Greece

== History ==
{{Main|History of Greece}}
{{long|section|words=4,800|nosplit=yes|date=April 2024}}
=== Prehistory and early history ===
{{Main|Neolithic Greece|Pelasgians|Cycladic culture|Minoan civilization|Mycenaean Greece}}
[[File:Entrance to the treasure of Atreus.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|The entrance of the [[Treasury of Atreus]] (13th century BC) in [[Mycenae]]]]

The [[Apidima Cave]] in [[Mani Peninsula|Mani]], in southern Greece, has been suggested to contain the oldest remains of [[early modern humans]] outside of Africa, dated to 200,000 years ago.<ref name="NAT-20190710">{{cite journal |last=Harvati |first=Katerina |display-authors=et al. |title=Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia |date=10 July 2019 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=571 |issue=7766 |pages=500–504 |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1376-z |pmid=31292546 |s2cid=195873640 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/6646855 }}</ref> However others suggest the remains represent [[archaic humans]].<ref name=":5">Marie-Antoinette de Lumley, Gaspard Guipert, Henry de Lumley, Natassa Protopapa, Théodoros Pitsios, Apidima 1 and Apidima 2: Two anteneandertal skulls in the Peloponnese, Greece, L'Anthropologie, Volume 124, Issue 1, 2020, 102743, ISSN 0003-5521, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anthro.2019.102743.</ref> All three stages of the Stone Age ([[Paleolithic]], [[Mesolithic]], and [[Neolithic]]) are represented in Greece, for example in the [[Franchthi Cave]].<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Douka | first1 = K. | last2 = Perles | first2 = C. | last3 = Valladas | first3 = H. | last4 = Vanhaeren | first4 = M. | last5 = Hedges | first5 = R.E.M. | title = Franchthi Cave revisited: the age of the Aurignacian in south-eastern Europe | page = 1133 | url = https://www.academia.edu/1129937 | journal = Antiquity Magazine | year = 2011}}</ref> [[Neolithic]] settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC,<ref name="Borza">{{cite book|author=Eugene N. Borza|title=In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&pg=PA58|year=1992|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-00880-6|page=58}}</ref> are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route by which farming spread from the [[Near East]] to Europe.<ref>{{cite book | last = Perlès | first = Catherine | title = The Early Neolithic in Greece: The First Farming Communities in Europe | page = 1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LQQ3tx5_t7QC&q=sesklo | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2001| isbn = 9780521000277 }}</ref>

Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and considered the birthplace of Western civilisation,<ref name="Duchesne2011">{{cite book|author=Ricardo Duchesne|title=The Uniqueness of Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWmDPzPo0XAC&pg=PA297|date=7 February 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-19248-5|page=297|quote=The list of books which have celebrated Greece as the "cradle" of the West is endless; two more examples are Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World (1999) and Bruce Thornton's Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (2000)|author-link=Ricardo Duchesne}}</ref><ref name="BotticiChalland2013">{{cite book|author1=Chiara Bottici|author2=Benoît Challand|title=The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QW1lrPMXprwC&pg=PA88|date=11 January 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-95119-0|page=88|quote=The reason why even such a sophisticated historian as Pagden can do it is that the idea that Greece is the cradle of civilisation is so much rooted in western minds and school curricula as to be taken for granted.}}</ref> beginning with the [[Cycladic civilization]] on the islands of the [[Aegean Sea]] around 3200 BC,<ref>{{Cite book | last = Sansone | first = David | title = Ancient Greek civilization | page = 5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YJONdN0dNYQC&q=cycladic%20civilization&pg=PT27 | publisher = Wiley | year = 2011| isbn = 9781444358773 }}</ref> the [[Minoan civilization]] in Crete (2700–1500 BC),<ref name="Frucht2004">{{cite book| first = Richard C | last = Frucht|title=Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA847 |access-date=5 December 2012|date=31 December 2004 | publisher =ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-800-6|page= 847|quote= People appear to have first entered Greece as hunter-gatherers from southwest Asia about 50,000 years... of Bronze Age culture and technology laid the foundations for the rise of Europe's first civilization, Minoan Crete}}</ref><ref name="World and Its Peoples">{{cite book| title= World and Its Peoples| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5vHRWp8yqEC&pg=PA1458|access-date=5 December 2012|date=September 2009|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7902-4|page= 1458|quote=Greece was home to the earliest European civilizations, the Minoan civilization of Crete, which developed around 2000 BC, and the Mycenaean civilization on the Greek mainland, which emerged about 400 years later. The ancient Minoan}}</ref> and then the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] civilization on the mainland (1600–1100 BC).<ref name="World and Its Peoples" /> These civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans using an [[Undeciphered writing systems|undeciphered script]] known as [[Linear A]], and the Mycenaeans writing the earliest [[Attested language|attested]] form of [[Greek language|Greek]] in [[Linear B]].<ref>{{Cite book | last = Drews | first = Robert |author-link=Robert Drews | title = The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 BC | page = 3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bFpK6aXEWN8C&q=greece%20bronze%20age%20collapse | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1995| isbn = 0691025916 }}</ref> Contemporary [[Hittites|Hittite]] and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a "Great King" based in mainland Greece.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Beckman|first1=Gary M.|last2=Bryce|first2=Trevor R.|last3=Cline|first3=Eric H.|title=Writings from the Ancient World: The Ahhiyawa Texts|journal=Writings from the Ancient World|year=2012|location=Atlanta|publisher=Society of Biblical Literature|url=http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061528P.front.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409120519/http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061528P.front.pdf |archive-date=9 April 2015 |url-status=live|issn=1570-7008|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kelder|first1=Jorrit M.|title=The Kingdom of Mycenae: A Great Kingdom in the Late Bronze Age Aegean|journal=CDL Press|url=https://www.academia.edu/218696|year=2010|location=Bethesda, MD|access-date=18 March 2015|pages=45, 86, 108}}</ref>

===Ancient Greece===
{{Main|Ancient Greece}}
{{see also|Archaic Greece|Classical Greece|Hellenistic Greece}}

The collapse of the Mycenean civilization ushered the [[Greek Dark Ages]], from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the year of the first [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]].<ref>{{Cite book | first = John R | last = Short | title = An Introduction to Urban Geography | page = 10 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uGE9AAAAIAAJ&q=greek%20dark%20ages%20776%20BC&pg=PA10 | publisher = Routledge | year = 1987| isbn = 9780710203724 }}</ref> The ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', the foundational texts of [[Western literature]], are believed to have been composed by [[Homer]] in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.<ref>Vidal-Naquet, Pierre. ''Le monde d'Homère'' (The World of Homer), Perrin (2000), p. 19.</ref><ref name="The Odyssey 2003">[[D.C.H. Rieu]]'s introduction to ''The Odyssey'' (Penguin, 2003), p. ''xi''.</ref> With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged kingdoms and [[city-state]]s across the Greek peninsula, [[Greek colonisation|which spread]] to the shores of the [[Black Sea]], [[Magna Graecia]] in [[southern Italy]] and [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]]. These states and their colonies reached great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of [[classical Greece]], expressed in [[Architecture of ancient Greece|architecture]], [[Theatre of ancient Greece|drama]], [[Ancient Greek science|science]], [[Greek mathematics|mathematics]] and [[Ancient Greek philosophy|philosophy]]. In 508 BC, [[Cleisthenes]] instituted the world's first [[Athenian democracy|democratic]] system of government in [[Athens]].<ref name="BKDunn1992">{{Cite book | first = John | last = Dunn | title = Democracy: the unfinished journey 508 BC&nbsp;– 1993 AD | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-0-19-827934-1}}</ref><ref name="BKRaaflaud2007">{{Cite book | first1 = Kurt A | last1 = Raaflaub | first2 = Josiah | last2 = Ober | first3 = Robert W | last3 = Wallace | title = Origin of Democracy in Ancient Greece | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-520-24562-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6qaSHHMaGVkC}}</ref>

[[File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg|thumb|The [[Parthenon]] on the [[Acropolis of Athens]], icon of classical Greece]]

By 500 BC, the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]] controlled the Greek city states in Asia Minor and Macedonia.<ref>Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC&q=Achaemenid+Persians+ruled+balkans&pg=PA345 "A companion to Ancient Macedonia"] John Wiley & Sons, 2011. {{ISBN|144435163X}} pp 135–138, p 343</ref> Attempts by some Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule [[Ionian Revolt|failed]], and Persia [[First Persian invasion of Greece|invaded the states of mainland Greece]] in 492 BC, but was forced to withdraw after 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 recorded union of Greek states since the mythical union of the [[Trojan War]].<ref name="Waterfield2018">{{cite book|author=Robin Waterfield|title=Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lLNSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148|date=19 April 2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-872788-0|page=148|quote=They formed an alliance, which we call the Hellenic League, and bound themselves not just to repel the Persians, but to help one another whatever particular enemy threatened the freedom of the Greek cities. This was a real acknowledgment of a shared Greekness, and a first attempt to unify the Greek states under such a banner.}}</ref><ref name="Fine1983">{{cite book|author=John Van Antwerp Fine|title=The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjeM0kcp8swC&pg=PA297|year=1983|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03314-6|page=297|quote=This Hellenic League – the first union of Greek states since the mythical times of the Trojan War – was the instrument through which the Greeks organised their successful resistance to Persia. }}</ref> A [[second Persian invasion of Greece]] followed in 480 BC. Following Greek victories in 480-79 BC, the Persians withdrew for a second time, marking their eventual withdrawal from all their European territories. The Greek victories in the [[Greco-Persian Wars]] are considered a pivotal moment in history,<ref name="Strauss2005">{{cite book|author=Barry Strauss|title=The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece – and Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQFtMcD5dOsC|date=16 August 2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-7453-1|pages=1–11}}</ref> as the 50 years of peace afterwards are known as the [[Fifth-century Athens|Golden Age of Athens]], the seminal period of development that laid many foundations of Western civilization.

Lack of political unity resulted in frequent conflict between Greek states. The most devastating intra-Greek war was the [[Peloponnesian War]] (431–404 BC), won by Sparta and marking the demise of the Athenian Empire. Athens and Sparta were later overshadowed by [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebes]] and eventually Macedon, with the latter uniting most city-states of the Greek hinterland in the [[League of Corinth]] under [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P98aXmGsFxcC&pg=PA79 |title=Global History Volume One: The Ancient World to the Age of Revolution |last1=Willner |first1=Mark |last2=Hero |first2=George |last3=Wiener |first3=Jerry |last4=Hero |first4=George A. |date=2006 |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |isbn=9780764158117 |page=79 |language=en}}</ref> Despite this, the Greek world remained fragmented and would not be united under a single power until the Roman years.<ref name="walbank">{{Cite book |last=Walbank |first=Frank W. |title=Selected Papers: Studies in Greek and Roman History and Historiography |date=26 August 2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5z_vUPABapoC&q=League%2520of%2520Corinth&pg=PA1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |language=en |isbn=9780521136808 |page=1 |access-date=8 September 2018}}</ref>

{{multiple images|image1 = Napoli BW 2013-05-16 16-24-01.jpg|image2 = MacedonEmpire.jpg|footer=[[Alexander the Great]], whose conquests led to the [[Hellenistic Age]]|align=right|total_width=400}}
After Philip's assassination in 336 BC, his son and [[king of Macedon]], [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]], set himself leader of a [[Panhellenism|Panhellenic]] [[Wars of Alexander the Great|campaign]] against the [[Persian Empire]] and abolished it. Undefeated in battle, he marched, until his untimely death in 323 BC, to the banks of the [[Indus]],<ref>{{harvnb|Walbank|1993|pp=31–2, 34–5, 36–7}}, {{harvnb|Gehrke|1995|pp=10–3, 16–7, 21, 24–5, 28–9}}</ref> creating one of the largest empires in history. Alexander's empire fragmented after his death, inaugurating the [[Hellenistic period]]. After [[Wars of the Diadochi|fierce conflict]] amongst themselves, the [[Diadochi|generals that succeeded Alexander and their successors]] founded large personal kingdoms in the areas he had conquered, such as that of the [[Ptolemies]] in [[Egypt]].<ref>{{harvnb|Walbank|1993|pp=46–8, 59, 74–5}}, {{harvnb|Gehrke|1995|pp=30, 32, 45–8}}</ref> Many Greeks migrated to [[Alexandria]] and the other new Hellenistic cities in Asia and Africa.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ian Morris|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/morris/120509.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060222022546/http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/morris/120509.pdf |archive-date=22 February 2006 |url-status=live|title=The growth of Greek cities in the first millennium BC|publisher=[[Princeton University]]|date=December 2005}}</ref> As a result of the settlement of Greeks as members of a ruling minority, during the centuries that followed a vernacular form of [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]], known as ''[[Koine Greek|koine]]'', and Greek culture was [[Hellenization|spread]], while the Greeks [[Hellenistic religion|adopted Eastern deities and cults]].<ref>{{harvnb|Walbank|1993|pp=62–3}}, {{harvnb|Gehrke|1995|pp=63–65, 73, 75–6}}.</ref> Greek science, technology, and mathematics reached their peak during the Hellenistic period.<ref>{{Cite book | first1 = Cynthia | last1 = Kosso | first2 = Anne | last2 = Scott | title = The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity Through the Renaissance | publisher =Brill | year = 2009 | page = 51 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UTkXFLfmLTkC&q=hellenistic%20mathematics%20science%20technology&pg=PA51| isbn = 978-9004173576 }}</ref> The [[Antigonid dynasty]], descended from one of Alexander's generals, established its control over Macedon and most of the Greek city-states by 276 BC.<ref>{{cite book | last = Spielvogel | first = Jackson | title = Western Civilization | volume = I: To 1715 | publisher = Thomson Wadsworth | year = 2005 | pages = 89–90 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xcNIBlwrjMsC&pg=PA89 | isbn = 978-0-534-64603-5}}</ref> Aspiring to maintain their independence from the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]], much of Greece united in ''koina'' or ''[[sympoliteia]]i'' i.e. federations.<ref>{{harvnb|Walbank|1993|pp=79–80, 91–2, 141–2, 151–2}}, {{harvnb|Gehrke|1995|pp=68–70}}.</ref>

=== Roman province (146 BC – 4th century AD) ===
{{Main|Greece in the Roman era}}
{{See also|Roman Empire}}
[[File:0142 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Antikythera mechanism - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 11 2009.jpg|thumb|The [[Antikythera mechanism]] (c. 100 BC) is considered to be the first known mechanical [[analog computer]] ([[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]).]]
From about 200 BC the [[Ancient Rome|Roman Republic]] became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and engaged in a [[Macedonian Wars|series of wars with Macedon]].<ref name= Flower>{{cite book | title=The Roman Republic | editor-last=Flower | editor-first=Harriet | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-521-00390-2 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_s0h2/page/248 248, 258] | publisher=Cambridge University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_s0h2/page/248 }}</ref> Macedon's defeat at the [[Battle of Pydna]] in 168 BC signalled the end of Antigonid power.<ref>{{Cite book | title = Britannica | contribution = Antigonid dynasty | year = 2008 | edition = online}}</ref> In 146 BC, Macedonia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman protectorate.<ref name=Flower /><ref name=Ward>{{cite book |title=A history of the Roman people |last1=Ward |first1=Allen Mason |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-13-038480-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofromanpe00alle/page/276 276] |publisher=Prentice Hall |display-authors=etal |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofromanpe00alle/page/276 }}</ref>

The process was completed in 27 BC when emperor [[Augustus]] annexed the rest of Greece and constituted it as the [[senatorial province]] of [[Achaea (Roman province)|Achaea]].<ref name=Ward /> Despite their military superiority, the Romans admired and became [[Greco-Roman world|heavily influenced]] by Greek culture, hence [[Horace]]'s famous statement: "Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror captive".<ref>{{cite book |title=Ancient Rome: An Introductory History |last=Zoch |first=Paul | year= 2000 | isbn = 978-0-8061-3287-7 |page=136 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=95bu0O3LLlsC&q=Graecia%20capta%20ferum%20victorem%20cepit&pg=PA136 |access-date=29 April 2012}}</ref> The epics of [[Homer]] inspired the [[Aeneid]] of [[Virgil]], and authors such as [[Seneca the Younger]] wrote using Greek styles. Roman heroes such as [[Scipio Africanus]], studied philosophy and regarded Greek culture and science as an example to be followed. Similarly, most [[Roman emperor]]s admired things Greek in nature. Emperor [[Nero]] visited Greece in AD 66, and performed at the [[Ancient Olympic Games]], while [[Hadrian]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=R. Birley |title=Hadrian: The Restless Emperor |location=Abingdon |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-415-16544-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VV8hBcCnYaIC&pg=PA16 |pages=16–17}}</ref> served as an [[eponymous archon]] of Athens, before becoming emperor.<ref>{{cite AV media |last=Kouremenos|first=Anna |year=2022 |section=The City of Hadrian and not of Theseus: A cultural history of Hadrian's Arch |title=The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE: The Past Present |location=London |publisher=Routledge |url=https://www.academia.edu/43746490/_Forthcoming_The_City_of_Hadrian_and_not_of_Theseus_A_Cultural_History_of_Hadrians_Arch}}</ref>

[[File:Athen Odeon Herodes Atticus BW 2017-10-09 13-12-44.jpg|thumb|The [[Odeon of Herodes Atticus]] in Athens, built in 161 AD]]

Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenised East were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,<ref>{{cite book | title= Backgrounds of Early Christianity | last = Ferguson | first = Everett | year = 2003 |isbn= 978-0-8028-2221-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tuKkxU4-ncC&pg=PA617 |pages= 617–18| publisher = Wm. B. Eerdmans }}</ref> and Christianity's early leaders and writers were mostly Greek-speaking, though not from Greece itself.<ref>{{cite book | title= Ancient Rome | last = Dunstan | first = William | year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7425-6834-1 |page=500 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xkOhwFzz1AkC&q=early%20christian%20leaders%20speak%20greek&pg=PA500 |access-date=29 April 2012}}</ref> The [[New Testament]] was written in Greek, and some sections attest to the importance of churches in Greece in [[early Christianity]]. Nevertheless, much of Greece clung to paganism, and ancient Greek religious practices were still in vogue in the late 4th century AD,<ref>{{cite book |title=Early Christian Art and Architecture |last = Milburn |first=Robert |year=1992 |page=158 |publisher = University of California Press |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OcRTwsDq_Z4C&q=early%20christianity%20greece&pg=PA158 |access-date=29 April 2012|isbn = 9780520074125 }}</ref> when they were outlawed by the Roman emperor [[Theodosius I]] in 391–392.<ref name="FriellWilliams2005">{{cite book|author1=Gerard Friell|author2=Peabody Professor of North American Archaeology and Ethnography Emeritus Stephen Williams|author3=Stephen Williams|title=Theodosius: The Empire at Bay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I8KRAgAAQBAJ|date=8 August 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-78262-7|page=105}}</ref> The last recorded Olympic games were held in 393,<ref name="Perrottet2004">{{cite book|author=Tony Perrottet|title=The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2VPMUBAxUUC&pg=PA190|access-date=1 April 2013|date=8 June 2004|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-1-58836-382-4|pages=190–}}</ref> and many temples were destroyed or damaged in the century that followed.<ref name="Evans2005" /><ref name="Evans2005">{{cite book|author=James Allan Stewart Evans|title=The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xDNv6qZ_I-IC|date=January 2005|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32582-3|pages=65–70}}</ref><ref name="Haldon1990">{{cite book|author=J. F. Haldon|title=Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSHmT1G_5T0C|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-31917-1|page=329}}</ref> The closure of the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]] Academy of Athens by Emperor Justinian in 529 is considered the end of antiquity, although there is evidence that the academy continued.<ref name="Evans2005" /><ref>{{cite book |title= Hellenic Temples and Christian Churches: A Concise History of the Religious Cultures of Greece from Antiquity to the Present |last=Makrides |first=Nikolaos |year=2009 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9568-2 |page=206 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kKOY5NsekfkC&q=10th%20century&pg=PA17 |access-date=29 April 2012}}</ref>

=== Medieval period (4th–15th century) ===
{{Main|Byzantine Greece|Frankokratia}}
[[File:Hagia Sophia Dome.png|alt=|thumb|Dome of [[Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki]] (8th century), one of the 15 [[UNESCO]]'s [[Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki|Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of the city]]]]
The Roman Empire in the east, following the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in the 5th century, is known as the [[Byzantine Empire]] (but was called "Kingdom of the Romans" in its own time) and lasted until 1453. With its capital in [[Constantinople]], its language and culture were Greek and its religion was predominantly [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christian]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies |editor-last=Jeffreys |editor-first=Elizabeth |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-925246-6 |page=4 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=liFKua_cWL8C&pg=PA4}}</ref>

From the 4th century the Empire's Balkan territories, including Greece, suffered from the dislocation of [[Migration Period|barbarian invasions]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Halsall |first=Guy |title=Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West |pages=376–568 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007}}</ref> The raids by [[Goths]] and [[Huns]] in the 4th and 5th centuries and the [[South Slavs|Slavic]] invasion in the 7th century resulted in a dramatic collapse in imperial authority in the Greek [[peninsula]].{{Sfn | Fine | 1991 | pp = 35–6}} Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government retained formal control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly the densely populated walled cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica, while some mountainous areas in the interior held out on their own and continued to recognise imperial authority.{{Sfn | Fine | 1991 | pp = 35–6}} Outside these, a limited amount of Slavic settlement is thought to have occurred.{{Sfn | Fine | 1991 | pp = 63–6}}<ref>{{Cite book | first = TE | last = Gregory | title = A History of Byzantium | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | year = 2010 | page = 169 | quote = It is now generally agreed that the people who lived in the Balkans after the Slavic "invasions" were probably for the most part the same as those who had lived there earlier, although the creation of new political groups and arrival of small immigrants caused people to look at themselves as distinct from their neighbors, including the Byzantines.}}</ref> However, the view that Greece in late antiquity underwent a crisis of decline, fragmentation and depopulation is now considered outdated, as Greek cities show institutional continuity and prosperity between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. In the early 6th century, Greece had approximately 80 cities according to the [[Synecdemus]] chronicle, and the period from the 4th to the 7th century is considered one of high prosperity not just in Greece but in the entire Eastern Mediterranean.<ref name="Rothaus2000">{{cite book|author=Richard M. Rothaus|title=Corinth, the First City of Greece: An Urban History of Late Antique Cult and Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbAhrDO1XQIC|year=2000|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-10922-3|page=10}}</ref>

[[File:Map Byzantine Empire 1025-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire after the death of [[Basil II]] in 1025]]

Until the 8th century almost all of modern Greece was under the jurisdiction of the [[Holy See]] of [[Rome]] according to the system of [[Pentarchy]]. Byzantine [[Emperor Leo III]] moved the border of the [[Patriarchate of Constantinople]] westward and northward in the 8th century.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2rayUr0j28wC&pg=PA203|title=Byzantium: Church, Society, and Civilization Seen Through Contemporary Eyes|first=Deno John|last=Geanakoplos|date=1984|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226284606}}</ref> The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces during the [[Arab–Byzantine wars]] began toward the end of the 8th century and most of the Greek peninsula came under imperial control again, during the 9th century.<ref name= EB2>{{cite web | url = https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26387/Byzantine-recovery |title=Greece During the Byzantine Period: Byzantine recovery | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica | website = Online |access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>{{Sfn | Fine | 1991 | pp =79–83}} This process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while at the same time many Slavs were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor.{{Sfn | Fine | 1991 | pp = 63–6}} During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stability resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from strong economic growth.<ref name=EB2 /> The [[Greek Orthodox Church]] was instrumental in the spread of Greek ideas to the wider [[Orthodoxy|Orthodox world]].<ref name=BritIdent>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title =Greece during the Byzantine period (c. AD 300 – c. 1453), Population and languages, Emerging Greek identity |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |id=Online Edition}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=September 2018 |reason=Where does it say that in the text?}}

[[File:Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes (9451928431).jpg|alt=|thumb|The [[Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes]], originally built in the late 7th century as a Byzantine citadel and beginning from 1309 used by the [[Knights Hospitaller]] as an administrative centre]]
Following the [[Fourth Crusade]] and fall of Constantinople to the "[[Latin Empire|Latins]]" in 1204, mainland Greece was split between the Greek [[Despotate of Epirus#Foundation|Despotate of Epirus]] and [[Kingdom of France|French]] rule<ref name = EB3>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26389/Results-of-the-Fourth-Crusade|title=Greece During the Byzantine Period: Results of the Fourth Crusade|publisher=Online Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref> (the ''[[Frankokratia]]'').<ref name= EB3A>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26395/The-islands|title=Greece During the Byzantine Period: The islands|publisher=Online Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=14 May 2012}}</ref> The re-establishment of the Byzantine imperial capital in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by the empire's recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankish [[Principality of Achaea]] in the Peloponnese and the rival Greek [[Despotate of Epirus]] in the north both remained regional powers into the 14th century, while the islands remained largely under Genoese and Venetian control.<ref name = EB3 /> During the [[Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty|Paleologi dynasty]] (1261–1453) a new era of Greek patriotism emerged accompanied by a turning back to ancient Greece.<ref name=Vasiliev/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moles |first1=Ian |title=Nationalism and Byzantine Greece |journal=Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies |date=1969 |page=102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJhOAAAAIAAJ |language=en|quote=Greek nationalism, in other words, was articulated as the boundaries of Byzantium shrank... the Palaeologian restoration that the two words are brought into definite and cognate relationship with 'nation' (Έθνος).}}</ref><ref name="RuncimanRunciman1985">{{cite book|author1=Steven Runciman|author2=Sir Steven Runciman|title=The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm5OGIBgoHMC&pg=PA120|date=24 October 1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-31310-0|page=120|quote=By the fifteenth century most Byzantine intellectuals alluded to themselves as Hellenes. John Argyropoulus even calls the Emperor 'Emperor of the Hellenes' and describes the last wars of Byzantium as a struggle for the freedom of Hellas.}}</ref><ref name=Vasiliev>{{cite book |last1=Vasiliev |first1=Alexander A. |title=History of the Byzantine Empire, 324–1453 |date=1964 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0299809256 |page=582 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RtM0qClcIX4C |language=en}}</ref><ref name="RuncimanRunciman1985"/><ref name="CareyCarey1968">{{cite book|author1=Jane Perry Clark Carey|author2=Andrew Galbraith Carey|title=The Web of Modern Greek Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltw7AAAAMAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Columbia University Press|page =33|isbn=978-0231031707|quote = By the end of the fourteenth century the Byzantine emperor was often called "Emperor of the Hellenes"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hilsdale |first1=Cecily J. |title=Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1107729384 |pages=82–83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7GkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |language=en}}</ref>

In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Byzantine Empire to the [[Serbs]] and then to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]].<ref name = EB4>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26391/Thessaly-and-surrounding-regions|title=Greece During the Byzantine Period: Serbian and Ottoman advances|publisher=Online Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref> By the beginning of the 15th century, the Ottoman advance meant Byzantine territory in Greece was limited mainly to its then-largest city, Thessaloniki, and the Peloponnese.<ref name=EB4 /> Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and by 1460, Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece was complete.<ref name= EB5>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26391/Thessaly-and-surrounding-regions|title=Greece During the Byzantine Period: The Peloponnese advances|publisher=Online Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref> With the Turkish conquest, many Byzantine Greek scholars, who up until then were largely responsible for preserving [[Classical Greece|Classical Greek]] knowledge, fled to the West, taking with them a large body of literature and thereby significantly [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|contributing to the Renaissance]].<ref name= JJN>{{cite book |title= A Short History of Byzantium |last= Norwich |first= John Julius|year=1997 |publisher= Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-679-77269-9 |page = xxi}}</ref>

=== Venetian possessions and Ottoman rule (15th century – 1821) ===
{{Main|Ottoman Greece|Stato da Màr}}
{{Further|Phanariotes|Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople}}
{{See also|Kingdom of Candia|Ionian Islands under Venetian rule}}

[[File:Angelokastro (Corfu).jpg|thumb|The [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] castle of [[Angelokastro (Corfu)|Angelokastro]] successfully repulsed the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] during the [[Siege of Corfu (1537)|first great siege of Corfu in 1537]], the siege of 1571, and the [[Siege of Corfu (1716)|second great siege of Corfu in 1716]], causing them to abandon their plans to conquer [[Corfu]].<ref name="Stamatopoulos1993">{{cite book|author=Nondas Stamatopoulos|title=Old Corfu: history and culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6m0-AQAAIAAJ|access-date=6 April 2013|year=1993|publisher=N. Stamatopoulos|pages=164–165|isbn=9789608403000|quote=Again, during the first great siege of Corfu by the Turks in 1537, Angelocastro ... and After a siege lasting a year the invaders were finally driven away by the defenders of the fortress who were helped by the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages. In 1571, when they once more invaded Corfu, the Turks again unsuccessfully attacked, Angelocastro, where 4,000 people had taken refuge. During the second great siege of the city by the Turks in 1716, Angelokastro once again served}}</ref>]]

While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, [[Cyprus]] and [[Crete]] remained [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670 respectively.{{sfn|Clogg|1992|p=10}} While some Greeks in the [[Ionian Islands]] and [[Constantinople]] lived in prosperity, and Greeks of Constantinople ([[Phanariotes]]) achieved power within the Ottoman administration,{{sfn|Clogg|1992|p=23}} much of Greece suffered the economic consequences of Ottoman conquest. Heavy taxes were enforced, and in later years the Ottoman Empire enacted a policy of creation of hereditary estates, effectively turning the rural Greek populations into [[serfdom|serfs]].<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Kourvetaris | first1 = George | last2 = Dobratz | first2 = Betty | title = A profile of modern Greece: in search of identity | page = 33 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ePwcAAAAYAAJ&q=Greece+chiflik+serfs | publisher = Clarendon Press | year = 1987| isbn = 9780198275510 }}</ref>

The [[Greek Orthodox Church]] and the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]] were considered by the Ottoman governments as the ruling authorities of the entire [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] population of the Ottoman Empire, whether ethnically Greek or not. Although the Ottoman state did not force non-Muslims to convert to [[Islam]], Christians faced discrimination intended to highlight their inferior status in the Empire. Discrimination, particularly when combined with harsh treatment by local Ottoman authorities, led to conversions to Islam, if only superficially. In the 19th century, many "crypto-Christians" returned to their old religious allegiance.{{sfn|Clogg|1992|p=14}}

[[File:White Tower and Beach front.jpg|thumb|The [[White Tower of Thessaloniki]], one of the best-known Ottoman structures remaining in Greece]]

The nature of Ottoman administration of Greece varied, though it was invariably arbitrary and often harsh.{{Sfn|Clogg|1992|p=14}} Some cities had governors appointed by the [[Ottoman Sultan|Sultan]], while others, like Athens, were self-governed municipalities. Mountainous regions in the interior and many islands remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for many centuries.{{sfn|Clogg|1992}}{{page needed| date = March 2013}}

Prior to the Greek Revolution of 1821, there had been a number of wars which saw Greeks fight against the Ottomans, such as the Greek participation in the [[Battle of Lepanto]] in 1571, the Epirus peasants' revolts of 1600–1601, the [[Morean War]] of 1684–1699, and the [[Russian Empire|Russian]]-instigated [[Orlov Revolt]] in 1770, which aimed at breaking up the Ottoman Empire in favour of Russian interests.{{sfn|Clogg|1992}}{{page needed| date = March 2013}} These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed.<ref>{{Cite book | first = Lyn | last = Harrington | title = Greece and the Greeks | page = 124 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d7BAAAAAIAAJ&q=greece+revolts+ottoman+rule+bloodshed | publisher = T Nelson | year = 1968}}, 221 pp.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | first1 = Jamie | last1 = Stokes | first2 = Anthony | last2 = Gorman | title = Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East | page = 256 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=stl97FdyRswC&q=greece%20ottoman%20rule%20revolts%20orlov&pg=PA256 | publisher = Infobase | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-1-4381-2676-0}}</ref> On the other side, many Greeks were conscripted as Ottoman citizens to serve in the Ottoman army and especially the navy, while also the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]], responsible for the Orthodox, remained in general loyal to the Empire.

The 16th and 17th centuries are regarded as something of a "dark age" in Greek history, with the prospect of overthrowing Ottoman rule appearing remote with only the Ionian islands remaining free of Turkish domination. [[Corfu]] withstood three major sieges all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans. However, in the 18th century, due to their mastery of shipping and commerce, a wealthy and dispersed Greek merchant class arose. These merchants came to dominate trade within the Ottoman Empire, establishing communities throughout the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Western Europe. Though the Ottoman conquest had cut Greece off from significant European intellectual movements such as the [[Reformation]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], these ideas together with the ideals of the [[French Revolution]] and [[romantic nationalism]] began to penetrate the Greek world via the mercantile diaspora.{{Sfn | Clogg | 1992|page=27}} In the late 18th century, [[Rigas Feraios]], the first revolutionary to envision an independent Greek state, published documents relating to Greek independence, in [[Vienna]]. Feraios was murdered by Ottoman agents in 1798.{{Sfn | Clogg | 1992|page=31}}<ref>{{Cite book | first = Olga | last = Katsiaridi-Hering | chapter = La famiglia nell'economia europea, secc. XIII-XVIII | title = Atti della "quarantesima Settimana di studi," 6–10 Aprile 2008 | publisher = Istituto internazionale di storia economica F. Datini. Simonetta Cavaciocchi. Firenze University Press | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-88-8453-910-6 | page = 410 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WsyHfHzeP_8C&q=rigas%20feraios%20murdered&pg=PA410}}</ref>

===Modern nation-state===
{{Main|History of modern Greece}}

==== Greek War of Independence (1821–1832) ====
{{Main|Greek War of Independence}}
{{See also|Modern Greek Enlightenment|Wikisource:Greek_Declaration_of_Independence|label 2=Greek Declaration of Independence|First Hellenic Republic}}
[[File:The sortie of Messologhi by Theodore Vryzakis.jpg|thumb|''The sortie (exodus) of [[Messolonghi]]'', depicting the [[third siege of Missolonghi]], painted by [[Theodoros Vryzakis]]]]

In the late eighteenth century, an increase in secular learning during the [[Modern Greek Enlightenment]] led to the emergence among [[Westernization|Westernized]] Greek-speaking [[elite]]s of the diaspora of the [[Greek nationalism|notion of a Greek nation]] tracing its existence to [[ancient Greece]], distinct from the other Orthodox peoples, and having a right to [[political autonomy]]. One of the organizations formed in this intellectual milieu was the [[Filiki Eteria]], a secret organization formed by merchants in [[Odesa]] in 1814.<ref>{{harvnb|Hatzopoulos|2009|pp=81–3}}.</ref> Appropriating a long-standing tradition of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] messianic prophecy aspiring to the resurrection of the [[eastern Roman empire]] and creating the impression they had the backing of [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russia]], they managed amidst a crisis of Ottoman trade, from 1815 onwards, to engage the Greek Orthodox world in their [[liberal nationalism|liberal nationalist]] cause.<ref>{{harvnb|Hatzopoulos|2009}}. For the crisis of maritime trade from 1815 onwards, see {{harvnb|Kremmydas|1977}} and {{harvnb|Kremmydas|2002}}.</ref> The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolution in the [[Peloponnese]], the [[Danubian Principalities]] and [[Constantinople]]. The first revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north spurred the Greeks of the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 the [[Maniots]] declared war on the Ottomans.<ref name="Brewer, D. 2001, pp. 235">Brewer, D. ''The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation.'' Overlook Press, 2001, {{ISBN|1-58567-172-X}}, pp. 235–36.</ref>

By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt and by October 1821 the Greeks under [[Theodoros Kolokotronis]] had captured [[Tripoli, Greece|Tripolitsa]]. The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]] and [[Central Greece]], which would soon be suppressed. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottomans. In 1822 and 1824 the Turks and Egyptians ravaged the islands, committing wholesale [[Massacres during the Greek Revolution|massacres]] of the population.<ref name="Brewer, D. 2001, pp. 235" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Spencer C. |title=A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East |date=2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781851096725 | page=1140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5_tSnygvbIC&pg=PA1140}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.qgazette.com/news/2007-11-28/features/016.html|title=The Chios Massacre Of 1822|work=Queens Gazette|access-date=11 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111173817/http://www.qgazette.com/news/2007-11-28/features/016.html|archive-date=11 November 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> This galvanized opinion in western Europe in favour of the Greek rebels.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Klose|first1=Fabian|title=The Emergence of Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas and Practice...|date=2016|publisher=Clays|isbn=9781107075511|page=175|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cMvZCgAAQBAJ&q=castlereagh+chios&pg=PA175|access-date=6 August 2017}}</ref>

Tensions developed among Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. Meanwhile, the [[Ottoman Sultan]] [[Mahmud II]] negotiated with [[Mehmet Ali of Egypt]], who agreed to send his son [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]] with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gain.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Willert|first=Trine Stauning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gB1tDwAAQBAJ&q=The+New+Ottoman+Greece+in+History+and+Fiction|title=The New Ottoman Greece in History and Fiction|date=4 September 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-93849-3|pages=71–100|language=en}}</ref> Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control. Although Ibrahim was defeated in [[Mani Peninsula|Mani]], he succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese, and Athens had been retaken.<ref>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Ibrahim Pasha |volume=14 |pages=223–224 |inline=1}}</ref>

After years of negotiation, three [[great powers]], [[Bourbon Restoration in France|France]], [[Russian Empire]], and the UK, intervened in the conflict and each sent a navy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woodhouse |first=Christopher Montague |year=1965 |title=The Battle of Navarino |pages=117–18, 137, 139}}</ref> Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of [[Hydra, Saronic Islands|Hydra]], the allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet and destroyed it at the [[Battle of Navarino]]. The Greeks proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828. The [[First Hellenic Republic|nascent Greek state]] was finally recognised under the [[London Protocol (1830)|London Protocol]] in 1830.<ref>{{cite book |title=Η αντιπολίτευση κατά του κυβερνήτη Ιωάννη Καποδίστρια |first=Χρήστος |last=Λούκος |publisher=Θεμέλιο |year=1988 |location=Αθήνα, Ελλάδα |page=187 |language=el}}</ref>

====Kingdom of Greece====
{{Main|Kingdom of Greece}}
[[File:Peter von Hess - The Entry of King Othon of Greece in Athens - WGA11387.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The Entry of [[Otto of Greece|King Otto]] in Athens'', painted by [[Peter von Hess]] in 1839]]

In 1827, [[Ioannis Kapodistrias]], was chosen by the [[Third National Assembly at Troezen]] as the first governor of the [[First Hellenic Republic]]. Kapodistrias established state, economic and military institutions. Soon tensions appeared between him and local interests. Following his assassination in 1831 and the [[London Conference of 1832|London conference]] a year later, the [[Great Power]]s of Britain, France and Russia installed Bavarian Prince [[Otto of Greece|Otto von Wittelsbach]] as [[Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)|monarch]].<ref name="britannica otto">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Otto |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Otto-king-of-Greece |language=en |access-date=1 September 2018}}</ref> Otto's reign was [[despotism|despotic]], and in its first 11 years of independence Greece was ruled by a Bavarian oligarchy led by [[Joseph Ludwig von Armansperg]] and, later, by Otto himself, as King and Premier.<ref name="britannica otto" /> Greece remained under the influence of its three protecting great powers, [[July Monarchy|France]], Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fXfatJ1aQq0C&q=king%2520otto%2520german%2520language%2520administration%2520greece&pg=PA71 |title=The Theory and Practice of Institutional Transplantation: Experiences with the Transfer of Policy Institutions |last1=Jong |first1=M. de |last2=Lalenis |first2=K. |last3=Mamadouh |first3=V. D. |date=31 December 2002 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=9781402011085 |page=71 |language=en}}</ref> In 1843 an uprising forced Otto to grant a constitution and representative assembly.

Despite the [[absolute monarchy|absolutism]] of Otto's reign, the early years proved instrumental in developing institutions which are still the bedrock of Greek administration and education.<ref name="encyclopedia imperialism">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5zTkGKy4wEC&q=king%2520otto%2520german%2520language%2520administration%2520greece&pg=PA291 |title=Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914 |last=Hodge |first=Carl Cavanagh |date=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |page=291 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018|isbn=9780313043413 }}</ref> Important steps were taken in the education system, maritime and postal communications, effective civil administration and, most importantly, the [[legal code]].{{sfn|Great Greek Encyclopedia|page=50–51}} [[Historical revisionism]] took the form of de-[[Byzantine Empire|Byzantinification]] and de-[[Ottoman Empire|Ottomanisation]], in favour of promoting Ancient Greek heritage.<ref name="roudometof">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9p_m7oXQ00C&q=king%2520otto%2520german%2520language%2520administration%2520greece&pg=PA102 |title=Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans |last=Roudometof |first=Victor |date=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313319495 |pages=101–113 |language=en}}</ref> In this spirit, the capital was moved from [[Nafplio]], where it had been since 1829, to [[Athens]], then a smaller town.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vb2xAAAAIAAJ&q=otto+move+capital+athens |title=Planning and Urban Growth in Southern Europe |last=Wynn |first=Martin |date=1984 |publisher=Mansell |isbn=9780720116083 |page=6 |language=en}}</ref> Religious reform took place, and the [[Church of Greece]] was established as Greece's [[national church]]. 25 March, the day of [[Annunciation]], was chosen as the anniversary of the [[Greek War of Independence]] to reinforce the link between Greek identity and [[Orthodoxy]].<ref name="roudometof" /> [[Pavlos Karolidis]] called the Bavarian efforts to create a modern state in Greece as "not only appropriate for the peoples' needs, but also based on excellent administrative principles of the era".{{sfn|Great Greek Encyclopedia|page=50–51}}

Otto was deposed in the [[23 October 1862 Revolution]]. Multiple causes led to his deposition and exile, including the Bavarian-dominated government, heavy taxation, and a failed attempt to annex [[Crete]] from the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="britannica otto" /><ref name="encyclopedia imperialism" /> A year later, he was replaced by Prince Wilhelm of Denmark, who took the name [[George I of Greece|George I]] and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain. A [[Greek Constitution of 1864|new Constitution in 1864]] changed Greece's form of government from [[constitutional monarchy]] to the more democratic [[crowned republic]].{{sfn|Great Greek Encyclopedia|page=239|loc="Διὰ τοῦ Συντάγματος τοῦ 1864 καθιερώθει ὡς πολίτευμα διὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἡ κοινοβουλευτικὴ μοναρχία, ἣ, ὅπως ἄλλως ἐχαρακτηρίσθη, ἡ «βασιλευομένη δημοκρατία» ἣ «δημοκρατικὴ βασιλεία»" [Through the Constitution of 1864, constitutional monarchy, or, as it had been described, "crowned democracy", or "democratic monarchy", was consolidated as the form of government in Greece]}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/Vouli-ton-Ellinon/To-Politevma/Syntagmatiki-Istoria/ |title=Constitutional History |publisher=Hellenic Parliament |website=hellenicparliament.gr |access-date=4 September 2018 |quote=The revolt marked the end of constitutional monarchy and the beginning of a crowned democracy with George-Christian-Wilhelm of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Glücksburg dynasty as monarch.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RekVT4GnyYIC&q=crowned%2520republic%2520greece&pg=PA132 |title=Greece Country Study Guide: Strategic Information and Developments |publisher=International Business Publications, US |date=3 March 2012 |isbn=978-1-4387-7447-3 |page=131 |quote=In 1862, however, a revolt brought about important changes in the political system that led to the so-called "crowned democracy", i.e. a kingdom with a democratic government. }}{{Dead link|date=June 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1875 the concept of [[parliamentary majority]] as a requirement for the formation of a government was introduced by [[Charilaos Trikoupis]],<ref name="constitutional history">{{cite web |url=https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/Vouli-ton-Ellinon/To-Politevma/Syntagmatiki-Istoria/ |title=Constitutional History |publisher=Hellenic Parliament |website=hellenicparliament.gr |access-date=4 September 2018 }}</ref> curbing the power of the monarchy to appoint [[minority government]]s of its preference.

[[File:Map Greece expansion 1832-1947-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|The territorial evolution of the [[Kingdom of Greece]] from 1832 to 1947]]

Corruption, coupled with Trikoupis' increased spending to fund infrastructure like the [[Corinth Canal]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aedik.gr/frontend/articles.php?cid=44&scid=51 |title=The Countdown |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328044804/http://www.aedik.gr/frontend/articles.php?cid=44&scid=51 |archive-date=28 March 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> overtaxed the weak economy and forced the declaration of [[Sovereign default|public insolvency]] in 1893. Greece accepted the imposition of an [[International Financial Commission]] to enforce the repayment of the country's debtors.

Greeks were united, however, in their determination to liberate the [[regions of ancient Greece|Hellenic lands]] under Ottoman rule. Especially in Crete, a [[Cretan Revolt (1866–1869)|prolonged revolt in 1866–1869]] had raised nationalist fervour. When war broke out between [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russia and the Ottomans in 1877]], Greek popular sentiment rallied to Russia's side, but Greece was too poor and concerned about British intervention, to officially enter the war. Nevertheless, in 1881, [[Thessaly]] and small parts of [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]] were ceded to Greece as part of the [[Treaty of Berlin, 1878|Treaty of Berlin]], while frustrating Greek hopes of receiving Crete.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/13602000903411408 |title=The "New" Muslim Minorities in Greece: Between Emigration and Political Participation, 1881–1886 |first=Nicole |last=Immig |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |year=2009 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=511–522|s2cid=143664377}}</ref>

Greeks in Crete continued to stage revolts, and in 1897, the Greek government, bowing to popular pressure, declared war on the Ottomans. In the ensuing [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)|Greco-Turkish War of 1897]], the badly trained and equipped Greek army was defeated. Through the intervention of the Great Powers, however, Greece lost only a little territory, while Crete was established as an [[Cretan State|autonomous state]] under [[Prince George of Greece]]. With state coffers empty, fiscal policy came under [[International Financial Control]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/07/16/quand-la-france-et-l-allemagne-mirent-la-grece-sous-tutelle-en-1898_4685561_3234.html |website=Lemonde.fr |title=Quand la France et l'Allemagne mirent la Grèce sous tutelle… en 1898 |date=16 July 2015 |access-date=17 May 2022}}</ref> Alarmed by the abortive [[Ilinden uprising]] of the [[Autonomism (political doctrine)|autonomist]] [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]] (IMRO) in 1903, the Greek government, aiming to quell [[Komitadjis]] (IMRO bands) and detach the [[Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia|Slavophone peasants of the region]] from [[Bulgarian Macedonians|Bulgarian]] influence, sponsored a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] campaign in Ottoman-ruled [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]], led by Greek officers and known as the [[Macedonian Struggle]], which ended with the [[Young Turk Revolution]] in 1908.<ref>{{harvnb|Livanios|1999|pp=195–6}}, {{harvnb|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2002|pp=280–1}}, {{harvnb|Kostopoulos|2011}}.</ref>

==== Expansion, disaster, and reconstruction ====
{{See also|Greece in the Balkan Wars|Greece in World War I|National Schism|Second Hellenic Republic}}
[[File:Greek Parade Paris 1919.jpg|thumb|left|Hellenic Army formation in the [[World War I]] Victory Parade in [[Arc de Triomphe]], Paris, July 1919]]

Amidst general dissatisfaction with the seeming inertia and unattainability of [[Megali Idea|national aspirations]] under the premiership of the cautious reformist [[Georgios Theotokis|Theotokis]], military officers organised a [[Goudi coup|coup]] in 1909 and shortly thereafter called on Athens [[Cretan State|Cretan]] politician [[Eleftherios Venizelos]], who conveyed a vision of national regeneration. After winning [[Greek legislative election, August 1910|two]] [[Greek legislative election, November 1910|elections]] and becoming prime minister in 1910,<ref>{{harvnb|Mazower|1992|pp=886, 890–3, 895–900, 904}}</ref> Venizelos initiated wide-ranging fiscal, social, and [[Greek Constitution of 1911|constitutional reforms]], reorganised the military, made Greece a member of the [[Balkan League]], and led the country through the [[Balkan Wars]]. By 1913, Greece's territory and population had almost doubled, annexing [[Crete]], [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]], and [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]]. In the following years, the struggle between [[Constantine I of Greece|King Constantine I]] and charismatic Venizelos over the country's foreign policy on the eve of First World War dominated the country's political scene and divided the country into [[National Schism|two opposing groups]]. During parts of WW1, Greece had two governments: A royalist [[Central Powers|pro-German]] one in [[Athens]] and a [[Venizelism|Venizelist]] pro-[[Triple Entente|Entente]] one in [[Thessaloniki]]. The two governments united in 1917, when Greece officially entered the war on the side of the Entente.

[[File:Map of Great Greece (Megali Hellas) Venizelos c1920.jpg|thumb|Map of Greater Greece after the [[Treaty of Sèvres]], when the ''[[Megali Idea]]'' seemed close to fulfillment, featuring [[Eleftherios Venizelos]] as its supervising genius]]

In the aftermath of World War I, Greece attempted further expansion into [[Asia Minor]], a region with a large native Greek population at the time, but was defeated in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)]], contributing to a massive flight of [[Ottoman Greeks|Asia Minor Greeks]].<ref name=Gibney>{{cite book |author=Matthew J. Gibney, [[Randall Hansen]]. |title=Immigration and Asylum: from 1900 to the Present, Volume 3 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/immigrationasylu00matt/page/377 377] |isbn=978-1-57607-796-2 |quote=The total number of Christians who fled to Greece was probably in the region of I.2 million with the main wave occurring in 1922 before the signing of the convention. According to the official records of the Mixed Commission set up to monitor the movements, the Greeks who were transferred after 1923 numbered 189,916 and the number of Muslims expelled to Turkey was 355,635 (Ladas I932, 438–439), but using the same source Eddy 1931, 201 states that the post-1923 exchange involved 192,356 Greeks from Turkey and 354,647 Muslims from Greece. |url=https://archive.org/details/immigrationasylu00matt/page/377 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sofos |first1=Spyros A. |last2=Özkirimli |first2=Umut |author2-link=Umut Özkirimli |title=Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey |publisher=C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd |year=2008 |pages=116–117 |isbn=978-1-85065-899-3 }}</ref> These events overlapped, with both happening during the [[Greek genocide]] (1914–1922),<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1080/14623520801950820 | last1 = Schaller | first1 = Dominik J | last2 = Zimmerer | first2 = Jürgen | year = 2008 | title = Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies&nbsp;– introduction | journal = Journal of Genocide Research | volume = 10 | issue = 1| pages = 7–14| s2cid = 71515470 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url = http://news.am/eng/news/16644.html | title = Genocide Resolution approved by Swedish Parliament | publisher = News.AM}}, containing both the IAGS and the Swedish resolutions.</ref><ref>Gaunt, David. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140102130735/http://books.google.com/books?id=4mug9LrpLKcC Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I]''. Piscataway, [[New Jersey|NJ]]: Gorgias Press, 2006.</ref><ref>{{cite news | author-link = Chris Hedges| last = Hedges | first = Chris | date = 17 September 2000 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/17/nyregion/a-few-words-in-greek-tell-of-a-homeland-lost.html | title = A Few Words in Greek Tell of a Homeland Lost | newspaper = [[The New York Times]]}}</ref> a period during which, according to various sources,<ref>{{Cite journal | first = RJ | last = Rummel | author-link = R. J. Rummel | year = 1998 | title = The Holocaust in Comparative and Historical Perspective | journal = Idea Journal of Social Issues | volume = 3 | number = 2}}</ref> Ottoman and Turkish officials contributed to the death of several hundred thousand Asia Minor Greeks, along with similar numbers of [[Assyrian genocide|Assyrians]] and a rather larger number of [[Armenian genocide|Armenians]]. The resultant Greek exodus from Asia Minor was made permanent, and expanded, in an official [[population exchange between Greece and Turkey]]. The exchange was part of the terms of the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] which ended the war.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Annette Grossbongardt|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/christians-in-turkey-the-diaspora-welcomes-the-pope-a-451140.html|title=Christians in Turkey: The Diaspora Welcomes the Pope|magazine=[[Der Spiegel]]|date=28 November 2006}}</ref> The following era was marked by instability, as over 1.5&nbsp;million propertyless Greek refugees from Turkey had to be integrated into Greek society. Some refugees could not speak the language and were from unfamiliar environments to mainland Greeks. The refugees made a dramatic post-war population boost, as the refugees were more than a quarter of Greece's prior population.<ref>Howland, Charles P. [http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68710/charles-p-howland/greece-and-her-refugees "Greece and Her Refugees"], ''Foreign Affairs'', [[The Council on Foreign Relations]]. July 1926.</ref>

Following the catastrophic events in Asia Minor, the monarchy was abolished [[Greek republic referendum, 1924|via a referendum]] in 1924 and the [[Second Hellenic Republic]] was declared.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.et.gr/idocs-nph/search/pdfViewerForm.html?args=5C7QrtC22wFDWqVnkvhsTndtvSoClrL8BI7vRxXKg8ztIl9LGdkF53UIxsx942CdyqxSQYNuqAGCF0IfB9HI6hq6ZkZV96FIfmAIHno4xZaiebsKTXkZGFzZyd4dunA0LfOa-Yg4kaY. |title=Newspaper of the Government – Issue 64 |date=25 March 1924 |work=Government Newspaper of the Hellenic State |access-date=18 May 2022}}</ref> In 1935, a royalist general-turned-politician [[Georgios Kondylis]] took power after a coup and abolished the republic, holding [[Greek monarchy referendum, 1935|a rigged referendum]], after which [[George II of Greece|King George II]] returned to Greece and was restored to the throne.

==== Dictatorship, World War II, and reconstruction ====
{{See also|4th of August Regime|Balkans campaign (World War II){{!}}Balkans campaign|Axis occupation of Greece|Hellenic State (1941–1944){{!}}Hellenic State|Greek Civil War}}

An agreement between Prime Minister [[Ioannis Metaxas]] and the head of state [[George II of Greece|George II]] followed in 1936, which installed Metaxas as the head of a dictatorial regime known as the [[4th of August Regime]], that would last, with short breaks, until 1974.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hagen|first=Fleischer|title=Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe: Legacies and Lessons from the Twentieth Century|chapter=Authoritarian Rule in Greece (1936–1974) and Its Heritage|year=2006|location=New York/Oxford|publisher=Berghahn|page=237}}</ref> Although a dictatorship, Greece remained on good terms with Britain and was not allied with the [[Axis powers|Axis]].

[[File:Triple Occupation of Greece.png|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Axis occupation of Greece]].<br/>{{legend-inline|#d09313|[[Kingdom of Italy|Italian]]}} {{legend-inline|#e4001f|[[Nazi Germany|German]]}} {{legend-inline|#32c714|[[History of Independent Bulgaria|Bulgarian]]}}<br />{{legend-inline|#8a500f|Dodecanese, [[Italian Islands of the Aegean|Italian possession]] since 1912}}]]

On 28 October 1940, [[Kingdom of Italy|Fascist Italy]] demanded the surrender of Greece, but it [[Ohi Day|refused]], and, in the [[Greco-Italian War]], Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania, giving the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] their first victory over Axis forces on land. The Greek victory against the Italians received exuberant praise.<ref name="Fafalios and Hadjipateras, p. 157">Fafalios and Hadjipateras, p. 157</ref>{{cnf}} French general [[Charles de Gaulle]] praised the fierceness of the Greek resistance. In an official notice released to coincide with the Greek national celebration of the Day of Independence, De Gaulle expressed his admiration:<blockquote>In the name of the captured yet still alive French people, France wants to send her greetings to the Greek people who are fighting for their freedom. The 25 March 1941 finds Greece in the peak of their heroic struggle and in the top of their glory. Since the Battle of Salamis, Greece had not achieved the greatness and the glory which today holds.<ref name="Fafalios and Hadjipateras, p. 157" /></blockquote> The country would eventually fall to urgently dispatched [[Nazi Germany|German]] forces during the [[Battle of Greece]].
[[File:Αθηναίοι γιορτάζουν την απελευθέρωση της πόλης τους, Οκτώβριος 1944.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|left|People in [[Athens]] celebrate the liberation from the Axis powers, October 1944. Postwar Greece would soon experience a [[Greek civil war|civil war]] and political polarization.]]

The Nazis proceeded to administer Athens and Thessaloniki, while other regions of the country were given to Nazi Germany's partners, Fascist Italy and Bulgaria. The occupation brought terrible hardships for the civilian population. Over 100,000 civilians died of starvation during the winter of 1941–42, tens of thousands more died because of reprisals by Nazis and [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#Greece|collaborators]], the economy was ruined, and most [[History of the Jews in Greece|Greek Jews]] (tens of thousands) were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia | url = https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26430/Greek-history-since-World-War-IGreece | title = Greek history since World War I | encyclopedia = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]| date = 14 June 2023 }}</ref><ref name="Mazower 2001, p. 155">Mazower (2001), p. 155</ref> The [[Greek Resistance]], one of the most effective resistance movements, fought vehemently against the Nazis and their collaborators. The German occupiers committed [[German war crimes#Greece|atrocities, mass executions, and wholesale slaughter of civilians and destruction of towns and villages]] in reprisals. Hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost 1 million Greeks left homeless.<ref name="Mazower 2001, p. 155" /> The Germans executed around 21,000 Greeks, the Bulgarians executed 40,000, and the Italians executed 9,000.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/423851310 |title=Die Wehrmacht eine Bilanz |date=2009 |others=Guido Knopp, Mario Sporn |isbn=978-3-442-15561-3 |edition=Taschenbuchausg., 1. Aufl |location=München |oclc=423851310}}</ref><!-- Does this include the 60,000-70,000 Jews mentioned at [[History_of_the_Jews_in_Greece#World_War_II,_Resistance_and_the_Holocaust]] ?-->

Following liberation, Greece annexed the [[Dodecanese Islands]] from Italy and regained [[Western Thrace]] from Bulgaria. The country almost immediately descended into [[Greek Civil War|a bloody civil war]] between [[Communism|communist]] forces and the anti-communist Greek government, which lasted until 1949, with the latter's victory. The conflict, one of the earliest struggles of the [[Cold War]],<ref name= Noam&Chomsky>{{cite book|last= Chomsky|first= Noam|title= ''World Orders, Old And New''|publisher= Pluto Press London|year= 1994}}</ref> resulted in further economic devastation, mass population displacement and political polarisation for the next thirty years.<ref>[[Mark Mazower|Mazower, Mark]]. ''After the War was Over''.</ref>

Although the post-war decades were characterised by social strife and widespread marginalisation of the left in political and social spheres, Greece nonetheless experienced [[Greek economic miracle|rapid economic growth]] and recovery, propelled in part by the U.S.-administered [[Marshall Plan]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present|date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-50718-0|page=51, Figure 2.3 "Numeracy in selected Balkan and Caucasus countries", based on data from Crayen and Baten (2010)|author=Baten, Jörg}}</ref> In 1952, Greece joined [[NATO]], reinforcing its membership in the [[Western Bloc]] of the Cold War.<ref name="Chourchoulis Kourkouvelas 2012 pp. 497–514">{{cite journal | last1=Chourchoulis | first1=Dionysios | last2=Kourkouvelas | first2=Lykourgos | title=Greek perceptions of NATO during the Cold War | journal=Southeast European and Black Sea Studies | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=12 | issue=4 | date=26 November 2012 | issn=1468-3857 | doi=10.1080/14683857.2012.741848 | pages=497–514| s2cid=153476225 }}</ref>

[[Constantine II of Greece|King Constantine II]]'s [[Apostasia of 1965|dismissal]] of [[George Papandreou (senior)|George Papandreou]]'s centrist government in July 1965 prompted political turbulence, which culminated in a coup in April 1967 by the [[Greek military junta of 1967–1974|Regime of the Colonels]]. Under the junta, civil rights were suspended, political repression was intensified, and human rights abuses, including state-sanctioned torture, were rampant. Economic growth remained rapid before plateauing in 1972. The brutal suppression of the [[Athens Polytechnic uprising]] in November 1973 set in motion the fall of the Papadopoulos regime, resulting in a counter-coup which overthrew [[Georgios Papadopoulos]] and established brigadier [[Dimitrios Ioannidis]] as the new junta strongman. On 20 July 1974, [[Turkish invasion of Cyprus|Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus]] in response to a Greek-backed Cypriot coup, triggering a political crisis in Greece that led to the regime's collapse and the restoration of democracy through [[Metapolitefsi]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=34. Cyprus (1960–present) |url=https://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/europerussiacentral-asia-region/cyprus-1960-present/ |access-date=2 June 2023 |website=uca.edu |language=en-US}}</ref>

==== Third Hellenic Republic ====
{{Main|Third Hellenic Republic}}
[[File:Accession of Greece to the European Union.png|thumb|Signing at [[Zappeion]] by [[Constantine Karamanlis]] of the documents for the accession of Greece to the [[European Union|European Communities]] in 1979]]

The former prime minister [[Konstantinos Karamanlis]] was invited back from Paris where he had lived in self-exile since 1963. The [[Greek legislative election, 1974|first multiparty elections]] since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. A democratic and republican [[Constitution of Greece|constitution]] was promulgated in 1975 following a [[Greek republic referendum, 1974|referendum]] which chose to not restore the monarchy.

Meanwhile, [[Andreas Papandreou]], George Papandreou's son, founded the [[Panhellenic Socialist Movement]] (PASOK) in response to Karamanlis's conservative [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] party, with the two political formations dominating government over the next four decades. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980.{{Refn | group = lower-alpha | name="integrated1974" | On 14 August 1974 Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of [[NATO]] in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus; Greece rejoined NATO in 1980.}}<ref name="AdamHartDavis">History, Editorial Consultant: Adam Hart-Davis. [[Dorling Kindersley]]. {{ISBN|978-1-85613-062-2}}.</ref> Greece became the tenth member of the [[European Communities]] in 1981, ushering in sustained growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the [[European Union]] and growing revenue from tourism, shipping, and a fast-growing service sector raised the [[standard of living]] to unprecedented levels. In 1981, the election of [[Andreas Papandreou]] resulted in reforms over the 1980s. He recognised the national resistance during WW2, civil marriage, the dowry was abolished, while education and foreign policy doctrines changed. However, Papandreou's tenure has been associated with corruption, high inflation, stagnation and budget deficits that later caused problems.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 February 2019 |title=The ideal Greek everyman: Andreas Papandreou at 100 |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2019/02/05/the-ideal-greek-everyman-andreas-papandreou-at-100/ |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=EUROPP}}</ref>

The country adopted the euro in 2001 and successfully hosted the [[2004 Summer Olympics|2004 Summer Olympic Games]] in Athens.<ref name="europa.eu">{{cite web|url=http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/member-countries/greece/index_en.htm|publisher=European Union|access-date=7 April 2007|title=Greece}}</ref> Beginning in 2010, Greece suffered from the [[Great Recession]] and related [[European sovereign debt crisis]]. Due to the adoption of the euro, Greece could no longer [[Devaluation|devalue]] its currency to regain competitiveness. [[Youth unemployment]] was especially high.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present|date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-50718-0|page=66|author=Baten, Jörg}}</ref> In the elections of May and June 2012, there was a major political change, with new parties emerging from the collapse of the two main parties, PASOK and New Democracy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Konstantinidou |first=Diana |date=28 June 2012 |title=Elections 2012: the Greek political system in flux? |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/greeceatlse/2012/06/28/elections-2012-the-greek-political-system-in-flux/ |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Greece@LSE}}</ref> In 2015, [[Alexis Tsipras]] was elected as prime minister, the first outside the two main parties.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Syriza's historic win puts Greece on collision course with Europe {{!}} Greece {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/syriza-historic-win-greece-european-union-austerity |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=amp.theguardian.com}}</ref> The [[Greek government-debt crisis]], and subsequent austerity policies, resulted in social strife. The crisis ended around 2018, with the end of the bailout mechanisms and return of growth.<ref name="Bailout exit Reuters" /> Simultaneously, Tsipras, and the leader of North Macedonia, [[Zoran Zaev]], signed the [[Prespa Agreement]], solving the [[Macedonia naming dispute|naming dispute]] that had strained the relations and eased the latter's way to become a member of the EU and NATO.<ref>{{Cite web |title=After the Prespa Agreement: Why North Macedonia's Accession to EU won't happen in the near future {{!}} Ústav mezinárodních vztahů – Expertise to impact |url=https://www.iir.cz/after-the-prespa-agreement-why-north-macedonia-s-accession-to-eu-won-t-happen-in-the-near-future |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=www.iir.cz |language=cs}}</ref>

In 2019, [[Kyriakos Mitsotakis]] became Greece's new prime minister, after his centre-right New Democracy won the [[2019 Greek legislative election|election]] over ruling leftist Syriza.<ref>{{cite news |title=New era as Mitsotakis is sworn in as Greece's new PM |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/7/8/kyriakos-mitsotakis-sworn-in-as-greeces-new-prime-minister |work=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref> In 2020, Greece's parliament elected a non-partisan candidate, [[Katerina Sakellaropoulou]], as the first female [[President of Greece]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/13/greeces-first-female-president-sworn-in|title=Greece swears in first female president|website=www.aljazeera.com}}</ref> During the 2020s, the Greek economy continues to rebound, as a result of post-Covid recovery, robust investments, and an increase in tourism and consumer spending.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 January 2023 |title=Greek economy to slow in 2023 as energy costs, Ukraine war hit spending -OECD |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/greek-economy-slow-2023-surging-energy-costs-ukraine-war-hit-spending-oecd-2023-01-10/ |access-date=9 May 2023}}</ref> In February 2024, Greece became the first Orthodox Christian country to recognise same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Helena |title=Greece becomes first Orthodox Christian country to legalise same-sex marriage |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/greece-becomes-first-orthodox-christian-country-to-legalise-same-sex-marriage |work=The Guardian |date=15 February 2024 |access-date=16 February 2024}}</ref>
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