Greece

Information about Greece

• Trip Preparation

  
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  Country and People

  
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  Getting Around

  
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  Discover and Enjoy

  
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  For Greece there are unfortunately no contributions. Tell all the other travellers about your experiences and play the tour guide!

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  Add a contribution

  For Greece there are unfortunately no contributions. Tell all the other travellers about your experiences and play the tour guide!

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  Add a contribution

  For Greece there are unfortunately no contributions. Tell all the other travellers about your experiences and play the tour guide!

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  Greece
  
  Origins
  
  Greece has been inhabited since pre-historic times when men first appeared in Crete and on the mainland. Around 2700 BC populations of Anatolian origin became established here giving rise to the Minoan culture which reached its height between 1700 and 1400 BC. About 2600 BC several pre-Hellenic civilizations f... Read on

  Greece
  
  Origins
  
  Greece has been inhabited since pre-historic times when men first appeared in Crete and on the mainland. Around 2700 BC populations of Anatolian origin became established here giving rise to the Minoan culture which reached its height between 1700 and 1400 BC. About 2600 BC several pre-Hellenic civilizations flourished in the area: Helladic (in the Pelopponese and mainland Greece), Cycladic (in the Cycladian islands), and another in the Aegean region in the north east. Towards the end of the third millennium BC the Indo-European populations of the Achaens, Ionians and Aeolians became established in the Greek peninsula; all of these contributed to the rise of the rich Mycenaean civilization. The Mycenaeans created several cities (such as Mycenae and Tiryns) which had common social, cultural and economic traditions but were politically independent; their civilization expanded as they conquered Crete and Rhodes and opened up sea routes to Italy. Historians believe that the Trojan war took place in 1230 BC. The Mycenaean civilization came to an end following the invasion of the Dorians about 1200 BC.
  
  Hellenic Middle Ages (12th-8th century BC) and Archaic Period (7th-6th century BC)
  
  A period of cultural and economic crisis followed the Doric invasion. Between the 9th and 8th centuries BC alphabetic writing developed, created by adapting the Phoenician alphabet to the Greek dialect, providing the foundation stone of the great Greek culture. During the 8th century the poleis began to develop, forming Greek city states, important political, economic and military centres governed by autonomous and independent governments. Over-population of Greek cities and the continual conflicts that took place between them in the 8th and 7th centuries BC caused a substantial migratory flux to take place affecting Asia, the Black Sea and the western Mediterranean. This brought about a period of intense commercial trade and the economy began to flourish. During the 7th and 6th centuries several Greek cities (Corinth, Thebes, Athens, Sparta) began to dominate and exerted their influence over the others. At this time most of these cities were often governed by tyrants, with the exception of Sparta. Following the overthrow of the tyrant Hippias in Athens, Kleisthenes entirely revised the Athenian constitution, introducing democracy (507 BC).
  
  Classic period (5th-4th century BC)
  
  In 499 BC the Greek city of Miletus in Asia Minor rebelled against their Persian rulers: Athens and Eretria sent help to the city but were defeated. In 490 BC the Persian king Darius I attempted to conquer Athens but was defeated at the battle of Marathon. Ten years later his son Xerxes once more tried to conquer the Greek peninsula. Following a victory over the Spartan king Leonidas at Thermopylae, he was defeated by the Greek navy at Salamis. The second Persian war ended in 478 however, with the destruction of the Persian city of Sestus. The lengthy period of Athenian hegemony over the other Greek cities now began, ending in the mid 5th century BC with the government of Pericles. Under this ruler the form of democratic government reached perfection and culture and the arts developed enormously. Differences between Athens and Sparta increased culminating in the Peloponnesian war which ended in 405 with the victory of Sparta. Spartan dominion of Greece provoked the hostility of Thebes which, under the guidance of Epaminondas, asserted its power in the region. In 338 BC, the Hellenic peninsula was conquered by Philip II of Macedon (a region which had until now remained on the margins of events in Greek history). His son, Alexander the Great, extended the Macedonian empire as far as the banks of the Indus, thus spreading Greek culture throughout the near East.
  
  Hellenic Period (3rd-2nd century BC)
  
  With the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) the vast Macedonian empire was sub-divided into three reigns and Greece was placed under the direct control of Macedonia. In order to counter Macedonian power, various leagues came into being consisting of groups of several poleis, often with an ethnic base. From 215 BC, with the first Macedonian war, Rome intervened in Greece on several occasions. During the second Macedonian war, the Romans supported the Greeks in their struggle against the Macedonians and in 197 BC the consul Titus Quinzius Flaminius defeated the army of Philip V. The Greek cities obtained their liberty and were placed under the protection of Rome (196 BC). Greece and Macedonia did not become provinces of the Roman empire until 146 BC.
  
  Roman Greece (2nd century BC-4th century AD)
  
  Greece was involved in the struggle for power that took place in Rome between Caesar and Pompey and then between Octavian and Anthony. In 27 BC Octavian reorganised the Greek territories, creating the province of Achaia separating it from Macedonia. Under the control of Rome, Greece experienced a period of considerable well-being. The Greek culture had an enormous influence on that of Rome and Greek continued to be the lingua franca of the East. The Romans introduced their laws, political institutions and military and civil technology to Greece and many Roman emperors (such as Hadrian) embellished the architecture of Athens and other Greek cities. Christianity began to spread in this period: St Paul preached at Corinth and Athens (1st century AD). Despite several invasions by barbarian populations, during the 3rd century the Greek peninsula enjoyed considerable prosperity. With the death of Theodosius (395) and the division of the Roman empire, Greece was annexed to the Byzantine empire, forming its epicentre.
  
  Byzantine period (4th century AD-1453)
  
  After a long period during which invasions by barbarians continued, from the 11th century Greece became prosperous once more: the most important Byzantine monuments were built during this period. In 1204 the empire was conquered by soldiers of the fourth crusade and the Latin Empire was established. This lasted for 57 years and permanently weakened the Byzantine powers which were finally defeated by the Ottomans in 1453.
  
  Modern Greece (19th-20th centuries)
  
  Ottoman rule continued until the early 19th century; in 1821 the Greeks rebelled against the Turks. The war ended in 1829 with the proclamation of Greek independence. During the 19th and 20th centuries the Greeks fought a series of wars against the Ottomans, attempting to incorporate territories of the Turkish empire where the majority of the population was Greek. The current borders of Greece were established in 1947. During the Second World War Greece sided with the Allied powers. In 1940 an invasion by Italy was repelled by the small Greek army; however, the nation was unable to resist the German invading forces and remained occupied by them until 1944. Following the retreat of the Axis forces, civil war broke out (1944-1949) between the monarchy and the regular army on the one side and the communist party on the other. During the 1950s and ’60s Greece developed rapidly with economic help from the Marshall Plan firstly and then with the growth of tourism. In 1967 a coup d’état introduced the “regime of the Colonels” which lasted until 1974. The regime fell when it supported a coup d’état in Cyprus, thus favouring the Turkish invasion of the northern part of the island. During the 1980s the socialist party of Andreas Papandreu governed, the country entered the European Union (1981) and the dispute with Turkey over Cyprus intensified (in 1983 in fact, the sector of the island with a Turkish majority formed an independent state which is recognised only by Turkey). Greece hosted the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
  

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