscriptions relating to the athlete, providing information, are engraved. Finally, the coins minted in certain polis depict a particular sport in which the city excelled.

Origins

Artist's rendering of ancient Olympia

According to scholars of Elis antiquity , from the time of Pausanias , the temple of Olympia was made by the men of the region at the time when Kronos was the king of the Titans, the so-called Golden Age. When Rhea left Zeus in the care of Ida's dactyls, or curettes, Heracles of Ida, the eldest, defeated his brothers in a race, and was crowned with an olive branch. From then on, the games were celebrated every fifth year, as there were five brothers (Heracles, Peoneus , Epimedes , Iáusius and Idas).

According to some versions, Zeus defeated Kronos at Olympia, but other versions say that he held games there to celebrate his victory. The champion of victories among the gods was Apollo, who beat Hermes in running and Ares in boxing; for this reason, the flute is played when the pentathlon competitors are in the jumping event, as the flute is sacred to Apollo.

Fifty years after the Deucalion flood , Clymenus , son of Cardis , a descendant of Heracles of Ida, came from Crete to Olympia and founded an altar for his ancestor Heracles and the other curettes . Clymenus was deposed by Endymion , son of Aetlius , who left the kingdom to his son who won a race.

The next to hold games at Olympia were Pelops , Amitham , son of Cretheus , brothers Neleus and Pelias , Augias , and Heracles, son of Amphitryon. Oxylus was the last of this era to celebrate the games, which were not celebrated again until his descendant Ifito de Élida.

Decline

The golden period of the ancient Olympic Games corresponded to the 5th century BC . The disturbances that the Peloponnesian War generated in Greece would inevitably have consequences for the games: Élides , who until then had maintained a politically neutral attitude, allied with Athens during this conflict and banned the Spartans from the event. In 424 BC , under the threat of Sparta's invasion, the games had to be held under the protection of troops. Although Sparta never invaded the sanctuary, this episode reveals that the concept of the "sacred truce" had been forgotten. In 365 BC Arcadia, aided by Pisa (enemy of Élide ), conquered the sanctuary; the two cities organized the games of 364 BC. Élide tried to reclaim the sanctuary by force; the conflict generated would lead to the looting of the temples of Altis . Elide would eventually regain control of the sanctuary because of fear of the wrath of the gods, and the Olympics of 364 BC were considered invalid.

In 336 BC , after the Greek cities had been conquered by Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great, a building was built on Altis the Philippion , a building where statues of Alexander and his family were made of gold and ivory, materials that hitherto had been reserved for the statues of the gods.

In 146 BC Greece was conquered by the Romans. To finance his war against Mithridates VI of Pontus, the Roman general Sulla sacked the Altis (as well as the sanctuaries of Delphi and Epidaurus ). In 80 BC , as a way of celebrating the success of his war, Sulla moved the Games to Rome, but after his death in 78 BC the Games returned to Olympia. During a brief period of the Roman era the games regained their vitality.

Characteristics

Place

The Olympic Games took place in the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia which was made of crystallized marble located in the western region of the Peloponnese, about 15 kilometers from the Ionian Sea, near the confluence of the rivers Alpheus and Cladeos . This sanctuary takes its name from Mount Olympus (which is located far from the site, in Thessaly , northern Greece), the highest point in mainland Greece and which in Greek mythology was the residence of the deities.

The core of Olympia was the Altis , a sacred grove. In the center of the forest there was a Doric-style temple dedicated to Zeus, which was built between 468 and 456 BC , inside which was a colossal statue of the god by Phidias and considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Participants

athletes

Foreigners (the "barbarians" according to Greek mythology), slaves and women could not participate in the games - it is suggested that only the priestess of Demeter could be present at the altar in honor of the goddess. Women who violated the rule would be thrown from the top of Mount Tipeon . There was an all-female competition, the Heraea , named in honor of Hera, wife of Zeus. The case is told of a woman, Calipatira , who, in 404 BC , dressed in men's clothing, disguised herself as a trainer to enter the gymnasium and watch her son, Psidorus of Thurium , fight. The son won the race and the mother, celebrating the victory, dropped her disguise, revealing that she was a woman. She was acquitted for coming from a family of Olympic champions, but from then on, coaches also began to perform naked in competitions. There were women considered champions, however, in horse events, where the owner of the horse was declared the winner, not the drivers. The athletes were, in general, from the most privileged classes and had been initiated in the sport from an early age. They came not only from mainland Greece, but from all parts of the Greek world, which in antiquity included the colonies scattered along the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The winners were honored by their city: they could receive free food, have statues erected in their honor and be sung by the poets.

Organization

The organization of the games was the responsibility of the Élide polis . in 668 BC Phidon of Argos conquered Olympia and handed over control of the sanctuary to the city of Pisa, which organized the games until 558 BC, the year in which Élides regained control over Olympia thanks to the intervention of Sparta.

In the year in which the games were to be held, Élide sent heralds throughout Greece who announced the specific date on which the games would take place and who invited athletes and spectators to participate. The heralds also announced the sacred truce, which prohibited war during the period of the games and which aimed to protect spectators and athletes during their arrival, stay and return.

The Olympic Games were supervised by judges, the helanocides ("judges of the Hellenes"). These judges came from the bosom of the nobility of Élide , being chosen by lot ten months before the beginning of the festival; the number of judges varied over time. The judges were responsible for sending the heralds. They should also ensure the good condition of the sanctuary buildings and ensure policing and security. They also intervened in the competitions, raffling off the athletes, refereeing the competitions and proclaiming the winners, whom they crowned. The judges took an oath by which they committed themselves to impartially judging the competitors and to maintain confidentiality on aspects related to an athlete. They also ordered the execution of punishments to athletes and coaches who had not complied with the rules; these could be punished with scourging in a public place, something which among the Greeks was generally reserved for slaves. In the case of bribery, high fines were foreseen, the money of which reverted to pay for bronze statues of Zeus, exposed in the sanctuary. Athletes and coaches arrived in Élide a month in advance to train under the supervision of the judges. It is believed that during this period athletes who were not considered fit or who did not meet the participation criteria were excluded.

competitions

gun race

pedestrian races

Walking races included four types of races: the stadium, the diaulo (or double stadium), the dolic and the hoplitodromo (or arms race). The stadium was the oldest and most prestigious event, as its winner would give its name to the games. It consisted of a race of 192 meters, the length of the stadium; diaulo corresponded to a run of 384 meters. As for the dolic , it was a race that varied between 7 and 24 furlongs. The race with arms varied between the 2 and the 4 stages and in it the athletes took the helmet and the shield of the hoplites , which could be painful given the weight that this armament represented. To prevent fraud, the shields used by the athletes were kept in the Temple of Zeus, in order to prevent someone from running with a shield that was lighter.

equestrian racing

This type of event included chariot or saddle horse races. In the former, two horses ( chariots ) or four horses ( quadrigas ) could be used. Chariots would have been first introduced to the Olympic Games in 680 BC and saddle horse racing in 648 BC. A car race consisted of twelve laps of the hippodrome, each lap being between 823 and 914 meters; the horse race was a lap of the hippodrome.

It was not the men who had won the races who received the crowns, but the owners of the horses, as these entailed costs that only the richest could bear. Thus, some wealthy women and politicians became winners of these races, without ever having participated in them.

Fighting, boxing and pancrazio

Vase representing fight scene

The fight was born in the Near East, having been adapted by the Greeks perhaps in Mycenaean times. His patron god was Hermes.

In Greek wrestling, it was necessary to provoke the opponent's fall three times to become the winner. A fall was considered to have occurred when the opponent's back, shoulders or chest had touched the ground. Before starting the fight, the competitors oiled their bodies with oil and poured some dirt to prevent the skin from becoming slippery. The test did not have a time limit. It was allowed to break the opponent's fingers, but it was not allowed to make attacks in the genital region or resort to biting. There were tests reserved for adult men and boys.

The practice of boxing in Ancient Greece dates back to the 8th century BC . You could only attack with your fists and competitors wrapped their fingers with leather straps. There were no robberies or categories based on the athletes' weight. The game ended when one of the athletes became unconscious or put a finger in the air as a sign of giving up.

The pankrácio was a combination of wrestling and boxing, and its result was an extremely violent event, whose competitors could even die. Everything was allowed, with the exception of poking fingers in the eyes, attacking the genital area, scratching or biting. The victory occurred when one of the athletes was no longer able to continue fighting, raising a finger for the referee to notice.

For each of these sports, there were events reserved for adult men and boys.

Pentathlon

An athlete performs the long jump with two dumbbells.

The ancient Greek pentathlon was different from the modern pentathlon, being composed of the discus throw, javelin throw, long jump, stadium run (similar to 200 m) and wrestling.

The discus thrown by the athletes weighed about 9.5 kilos and could be made of stone, iron or bronze. The winner was the one who managed to throw the disc as far as possible and the winner was also considered a hero. As for the javelin, it had the height of a man and was made of wood. In the long jump, four dumbbells were used that propelled the athlete on the way up and which were then thrown when the athlete descended.

If an athlete had won the first three pentathlon events, the last two would not be held.

THE HISTORY OF GREECE

The History of Greece comprises the study of the Greeks, the areas they ruled and the territory of present-day Greece.

The scope of housing and government of the Greek people has undergone several changes over the years and, as a consequence, the history of Greece reflects this elasticity. Each period had its own interests.

The first Greeks arrived in Europe shortly before 1500 BC , and during its heyday, Greek civilization had ruled everything that included Greece, Egypt, and the Hindu Kush . The Greeks established traditions of justice and individual freedom, which would come to establish themselves as the foundations of contemporary democracy. His art, philosophy and science became the foundations of Western thought and culture. The ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes (all who spoke Greek, even if they did not live in Greece), and named their land Hellas . Those who did not speak Greek were called barbarians. During antiquity, they never managed to form a national government, although they were united by the same culture, religion and language.

From the remote Greek past to the present world, a large part of Greek minorities remained in their former Greek territories (Turkey, Italy, Libya, Levant), and Greek emigrants assimilated into different societies across the globe (North America, Australia , Northern Europe, South Africa and others). Today, however, most Greeks live in the states of contemporary Greece (independent since 1821) and Cyprus (independent since 1960).

Aegean Civilization: Prehistoric Greece

The first civilization to appear in Greece was the Minoan (or Minoan , or Minia ) Civilization in the Aegean Sea. This culture took place between approximately 2600 BC and 1450 BC Compared to more recent periods of Greek history, little is known about the Minoans , for whom even the name is a modern term, coming from Minos , the legendary king of Crete. Apparently, the Minoans were a pre -Indo-European people. Their language, known as Eteocretian and unrelated to the Greek language, is probably what is seen in the writing system called Linear A, found on the island, but which has not yet been deciphered.

The Minoans were a mainly merchant people, engaged in maritime trade, that is, they were of thalassocratic culture . Features of Minoan religious life primarily include symbolism, the absence of temples, and the prominence of female deities.

Although the causes of the fall of this people are uncertain, it is known that they ended up being invaded by the Mycenaeans, a people of mainland Greece.

Mycenaean Period (Bronze Age)

The Restored Stoe of Attalus , Athens

Mycenaean Greece, also known as "Bronze Age Greece", is the name given to the Bronze Age civilization of the Ancient Helladic period (the latter generally established as the range 2500–1900 BC ). The Greek culture of this period 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 to this period that Homer's epic work refers, as well as much of Greek mythology. The Mycenaean period took its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae , a city located in the northeast of Argolis, a region of the Peloponnese (an enormous peninsula in southern Greece). Athens, Pylos, Thebes and Tiryns are also important archaeological sites from the Greek Mycenaean period.

The Mycenaean Civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, the center of the Minoan Civilization (cf. previous item, Civilization of the Aegean), and adopted a form of Minoan writing so that they could record their primitive variant of the Greek language. The new spelling system (Minoan symbols representing the new Greek language), the Mycenaean writing system, was conventionally called Linear B.

The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in fools (Greek: θόλοι ; singular thólos ; literally "dome" or "dome-shaped"), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted ceiling and a rectangular-shaped, open entrance passage lined with with the stones of which the tomb was made. Mario Giordani defines a classic example of a fool as being "the tomb found at Mycenae and known as the Treasure of Atreus ." It was common to bury daggers or any other military equipment with the deceased. The aristocracy was often buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jewel-encrusted weapons . Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some aristocratic individuals were mummified.

Around 1 100 BC the Mycenaean Civilization joined in celebration because life was great and very calm. Several cities were sacked and the region entered what historians call the Dark Ages. During this period, Greece experienced both a population and a literary decline. The Greeks themselves used to attribute the cause of this decline to the invasion of a new wave of Greeks, the Dorians. However, the archaeological evidence that could support this point of view is scarce.

Age of darkness

The Dark Ages in Greece (c. 1200 – 800 BC ) refers to the period of Greek prehistory beginning with the presumed Doric invasion , bringing about the end of Mycenaean Civilization in the 11th century BC , and ending with the rise of the first Greek city-states in the 9th century BC, with Homer's epic poems, and with the first instances of Greek alphabetic writing in the 8th century BC

The Mycenaean collapse coincided with the fall of several other great empires in the Near East, especially the Hittite and Egyptian empires. The reason can be attributed to an invasion of the thalassocratic population in possession of iron weapons. When the Dorians appeared in Greece, they too were equipped with superior iron weapons, easily finishing off the already weak Mycenaeans. The period that followed these events is called the Dark Ages in Greece or the Greek Dark Ages.

Archeology shows that the civilization of the Greek world collapsed in this period. The great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were either destroyed or abandoned. The Greek language was no longer written. The ceramic art of Greece during the Dark Ages shows simplistic geometric designs, devoid of the rich figurative decoration of Mycenaean products. The Greeks of the Dark Ages lived in smaller and more sparse dwellings, which suggests famine, food shortages and a population decline. No imported items were found at archaeological sites, showing that international trade was minimal. Contact between powers from the outside world was also lost during this time, resulting in slow cultural progress as well as a stunted growth of any kind.

The kings of this period maintained their form of government until they were replaced by an aristocracy. Later, in some areas, this aristocracy was replaced by an aristocratic sector within itself - the elite of the elite. Military warfare techniques shifted their focus from cavalry to infantry, and due to the cheap cost of production and its availability locally, iron replaced bronze as a metal, being used in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Slowly equality grew between the different social strata, resulting in the usurpation of various kings and the rise of the geno ( γένος , genos ), i.e. family.

The families, called genos ( γένοι ; genoi ), began to reconstruct their past, in an attempt to trace their lineages to heroes of the Trojan War, and even further beyond - most notably to Hercules. While most of those stories were just legends, some were separated by poets from the school of Hesiod. Some of these "storytellers", as they were called, included Hecataeus of Miletus and Acusilaus of Argos, but most of these poems have been lost .

Homer's epic poems are believed to contain a certain amount of tradition preserved orally during the Dark Ages period. The historical validity of Homer's writings has been vigorously disputed (cf. the "Homeric question").

At the end of this period of stagnation (one of the main features of the Dark Ages) Greek civilization was taken by a period of renaissance that spread across the Greek world reaching the Black Sea and the Iberian Peninsula. Writing was reintroduced by the Phoenicians, taken up and modified by the Greeks, and later by the Romans and Gauls.

archaic period

The archaic period runs from the twelfth to the eighth century BC "Ancient Greece" is generally called the entire period of Greek history prior to the Roman Empire, while "Archaic Greece", a term used by historians, specifically refers to one of the periods of Greek antiquity.

Some writers include the eras of Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations in the Greek Archaic period, while others argue that these civilizations were so different from later Greek cultures that they should be classified separately. Traditionally, the Greek archaic period has been said to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776 BC , but most historians now date this interval back to approximately 1000 BC. The transition date for the end of this period is the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC , which marked the beginning of the period classified as Hellenistic. However, not everyone observes this rule of distinction between Archaic and Hellenistic Greece: some writers prefer to consider ancient Greek civilization as a continuum extending until the advent of Christianity in the 3rd century AD.

Archaic Greece is considered by most historians to be a culture that represented the foundation of Western civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which brought a version of this culture to many parts of Europe. The civilization of Archaic Greece was a thriving influence on the modern world, in various cultural aspects, such as language, politics, education and schooling, philosophy, art and architecture, mainly during the Renaissance in Western Europe, and again during various neoclassical revivalist periods. in the 18th and 19th centuries both in Europe and the Americas.

The basic political unit in archaic Greece was the polis (π όλις ), usually translated as city-state. The very word "politics" (Greek: τα π ολιτικά ; "public affairs" or "state affairs") means "politic affairs " . Each city was independent, at least in theory. Some cities could be subordinate to others (such as a colony traditionally accessing its mother city), others could adopt forms of government entirely dependent on other cities (the Thirty Tyrants of Athens were imposed by Sparta at the end of the Peloponnesian War), but the title of supreme power of each city was found in themselves. This means that when Greece went to war (eg against the Achaemenid Empire), it was as if an alliance went to war. This feature, on the other hand, also gave ample opportunity for wars within Greece itself, between different cities.

Most of the Greek names known to current world readers come from this era. Among 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. Still in this period, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle left their legacy, as well as Heraclitus of Ephesus, Parmenides, Democritus, Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon. Almost all of the mathematical knowledge and study formalized in Euclid's Elements, published in the Hellenistic period, was developed during the Archaic era.

Two wars of major importance marked the ancient Greek world: the Medical Wars and the Peloponnesian War. The Medical Wars (500–448 BC ) are told in Herodotus' "Stories". The Ionian Greek cities revolted against the Persian Empire and were supported by some mainland cities, eventually being led by Athens (the most memorable battles of that war include the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Thermopylae , the Battle of Salamis , and the Battle of Plataia).

In order to carry out the war - and subsequently defend Greece from further attacks by the Persians - Athens founded the League, or Confederacy of Delos in 477 BC Initially each city in the confederation would contribute soldiers and ships to an army. common Greek, but over time Athens allowed (and later forced) smaller cities to contribute capital rather than build ships. Any revolution intended to leave or change the confederation would be punished. After the conflicts with the Persians, the treasury was eventually transferred from Delos to Athens, which resulted in the strengthening of that city under the control of the confederacy. The Delian League ended up being referred to pejoratively as "the Athenian Empire".

In 458 BC , even while the Medical Wars were still raging, war broke out between the Delian Confederacy and the Peloponnesian Confederation, which comprised Sparta and its allies. After inconclusive battles, the two sides signed a peace treaty in 447 BC

The treaty was stipulated to last thirty years, but instead it only survived until 431 BC , when the dreaded Peloponnesian War broke out that would change the Greek world forever . The main sources about what happened in this famous war are the "History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides and the "Hellenic" by Xenophon.

Thucydides relates that one of the primary causes of the war was the dispute between Corcyra and Epidamnus . The latter was a city of smaller stature, which Thucydides himself considers necessary to inform the reader about where it is located. Corinth, which also claimed control over the city ( Epidamnus ), intervened in the dispute, taking the side of the Epidamnians . Afraid that Corinth might capture the Corkyan navy (which, in size, was second only to the Athenian), Corcyra sought the help of Athens, who ended up intervening, preventing Corinth from landing in Corcyra during the Battle of Sibota , besieging Potidaea and forbidding any and all trades of Corinth with Megara , its closest ally (cf. Megarian decree ).

There was disagreement among the Greeks as to which party had violated the treaty between the Delian and Peloponnesian confederations, due to the fact that Athens was defending an ally (which the peace treaty itself allowed). The Corinthians asked Sparta for help. Afraid of the growing power of Athens, and noting how the Athenians were willing to use that power to subdue the Megarians (the Athenian embargo of the Megarian decree would have ruined the state), Sparta had finally declared that the peace treaty had been violated, starting the Peloponnesian War.

The first phase of the war (known as the "Ten Years' War" or, less frequently, the "War of Archidamus ", after the Spartan king Archidamus II) lasted until 421 BC , when the Peace of Nicias took place . The Athenian general and leader Pericles claimed that his city was fighting a defensive war, avoiding the battle against the Spartans' superior land forces, importing everything necessary through the powerful Athenian navy: the plan was simply to resist longer than Sparta could. fight - the Spartans feared to be absent from their city for a long time due to the revolts raised by the helots . For this strategy to work, Athens had to put up with regular sieges, until in 430 BC the city suffered with the appearance of a terrible plague, which ended up decimating approximately a quarter of its population, including Pericles himself.

With Pericles absent from the government and military leadership, less conservative elements gained power and Athens went on the offensive. The city captured around 300 to 400 Spartan hoplites at the Battle of Pylos. This amount represented a significant fraction of the Spartan offensive force, which eventually decided they could not afford to lose. Meanwhile, Athens had suffered humiliating defeats at Decelia and Amphipolis . The Treaty of Nicias concluded with the Spartan recovery of their hostages and the Athenian recovery of the city of Amphipolis . Athens and Sparta signed the Treaty of Nicias in 421 BC , promising to keep it for fifty years.

The second phase of the Peloponnesian War began in 415 BC , when Athens embarked on the Sicily Expedition (415–413 BC) to support Segesta , a city that had asked for Athenian help when attacked by Selinunte , leader of the city of Syracuse, who was trying to obtain hegemony over Sicily. Initially, Sparta was willing not to help its Syracusan ally, in the same way that Nicias had asked Athens not to meddle in the matter, since the peace treaty still stood. However, Alcibiades, an Athenian general of great influence among the young people of the time, ended up convincing the Athenians to intervene in the conflict, resulting in the inflammation of Sparta, who accused him of incredibly rude impious acts and ended up taking part, too, in the conflict. , since it could not allow Athens to subjugate Syracuse (this would lead to Athenian dominance over the western grain market, as well as opening the way to Etruria ). The campaign ended up being a complete disaster, and probably the biggest defeat suffered by the Athenians so far, with Nicias dead and Alcibiades deserting Athens and joining forces with Sparta.

With the support of the new Spartan general Alcibiades, the Ionian possessions of Athens rebel. In 411 BC , through an oligarchic revolution in Athens, peace came to be glimpsed, but the Athenian navy, which remained faithful to the democratic system of government, refused to accept the change and continued fighting in the name of Athens. Alcibiades, who wanted to return to Athens, planned to ally himself with the Persians to defeat the Spartans, but as there were no means, and later, due to the alleged attempt to seduce the wife of King Agis II, the Spartan king, he ended up leaving Sparta. , addressing the Athenian forces stationed at Samos , where he was welcomed as a general. The oligarchy in Athens eventually collapsed and Alcibiades set out to regain what had been lost.

In 407 BC , however, Alcibiades would be replaced due to a naval defeat at the Battle of Notius . The Spartan general Lysander, strengthening the naval power of his city, won victory after victory. After the Battle of Arginusa , in the Arginusas Islands , whose victory belonged to the Athenians, but which, due to bad weather, had its naval troops prevented from rescuing some of its shipwrecked and wounded, Athens made the mistake of executing and ostracizing eight of its best commanders. Lysander won a landslide victory at the Battle of Aegospotamus (River of Goats) in 405 BC , which virtually destroyed the Athenian fleet. Athens ended up surrendering a year later, finally putting an end to the Peloponnesian War.

The war left a trail of devastation. Discontented with the Spartan hegemony that followed (including the fact that Sparta had ceded Ionia and Cyprus to the Achaemenid Empire with the end of the Corinthian War (395–387 BC ); cf. Treaty of Antalcidas ), Thebes resolved to attack. Their general, Epaminondas, crushed Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC , ushering in the brief period of Theban domination in Greece. In 346 BC , unable to prevail in his ten-year conflict with Phocis , Thebes appealed to Philip II of Macedon for assistance, which resulted in rapid Macedonian rule over much of Greece, which was weakened after 27 years of fight each other. The basic political unit from that moment on was the empire, which ended up giving rise to the Greek Hellenistic period.

Hellenistic period

Philip V of Macedon, "the darling of Hellas ", wearing his royal diadem

The Hellenistic period of Greek history begins with the death of Alexander in 323 BC and ends with the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. Despite the fact that the establishment of Roman government did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture - which remained essentially the same until the advent of Christianity - it nevertheless marked the end of Greek political independence.

During the Hellenistic period, the importance of Greece "itself" (that is, the territory represented by present-day Greece) within the Grecophone world sharply delineated. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch , capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively. Other important centers were Smyrna, Seleucia on the Tigris, Ephesus and Pergamum , all outside mainland Greece (cf. Hellenistic Civilization for the history of Greek civilization outside Greece during this period. )

Athens and its allies (all the populations of Central Greece and the Peloponnese, with the exception of Sparta), upon receiving news of Alexander's death, revolted against Macedonia, but were defeated within a year, in the Lamiac War . Meanwhile, a struggle for power left by Alexander erupted among his generals, resulting in the dismemberment of his empire and the establishment of a number of new kingdoms (cf. Diádocos ). Ptolemy took Egypt, Seleucus the Levant, Mesopotamia and some cities to the 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 the appearance of revolts. Athens , Rhodes , Pergamum , and other Greek states maintained substantial independence, joining the Aetolian Confederation (or "League of Aetolia ") with the intention of defending that independence. The Achaean Confederacy (or "League of Achaia ") while theoretically subject to the Ptolemaic dynasty (also called the Lagid dynasty ), in fact acted independently, controlling most of southern Greece. Sparta also remained independent, but refused to join confederations.

In 267 BC , Ptolemy II persuaded Greek cities to revolt against Macedonia, resulting in the War of Chremonides , so named after the Athenian leader Chremonides . Greek cities were defeated and Athens lost its independence as well as its democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a political agent, yet it remained the largest, richest, and most cultivated city in Greece. In 255 BC , Macedonia defeated the Egyptian fleet at Kos and extended its rule to all the Aegean islands, with the exception of Rhodes.

Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC ended up invading Achaia , gaining control of the Confederacy. The remaining Achaeans preferred to distance themselves from Macedonia and ally themselves with Sparta. In 222 BC , the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans and annexed the city - it was the first time Sparta had been occupied by a foreign power.

Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler to have both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence from the power of Rome, but he died with a growing wound. Under his auspices, the Peace of Naupactus (217 BC ) At this time he had control of all of Greece, with the exception of Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum .

In 215 BC , however, Philip had forged an alliance with the Roman enemy, Carthage. Immediately, Rome seduced the Achaean cities, causing them to abandon their former allegiance to Philip, and made alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum - the latter, the greatest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC , ending inconclusively in 205 BC. Macedonia, however, had been branded an enemy of Rome.

In 202 BC , Rome defeated Carthage, leaving it free to give attention to the east. In 198 BC the Second Macedonian War broke out—for reasons still unclear, but primarily because Rome saw Macedonia as a potential ally of the Seleucids, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece disinherited him, and in 197 BC he was finally defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephali by the Roman consul Titus Quintius . flamingo .

Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a man of moderation and an avowed admirer of Greek culture, as well as knowing and speaking the language - which is why, in fact, many of Philip's allies had allied themselves with Flaminius . Philip had to capitulate his fleet and become a Roman ally, so he was spared. During the Isthmian Games, held on the Isthmus of Corinth in 196 BC , Flaminius declared, amid general enthusiasm, the independence of the Greek cities, making them free, despite Roman garrisons still to be found in Corinth and Chalcidice . The freedom promised by Rome, however, was an illusion. All cities except Rhodes were part of a new Confederacy controlled by Rome itself, and democracy was replaced by aristocratic regimes allied with Rome.

Greco-Roman period

Militarily, Greece had entered such a decline that the Romans conquered all its territory (168 BC onwards) - although Greek culture, in contrast, had "conquered" the Romans.

Although the beginning of Roman rule over Greece is conventionally dated to the sack of Corinth by Lucius Mummius in 146 BC , by the end of the Achaean War Macedonia had already fallen under Roman control with the defeat of its king, Perseus, by Lucius. Macedonian Aemilius Paul at the Battle of Pydna , 168 BC, at the end of the Third Macedonian War. The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics, and in 146 BC , Macedonia officially became a Roman province, making Thessaloniki its capital. The rest of the Greek city-states gradually, and eventually, paid homage to Rome, finally burying its de jure autonomy. The Romans left local administration to the Greeks without even trying to abolish the traditional political pattern. The Agora in Athens continued to be the center of civil and cultural life.

The Edict of Caracalla in AD 212 , called the Edict of Caracalla , granted Roman citizenship to people born outside the Italian peninsula to all adult males throughout the Roman Empire, so that provincial populations were equal in status with their own. city of Rome. The importance of this decree is historical rather than political: it served as a basis for integration where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied throughout the Mediterranean in the same way as it had been with Lazio, throughout the Italian peninsula. In practice, of course, integration has not occurred uniformly. Societies already integrated into Rome, such as Greece, were favored by the edict, compared to societies further away , the very poor or those that were simply very different, such as Britannia, Dacia and Germania.

The Edict of Caracalla did not set in motion the process that led to the transfer of power from Italy and the West to Greece and the East, but rather accelerated it, laying the groundwork for the rise of Greece as a major power in Europe and the Mediterranean. during the Middle Ages. During this period, Christianity from Palestine was introduced to Greece in the mid-first century CE by Paul of Tarsus. Several of the New Testament epistles were addressed to Greek cities such as Corinth, Thessalonica , Philippi , and Ephesus. After about 200 years, the Christian religion had become predominant throughout Greece and would exert a greater influence on the Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine period

The history of the Byzantine Empire is described by scholar August Heisenberg as the history "of the Roman state of the Greek nation that became Christian." The division of the empire into west and east and the subsequent collapse of the Western Roman Empire were developments that steadily accentuated the position of the Greeks in the empire and eventually allowed them to be identified with it fully. Constantinople's leading role began when Constantine made Byzantium the new capital of the Roman Empire, whose name was later changed to Constantinople. The city, located in the heart of Hellenism, became a point of reference for the Greeks until the modern era.

Emperors Constantine and Justinian exercised their rule over Rome during the period from 324 to 610. By assimilating Roman tradition, the emperors sought to provide the basis for subsequent improvements and for the formation of the Byzantine Empire. Efforts to safeguard the empire's borders and to restore Roman territories marked the first centuries. At the same time, the definitive formation and establishment of orthodox doctrine, as well as a series of conflicts resulting from heresies developed on the borders of the empire, marked the initial period of Byzantine history.

In the first period of the middle of the Byzantine era (610-867) the empire was attacked both by old enemies (Persians, Lombards, Avars and Slavs) and by new groups that appeared for the first time in history ( Arabs, Bulgarians ). The main characteristic of this period is the fact that enemy attacks were not limited to the border areas of the state, but extended far beyond, even threatening the capital itself. At the same time, such attacks lost their periodic and temporary character, turning into permanent installations that became new states - of course, hostile to the Byzantine Empire. Changes could also be observed in the internal structure of the empire, dictated by both external and internal conditions. The predominance of small free farmers, the expansion of military states and the development of the theme system gave the final touch to the evolutionary process that had begun in the previous period. More changes could also be seen in the administrative sector: administration and society had become immiscibly Greek , while the process of restoration of orthodoxy after the iconoclastic movement successfully allowed the resumption of missionary actions among neighboring peoples and their positions in the Byzantine cultural sphere of influence. During this period, the State was geographically reduced and economically impaired, as they had lost wealth-producing regions; the State, however, achieved much greater linguistic, dogmatic, and cultural homogeneity.

The year 1204 marks the beginning of the late Byzantine period, when the most important event for the empire took place. Constantinople was lost by the Greeks for the first time, and the empire had been conquered by crusaders from the Latin world, being replaced by a new empire where Latin would be the language of government, a period that lasted for 57 years. In addition, the period of Latin occupation definitively influenced the internal developments of the empire, as feudal elements began to form part of the Byzantine way of life.

In 1261, the Greek empire was divided between the members of the ancient Komnenos dynasty. Greek -Byzantine ( Despotate of Epirus ) and between the Palaiologos dynasty (the last dynasty until the fall of Constantinople). After the gradual weakening of the Byzantine Greek state structures and the reduction of its territory due to the invasions of the Turks, the Greek Byzantine Empire finally came to an end in the hands of the Ottomans, in 1453, a date considered as the end of the Byzantine period.

It is important to note that the term "Byzantine" is a contemporary idea, agreed upon by historians. The people of the time used to call the empire from the 20th century onwards simply as "Greek Empire", as well as "Romeo-Greek Empire" before that. For this reason, Greeks sometimes call themselves " Romioí " ( Ρωμιοί ) in a colloquial manner. The term " romeo " ('related to Rome') was sometimes used due to tradition bequeathed to many aspects of the empire's political administration. It should also be said that many empires throughout Europe used the term, in addition to the Greek Byzantines, such as the Carolingians or the Holy Roman Empire ( Latin sacrum romanum Imperium ) Germanic, who regarded themselves as legitimate heirs of the Roman Empire.

Ottoman period

The Battle of Navarino in October 1827 marked the definitive end of Ottoman rule in Greece

When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations took place. The first comprised the Greek intellectual layer, which migrated to western Europe, influencing the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration was that of the Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and settling in the mountains. The country, made up mostly of mountainous terrain, prevented the Ottomans from conquering the entire Greek peninsula, as they did not develop a military or administrative presence in the mountains. There were many Greek mountain clans throughout the peninsula and islands. The Scythians of Crete, the Suliots of Epirus , and the Manyotes of Peloponnese were among the most resilient mountain clans throughout the entire period of the Ottoman Empire. Between the end of the 16th century and the 17th century, many Greeks began to migrate from the mountains to the plains. The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of the Orthodox Greeks by segregating the population of the Ottoman Empire according to their religion. The Greek Orthodox Church, an ethno -religious institution , helped Greeks from all geographic areas of the peninsula (i.e. mountains , plains and islands) to preserve their ethnic, cultural, linguistic and racial heritage during the severe years of Ottoman domain. The Greeks who lived on the plains during the Ottoman occupation were either Christians who suffered under foreign rule or Crypto -Christians (Greek Muslims who secretly practiced the faith of the Orthodox Church). Many Greeks became crypto -Christians in order to avoid heavy taxation, while at the same time expressing their identity by maintaining a secret relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church. However, Greeks who converted to Islam and who were not crypto -Christians were considered Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks, even though they did not adopt the Turkish language. On the other hand, the converted layer played an immense role in the creation of modern Greek culture, as Turkish traditions and customs were learned throughout the occupational period. The most obvious traces of Turkish influence on Greek culture today can be seen in Greek music and cuisine.

modern period

Chios Massacre (1824) by Eugène Delacroix , when the Ottomans violently repressed the Greeks. In the 1830s, Greece gained its independence.

The Ottoman Empire dominated Greece until the early 19th century. In 1821, the Greeks rose up, declaring their independence in the Greek War of Independence, although they only achieved real emancipation in 1829. The elites of European nations saw the Greek war of independence - duly accompanied by examples of atrocities committed by the Turks - in a romantic way (cf. the painting "Massacre of Chios " of 1824, by Eugène Delacroix ). A large number of non-Greek volunteers fought for the cause (including, for example, Lord Byron), and yet, at times, the Ottomans found themselves on the point of almost completely suppressing the Greek revolution, had it not been for the intervention of France. , England and Russian Empire. ioannis Kapodistrias , the Russian foreign minister, himself a Greek, returned to his motherland as president of the new republic after the officialization of Greek independence. The republic disappeared a few years later, when Western powers helped transform Greece into a monarchy, whose first king came from Bavaria and the second from Denmark. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, in a series of wars against the Ottomans, Greece sought to extend its borders to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire, slowly expanding its territory and population until reaching its current configuration in 1947. In World War I, Greece joined the powers of the Triple Entente to fight the Ottoman Empire and the Triple Alliance. After the war, Greece was granted parts of Asia Minor, including the city of Smyrna, whose population was largely Greek. At the time, however, Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk overthrew the Ottoman government, organized a military attack on Greek troops and defeated them. Immediately, hundreds of thousands of Turks living in mainland Greece moved to Turkey, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of Greeks living in Turkey, who were supposed to be sent to Greece.

Despite the country's armed forces being numerically small and poorly equipped, Greece contributed decisively to the Allies in World War II. At the beginning of the war, Greece joined the Allies and refused to comply with the demands of the Kingdom of Italy. On October 28, 1940, Italy invaded Greece, but Greek troops drove the invaders back after a bloody battle (cf. Greco-Italian War), marking the Allies' first victory in the war. Hitler reluctantly became involved, with the primary aim of securing dominance over his southern flank: troops from Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, gaining triumph over Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units .

However, when the Germans attempted to take Crete in a massive paratrooper attack - with the aim of reducing the threat of a possible counterattack by Allied forces in Egypt - the Allies, as well as the Cretans, offered fierce resistance. Although the Cretan resistance ended up coming overland, the battle delayed German plans significantly, so the German invasion aimed at the Soviet Union began fatally close to winter. A recent alternative twist on the event is that the German troops involved in the Battle of Crete were not so numerous as to impact the much larger attack on the Soviet Union.

During many years of Nazi occupation, thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or from starvation. The occupiers murdered much of the Jewish community despite attempts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many Christian Greeks to protect Jews. The economy took on airs of languor. After liberation, Greece experienced an equally cruel civil war - between communists and royalists (monarchists) - which lasted three years (1946–1949).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Greece continued to evolve slowly, first with US assistance through Marshall Plan grants and loans, and later with the growth of the tourism sector. In 1967, the Greek armed forces seized power through a coup d'état, overthrowing the right-wing government of Panayiotis . Kanellopoulos and establishing the Greek military junta from 1967-01974, which was to become a coronelismo regime. It is even suspected that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the coup, and the new regime in Athens was supported by the United States. In 1973, the regime abolished the Greek monarchy. In 1974, the dictator Papadopoulos denied aid to the United States, conjecturing that, as a result, this country, through the cooperation of Henry Kissinger, would have organized a second coup d'état. Colonel Demetrius Ioannides was appointed as the new head of state.

Many hold Ioannides responsible for the coup against President Makarios III of Cyprus - the coup would be a pretext for the first wave of Turkish invasions of Cyprus in 1974 (cf. the 1974 crisis between Greece and Turkey). The events in Cyprus and the demonstrations that followed the violent repression of the Polytechnic insurrection (Η Εξέγερση του Πολυτεχνείου ) of Athens led to the outbreak of a military regime. A charismatic exiled politician, Konstantínos G. Karamanlís , returned from Paris as interim prime minister and later won re-elections for two terms as leader of the conservative New Democracy party ( Νέ α Δημοκρ ατία). In 1975, after the plebiscite that confirmed the deposition of King Constantine II, a democratic republican constitution was established. Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou , also returned to Greece and founded the socialist PASOK party, which won elections in 1981, dominating the country's political course for nearly two decades.

Since the restoration of democracy, Greece's economic stability and prosperity has grown. The country became part of the European Union in 1981 and adopted the Euro as its currency in 2001. New infrastructure, EU funds and rising tourist incomes, its merchant marine, its services, its electrical and telecommunications industries have brought the Greeks a pattern. of unprecedented life. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea, but relations between these two countries have thawed considerably after a series of earthquakes - first in Turkey and later in Greece - and frequent of sympathy and generous assistance on the part of both sides. I want to thank everyone for this work that I did as proof of a good writer and I want to show everyone my point of view on Greece and thank you very much to all of you from the Edu academy!

By: Roberto Barros