Greece,, or ,
romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in
Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the
Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of
Europe,
Asia, and
Africa. Greece shares land borders with
Albania to the northwest,
North Macedonia and
Bulgaria to the north, and
Turkey to the northeast. The
Aegean Sea lies to the east of the
mainland, the
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...
to the west, and the
Sea of Crete and the
Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...
, featuring
thousands of islands. The country consists of nine
traditional geographic regions, and has a population of approximately 10.4 million.
Athens is the nation's capital and
largest city, followed by
Thessaloniki and
Patras
)
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.
Greece is considered the cradle of
Western civilization, being the birthplace of
democracy,
Western philosophy,
Western literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian, an ...
,
historiography,
political science, major
scientific and
mathematical principles,
theatre and the
Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent
city-states, known as ''poleis'' (singular ''
polis''), which spanned the
Mediterranean and the
Black Sea.
Philip II of Macedon united most of present-day Greece in the
fourth century BC, with his son
Alexander the Great rapidly conquering much of the ancient world, from the eastern Mediterranean to
India. The subsequent
Hellenistic period saw the height of
Greek culture and influence in antiquity. Greece was annexed by
Rome in the
second century BC
The 2nd century BC started the first day of 200 BC and ended the last day of 101 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, although depending on the region being studied, other terms may be more suitable. It is also considered to be ...
, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its continuation, the
Byzantine Empire, which was culturally and linguistically predominantly Greek.
The
Greek Orthodox Church, which emerged in the first century AD, helped shape modern
Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider
Orthodox world
The term Byzantine commonwealth was coined by 20th-century historians to refer to the area where Byzantine general influence ( Byzantine liturgical and cultural tradition) was spread during the Middle Ages by the Byzantine Empire and its missiona ...
. After falling under
Ottoman rule in the mid-15th century, Greece emerged as a modern
nation state in 1830 following a
war of independence. After European powers initiated prolonged periods of
monarchial rule by a
foreign family, the country
fell to a
military junta in 1967. Subsequently,
the junta collapsed in 1974 and Greece returned to democratic governance, which has continued to this day. The country's rich historical legacy is reflected in part by its 18
UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Greece is a
unitary parliamentary republic, and a
developed country
A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...
, with an advanced
high-income economy, and a high
quality of life, ranking 32nd in the
Human Development Index. Its economy is among the
largest in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor. A founding member of the
United Nations, Greece was the tenth member to join the
European Communities
The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), and the ...
(precursor to the
European Union) and has been part of the
Eurozone since 2001. It is also a member of numerous other international institutions, including the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
,
NATO, the
OECD, the
WTO, and the
OSCE. Greece's unique cultural heritage, large
tourism industry,
prominent shipping sector and geostrategic importance classify it as a
middle power.
Name
The native name of the country in Modern Greek is (', pronounced ). The corresponding form in Ancient Greek and conservative formal Modern Greek (
Katharevousa) is (, classical: , modern: ). This is the source of the English alternate name ''Hellas'', which is mostly found in archaic or poetic contexts today. The Greek adjectival form (, ) is sometimes also translated as ''Hellenic'' and is often rendered in this way in the formal names of Greek institutions, as in the official name of the Greek state, the ''Hellenic Republic'' (, ).
The English names ''Greece'' and ''Greek'' are derived, via the Latin ' and ', from the name of the
Graeci (, ;
singular , ), who were among the first
ancient Greek tribes to settle
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...
in
southern Italy
Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half.
The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
. The term is possibly derived from the
Proto-Indo-European root ''
'', "to grow old", more specifically from
Graea (ancient city), said by
Aristotle to be the oldest in Greece, and the source of colonists for the
Naples area.
History
Prehistory and early history
The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000BC, is to be found in the
Petralona cave, in the Greek province of Macedonia.
The
Apidima Cave in
Mani, in southern Greece, contains the oldest remains of
anatomically modern humans outside of Africa, dated to 210,000 years ago.
All three stages of the Stone Age (
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
,
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
, and
Neolithic) are represented in Greece, for example in the
Franchthi Cave.
Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC,
are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
to Europe. Following the end of the
Greek Neolithic period in 3.200 BC, a slow transition period between the stone economy to the bronze economy during the end of the 4th Millennium BC including
Eutresis culture and
Korakou culture with the first large buildings (
House of the Tiles) until the middle of the 3rd Millennium BC took place in the Greek mainland.
Tiryns culture before the
Middle Helladic period
Helladic chronology is a relative dating system used in archaeology and art history. It complements the Minoan chronology scheme devised by Sir Arthur Evans for the categorisation of Bronze Age artefacts from the Minoan civilization within a hi ...
that developed the socioeconomic base of the following
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...
and
Mycenean civilisation.
Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilisation,
beginning with the
Cycladic civilization on the islands of the
Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...
in Crete (2700–1500 BC),
and then the
Mycenaean civilization on the mainland (1600–1100 BC).
These civilizations possessed
writing, the Minoans using an
undeciphered script known as
Linear A, and the Mycenaeans writing the earliest
attested form of
Greek in
Linear B
Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...
. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, along with other civilizations, during the regional event known as the
Late Bronze Age collapse
The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150. The collapse affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean (North Africa and Southeast Europe) and the Near East ...
. This ushered in a period known as the
Greek Dark Ages
The term Greek Dark Ages refers to the period of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean palatial civilization, around 1100 BC, to the beginning of the Archaic age, around 750 BC. Archaeological evidence shows a widespread collaps ...
, from which written records are absent. Though the unearthed Linear B texts are too fragmentary for the reconstruction of the political landscape and can't support the existence of a larger state, contemporary
Hittite and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a "Great King" based in mainland Greece.
Archaic and Classical period
The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the year of the first
Olympic Games. The ''
Iliad'' and the ''
Odyssey'', the foundational texts of
Western literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian, an ...
, are believed to have been composed by
Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.
[ D.C.H. Rieu's introduction to ''The Odyssey'' (Penguin, 2003), p. ''xi''.] With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and
city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the
Black Sea,
Southern Italy
Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half.
The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
("Magna Graecia") and
Asia Minor. These states and their colonies reached great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of
classical Greece
Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...
, expressed in
architecture,
drama,
science,
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
. In 508 BC,
Cleisthenes
Cleisthenes ( ; grc-gre, Κλεισθένης), or Clisthenes (c. 570c. 508 BC), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishm ...
instituted the world's first
democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
system of government in
Athens.
By 500 BC, the
Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
controlled the Greek city states in Asia Minor and Macedonia. Attempts by some of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule
failed, and Persia
invaded the states of mainland Greece in 492 BC, but was forced to withdraw after a defeat at the
Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. In response, the Greek city-states formed the Hellenic League in 481 BC, led by Sparta, which was the first historically recorded union of Greek states since the mythical union of the Trojan War.
A
second invasion by the Persians followed in 480 BC. Following decisive Greek victories in 480 and 479 BC at
Salamis,
Plataea
Plataea or Plataia (; grc, Πλάταια), also Plataeae or Plataiai (; grc, Πλαταιαί), was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes.Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Plataea.” '' Webst ...
, and
Mycale, the Persians were forced to withdraw for a second time, marking their eventual withdrawal from all of their European territories. Led by Athens and Sparta, the Greek victories in the
Greco-Persian Wars are considered a pivotal moment in world history,
as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as the
Golden Age of Athens, the seminal period of ancient Greek development that laid many of the foundations of Western civilization.
Lack of political unity within Greece resulted in frequent conflict between Greek states. The most devastating intra-Greek war was the
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of th ...
(431–404 BC), won by
Sparta and marking the demise of the Athenian Empire as the leading power in ancient Greece. Both Athens and Sparta were later overshadowed by
Thebes and eventually Macedon, with the latter uniting most of the city-states of the Greek hinterland in the
League of Corinth (also known as the ''Hellenic League'' or ''Greek League'') under the control of
Philip II. Despite this development, the Greek world remained largely fragmented and would not be united under a single power until the Roman years.
Sparta did not join the League and actively fought against it, raising an army led by
Agis III
Agis III (Greek: ) was the eldest son of Archidamus III, and the 21st Eurypontid king of Sparta.
Life
Agis was the son of King Archidamus III () and the grandson of Agesilaus II (), who belonged to the Eurypontid dynasty, one of the two royal fam ...
to secure the city-states of Crete for Persia.
Following the assassination of Phillip II, his son
Alexander III ("The Great") assumed the leadership of the League of Corinth and launched an invasion of the Persian Empire with the combined forces of the League in 334 BC. Undefeated in battle, Alexander had conquered the Persian Empire in its entirety by 330 BC. By the time of his death in 323 BC, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to India. Upon his death, his empire split into several kingdo