Drama Δράμα
Location
Drama
Coordinates	41°9′N 24°8′E / 41.15°N 24.133°E / 41.15; 24.133Coordinates: 41°9′N 24°8′E / 41.15°N 24.133°E / 41.15; 24.133
Location within the region
Government
Country:	Greece
Region:	East Macedonia and Thrace
Regional unit:	Drama
Mayor:	Kiriakos Charakidis[1]
Population statistics (as of 2001)
Municipality
- Population:	56,062
- Area:	833.0 km2 (322 sq mi)
- Density:	67 /km2 (174 /sq mi)
Municipal unit
- Population:	55,632
- Area:	488.8 km2 (189 sq mi)
- Density:	114 /km2 (295 /sq mi)
Community
- Population:	43,485
Other
Time zone:	EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (center):	115 m (377 ft)
Postal code:	661 00
Telephone:	25210
Auto:	ΡΜ

Drama (Greek: Δράμα [ˈðrama]), the ancient Drabescus (Greek: Δράβησκος), is a town and municipality in northeastern Greece. Drama is the capital of the regional unit of Drama which is part of the East Macedonia and Thrace region. The town (pop. 42,501 in 2001) is the economic center of the municipality (pop. 55,632), which in turn comprises 53.5 percent of the prefecture's population. The next largest communities in the municipality are Choristi (pop. 2,625), Χiropótamos (2,601), Kalós Agrós (1,216), Kallífytos (1,083), and Koudoúnia (885).

Name[link]

Drama has excellent water resources and may well owe its name to Hydrama (Greek: "having to do with water"), a town which it is believed stood on the same site in ancient times. In the Roman era, Drabescus was a trade center and military camp on the Via Egnatia. Since the Middle Ages it has been known as Δράμα in Greek and Драма in Bulgarian.

History[link]

Part of the town's Byzantine walls.

Drama was part of Roman and Byzantine Empires. The region was conquered by Ottoman Empire in 1371. In 1912 during the First Balkan War, Drama was taken from the Ottomans by Bulgarian troops. Subsequently, in 1913 as a result of the Treaty of Bucharest, following the Second Balkan War, it was incorporated into Greece along with the rest of Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace.

Drama was occupied by Bulgarian troops from 1941 to 1944 during World War II.

The Drama uprising and the Drama massacre[link]

On September 29, 1941, in response to local communist guerrilla attacks against the Bulgarians in the villages of Drama, the Bulgarian occupation forces applied harsh reprisals in Drama, Doxato and several villages like Choristi, Kyrgia, Koudounia and Prosotsani.^[2]

The deportation of Drama's Jews[link]

The Holocaust memorial.

On March 4, 1943 after midnight, there was an action all over Thrace, including in the city of Drama. Bulgarian soldiers led by foot and freight trains all the 4,000 Jews in Thrace, including the 589 from Drama, into Bulgarian territory and assembled them in the tobacco warehouses that were empty this time of year. From there, the Jews were taken by train to the extermination camp of Treblinka. No one of the 589 Jews from Drama came back.^[3][4]

Economy[link]

Old mansion in Drama.

The church of St.Panteleimon.

In the recent past the economy of the Drama area relied heavily on the local paper and textile-clothing industries. However, these industries have either closed down or moved across the border to Bulgaria,^[5] because of the low demands of the Bulgarian workforce,^[6] with a negative impact on the local economy and employment. The situation worsened after 2007, when Bulgaria was admitted to the EU, and local Greek businessmen moved to expand their operations there. Other sources of revenue include agriculture, consisting mainly of tobacco plantations, small-scale mining (particularly of marble) and forestry. Recently, there have been efforts to exploit the rich local natural environment and to develop ecotourism.

There is a modern ski resort on Mount Falakro. Drama also hosts an annual short film festival[2].

Municipality[link]

The municipality Drama was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 2 former municipalities, that became municipal units (constituent communities in brackets):^[7]

• Drama (Choristi, Drama, Kallifytos, Kalos Agros, Koudounia, Livadero, Makryplagio, Mavrovatos, Mikrochori, Monastiraki, Mylopotamos, Nikotsaras, Xiropotamos)
• Sidironero (Sidironero, Skaloti)

Population[link]

Corporation with other cities[link]

• Kragujevac, Serbia
• Lauf an der Pegnitz, Germany

Culture[link]

Since 1978, Drama hosts a Short Film Festival. In 1987, the festival was recognized nationally. It which was included in 1996 in the National Cultural Network of Cities by the Greek Ministry of Culture.^[8]

Museums[link]

Archaeological Museum[link]

Vertical sundial from 1069 AD at Archaeological museum Dramas

Two exceptional works of art in copperThe Archaeological Museum of Drama covers human presence in the prefecture of Drama from the mid Paleolithic Period (50,000 years before present) with traces of life from Paleolithic hunts in the caves of the source of the Angitis, up to modern times (1913).

The exhibition space consists of three main halls. In the first archaeological finds from the cave of Maara give witness to the presence of nomadic hunters in the area from the mid Palaeolithic period, while other finds show us about the life of settled farmers and animal rearers from Neolithic villages and the passage of the Copper Age in the city of Drama and the village of Sitagri. The reproduction of a Neolithic house with finds which describe the activities of Neolithic man and his daily activities is the main centre of interest for visitors of all ages.

Bust of Dionysius, found in the area of Kali Vrysi. The same hall continues the journey through time to the Iron Age and later years where the main element was the worship of Dionysius at the city of Drama itself and at Kali Vrysi and other areas of the prefecture. In the second hall architectural sculptures, pottery and coins confirm that life continued in the city and throughout the whole prefecture during early Christian, Byzantine and post-Byzantine years.

The visitor is taken through modem recent history by a photographic exhibition relating to the city of Drama, the towns of the prefecture and the mountain villages. The exhibition covers the period from the beginning of Turkish occupation up to the middle of the 19th century. In the third hall which is roofed with an atrium, the visitor can admire sculptures arranged into three thematic groups. The first includes architectural sculptures dating from ancient times up to Turkish occupation. The second contains votive monuments connected with the worship of various gods in the Greco-Roman pantheon as well as local deities, with particular reference to Dionysius while the third group of sculptures focuses on funerary monuments from Hellenistic and Roman times.

Ecclesiastical Museum[link]

The history of the Christian Church in Drama began during the Byzantine period and underwent difficult and troubled times. From the 14th century when the city was captured by the Ottomans until the 20th century with successive foreign occupations, the Greek Orthodox Church in Drama struggled without end, fed by the blood of many faithful, martyrs to the faith and to the Hellenic ideal and provided succor to its followers through difficult periods.

The collection of icons dating from Byzantine times to the 20th century forms the basic core of the museum's exhibits. The Museum of the Cathedral of Drama, founded during the reign of the honourable Bishop Dionysius 1st, is now housed in a recently restored five-storey wing of the Bishop of Drama's palace on Venizelou St. In the spacious and well-attended halls, ecclesiastical treasures of priceless spiritual and artistic value are on exhibition. The Icons of the Virgin Ηοdegetria and the Blessing Lord from the 13th century, icons from the 17th century and particularly from the 19th century decorate and sanctify the place. Moreover, the episcopal canonicals, holy vessels and their covers, many from the 19th century, relics of Chrysostomos of Drama and Smyrni, constitute the most important exhibits in the museum.

Many of the exhibits are relics brought by refugees from Asia Minor and Pontus in 1922 from the churches of their ancient homes to their new home, valuable reminders of who they were and where they came from. Organized groups of pilgrims and visitors to the city are advised to contact the office of the Diocese of Drama before visiting the museum to make arrangements.

Sport teams[link]

• Doxa Dramas - football team
• Pandramaikos FC - football team
• KAOD (basketball club) - Basketball team
• PAOP Neas Amissou - football team

Notable people[link]

The statue of Pavlos Melas.

• Mahmud Dramali Pasha (1780–1822) - Ottoman General during the Greek Independence War
• Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt (1789–1848) ruler of Egypt in 1848 (Son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt)
• Basilis C. Xanthopoulos (1951–1990) Theoretical Physicist
• Koulis Stoligkas (1910–1984), actor
• Ioannis Fetfatzidis, footballer.
• Nikos Sergianopoulos (1952–2008), Television and stage Actor
• Giannis Papazisis - actor
• Natassa Theodoridou - singer
• Tania Tsanaklidou - singer
• Petros Gaitanos - singer
• Paschalis Arvanitidis - singer
• Yesari Asım Arsoy(1900–1992)Classical Turkish Music Composer- singer

See also[link]

• List of settlements in the Drama regional unit

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography[link]

• Gaydarska, B. "Prehistoric Drama and its regional context," in Stoyanov, T., Angelova, S. & Lozanov (eds), Stephanos Archaeologicos in honorem Professoris Ludmilli Getov, Vol. I (Sofia: Sofia University Press, 2005), 116 – 133.

External links[link]

• Official website of Drama Prefecture

v t e Macedonia (Greece) People Greek Macedonians · List of Greek Macedonians History Ancient Macedonia · List of kings of Macedon · Philip II · Alexander the Great · Wars of the Diadochi · Macedonian Wars · Roman province of Macedonia · Diocese of Macedonia · Theme of Thessalonica · Theme of Strymon · Kingdom of Thessalonica · Ottoman Greece · Greek War of Independence · Greek Struggle for Macedonia · Balkan Wars · Macedonia naming dispute Major cities Thessaloniki · Veria · Katerini · Serres · Kavala · Kastoria · Drama Administration Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace · Decentralized Administration of Epirus and West Macedonia · Central Macedonia · East Macedonia and Thrace · General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace · Mount Athos · West Macedonia Monuments Vergina · Philippi · Dion · Pella · Amphipolis · Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika · Mount Athos Culture Cuisine · Music Symbols Flag · Vergina Sun Greek Macedonia Portal

v t e Administrative division of the East Macedonia and Thrace Region Area: 14,157km² · Population : 611,067 (2001) · Capital: Komotini Regional unit of Drama Doxato · Drama · Kato Nevrokopi · Paranesti · Prosotsani Regional unit of Evros Alexandroupoli · Didymoteicho · Orestiada · Samothrace · Soufli Regional unit of Kavala Kavala · Nestos · Pangaio Regional unit of Rhodope Arriana · Iasmos · Komotini · Maroneia-Sapes Regional unit of Thasos Thasos Regional unit of Xanthi Abdera · Myki · Topeiros · Xanthi Regional governor: Aristeidis Giannakidis · Website: www.pamth.gov.gr

v t e   Prefectural Capitals of Greece Agios Nikolaos Alexandroupoli Amfissa Argostoli Arta Athens Chalcis Chania Chios Corfu Corinth Drama Edessa Eleusis Ermoupoli Florina Grevena Heraklion Igoumenitsa Ioannina Kalamata Karditsa Karpenisi Kastoria Katerini Kavala Kilkis Komotini Kozani Lamia Larissa Lefkada Livadeia Missolonghi Mytilene Nafplion Pallini Patras Piraeus Polygyros Preveza Pyrgos Rethymno Rhodes Serres Sparta Thessaloniki Trikala Tripoli Vathy Veria Volos Xanthi Zakynthos

Hellenic Republic Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Elliniki Dimokratia
Flag National emblem
Motto: Eleftheria i Thanatos, (Greek: "Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος", "Freedom or Death") (traditional)
Anthem: "Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν" Ýmnos is tin Eleftherían "Hymn to Liberty"1
Location of  Greece  (dark green) – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green)  —  [Legend]
Capital (and largest city)		Athens 37°58′N 23°43′E / 37.967°N 23.717°E / 37.967; 23.717
Official language(s)		Greek
Ethnic groups		94% Greek, 4% Albanian, 2% others[1][2][3][4][5]
Demonym		Greek (Officially: Hellenic)
Government		Unitary parliamentary republic
-	President	Karolos Papoulias
-	Prime Minister	Panagiotis Pikrammenos
-	President of Parliament	Vyron Polydoras
Legislature		Parliament
Independence from the Ottoman Empire
-	Declared	1 January 1822, at the First National Assembly
-	Recognized	3 February 1830, in the London Protocol
-	Current constitution	11 June 1975, Third Hellenic Republic
Area
-	Total	131,990 km2 (96th) 50,944 sq mi
-	Water (%)	0.8669
Population
-	2010 estimate	11,305,118[6] (74th)
-	2011 (preliminary data) census	10,787,690[7]
-	Density	85.3/km2 (88th) 221.0/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$294.339 billion[8]
-	Per capita	$26,293[8]
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$303.065 billion[8]
-	Per capita	$27,073[8]
Gini (2005)		33[9]
HDI (2011)		0.861 (very high) (29th)
Currency		Euro (€)2 (EUR)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Date formats		dd/mm/yyyy
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		GR
Internet TLD		.gr3
Calling code		30
1	Also the national anthem of Cyprus.
2	Before 2002, the Greek drachma.
3	The .eu domain is also used, as in other European Union member states.

Greece ⁱ/ˈɡriːs/ (Greek: Ελλάδα, Ellada, IPA: [eˈlaða] ( listen) historically in Katharevousa and Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellas, IPA: [eˈlas] and [helːás] respectively), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia, IPA: [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia]^[10]), is a country in Southern Europe,^[11] politically considered part of Western Europe.^[12] Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its urban area also including Piraeus). The population of the country is around 11 million.

Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).

Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilization of ancient Greece, generally considered the cradle of Western civilization. As such it is the birthplace of democracy,^[13] Western philosophy,^[14] the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama,^[15] including both tragedy and comedy. This legacy is partly reflected in the seventeen UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in Greece, ranking Greece 7th in Europe and 13th in the world. The modern Greek state was established in 1830, following the Greek War of Independence.

Greece has been a member of what is now the European Union since 1981 and the eurozone since 2001,^[16] NATO since 1952,^[17] and is a founding member of the United Nations. Greece is a developed country with an advanced,^[18][19] high-income economy^[20] and very high standards of living (including the 21st highest quality of life as of 2010).^[21][22][23] Since late 2009, the Greek economy has been hit by a severe economic and financial crisis resulting in the Greek government requesting €240 billion in loans from EU institutions, a substantial debt write-off, stringent austerity measures and political instability.^[24]

Name[link]

Greece's name differs in comparison with the names used for the country in other languages and cultures, just like the names of the Greeks. Although the Greeks call the country Hellas or Ellada (Greek: Ελλάς, Ελλάδα) and its official name is Hellenic Republic, in English the country is called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia as used by the Romans and literally means 'the land of the Greeks', and derives from the Greek name Γραικός; however, the name Hellas is sometimes used in English too.

History[link]

From the earliest settlements to the 3rd century B.C.[link]

A map showing the Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period.

While the area around Attica was inhabited during the Upper Paleolithic period (30000–10000 BC), archaeological evidence suggests that the small caves around the Acropolis rock and the Klepsythra spring were in use during the Neolithic period (3000–2800 BC).

Greece was the first area in Europe where advanced early civilizations emerged, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3000 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete (2700–1500 BC) and then the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland (1900–1100 BC). The period between 1200 and 800 BC is known as the Greek Dark Ages following the supposed Dorian invasion, which marked the end of the Mycenean era. Two of the most celebrated works of Greek literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, were written during that period.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is a symbol of classical Greece.

Detail of the Alexander Mosaic, depicting Alexander the Great on his horse Bucephalus.

The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the year of the first Olympic Games. 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, South Italy (known in Latin as Magna Graecia, or Greater Greece) and 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, drama, science, mathematics and philosophy. In 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens.^[25][26]

By 500 BC, the Persian Empire controlled territories ranging from what is now northern Greece and Turkey all the way to Iraq, and posed a threat to the Greek states. Failed attempts by 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. A second invasion followed in 480 BC. Despite a heroic resistance at Thermopylae by Spartans and other Greeks, Persian forces sacked Athens. Following successive Greek victories in 480 and 479 BC at Salamis, Plataea and Mycale, the Persians were forced to withdraw for a second time. The military conflicts, known as the Greco-Persian Wars, were led mostly by Athens and Sparta. However, the fact that Greece was not a unified country meant that conflict between the Greek states was common. The most devastating of intra-Greek wars in classical antiquity was the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which marked 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 the Greek world in the League of Corinth (also known as the Hellenic League or Greek League) under the guidance of Phillip II, who was elected leader of the first unified Greek state in the history of Greece.

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 all Greek states in 334 BC. Following Greek victories in the battles of Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, the Greeks marched on Susa and Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of Persia, in 330 BC. The Empire created by Alexander the Great stretched from Greece in the west and Pakistan in the east, and Egypt in the south. Before his sudden death in 323 BC, Alexander was also planning an invasion of Arabia. His death marked the collapse of the vast empire, which was split into several kingdoms, the most famous of which were the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt. Other states founded by Greeks include the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Greco-Indian Kingdom in India. Although the political unity of Alexander's empire could not be maintained, it brought about the dominance of Hellenistic civilization and the Greek language in the territories conquered by Alexander for at least two centuries, and, in the case of parts the Eastern Mediterranean, considerably longer.^[27]

Hellenistic and Roman periods[link]

After a period of confusion following Alexander's death, the Antigonid dynasty, descended from one of Alexander's generals, established its control over Macedon by 276 B.C., as well as hegemony over most of the Greek city-states.^[28] From about 200 B.C the Roman Republic became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and engaged in a series of wars with Macedon.^[29] Macedon's defeat at the Battle of Pydna in 168 signaled the end of Antigonid power in Greece.^[30] In 146 B.C. Macedonia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman protectorate.^[29][31] The process was completed in 27 B.C. when the Roman Emperor Augustus annexed the rest of Greece and constituted it as the senatorial province of Achaea.^[31] Despite their military superiority, the Romans admired and became heavily influenced by the achievements of Greek culture, hence Horace's famous statement: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ("Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror captive").^[32]

Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenized East were instrumental in the spread of early Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,^[33] and Christianity's early leaders and writers (notably St Paul) were generally Greek-speaking,^[34] though none were from Greece. However, Greece itself had a tendency to cling on to paganism and was not one of the influential centers of early Christianity: in fact, some ancient Greek religious practices remained in vogue until the end of the 4th century,^[35] with some areas such as the southeastern Peloponnese remaining pagan until well into the 10th century AD.^[36]

Medieval period[link]

The Roman Empire in the east, following the fall of the Empire in the west in the 5th century, is known to history as the Byzantine Empire and lasted until 1453. With its capital in Constantinople, its language and literary culture was Greek and its religion was predominantly Eastern Orthodox.^[37] From the 4th century, the Empire's Balkan territories, including Greece, suffered from the dislocation of the Barbarian Invasions. The raids and devastation of the Goths and Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries and the Slavic invasion of Greece in the 7th century resulted in a dramatic collapse in imperial authority in the Greek peninsula.^[38] Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government retained control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica, while some mountainous areas in the interior held out on their own and continued to recognize imperial authority.^[38] Outside of these areas, a limited amount of Slavic settlement is generally thought to have occurred, although on a much smaller scale than previously thought.^[39][40]

The Greek peninsula was part of the Byzantine Empire for most of the latter's timespan.

The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces began toward the end of the 8th century and most of the Greek peninsula came under imperial control again, in stages, during the 9th century.^[41][42] 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 and those that remained were assimilated.^[39] During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stability resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from strong economic growth – much stronger than that of the Anatolian territories of the Empire.^[41] Following the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Constantinople to the “Latins” in 1204 most of Greece quickly came under Frankish rule ^[43] (initiating the period known as the Frankokratia) or Venetian rule in the case of some of the islands.^[44] The re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by the recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankish Principality of Achaea in the Peloponnese remained an important regional power into the 14th century.^[43]

In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Empire as first the Serbs and then the Ottomans seized imperial territory.^[45] By the beginning of the 15th century, the Ottoman advance meant that Byzantine territory in Greece was limited mainly to the Despotate of the Morea in the Peloponnese.^[45] After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans. However, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece.^[46]

Ottoman period[link]

The White Tower of Thessaloniki, one of the best-known Ottoman structures remaining in Greece.

While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands were under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670, respectively. The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped long-term Ottoman rule were the Ionian Islands, which remained Venetian until their capture by the First French Republic in 1797, then passed to the United Kingdom in 1809 until their unification with Greece in 1864.

While Greeks in Constantinople and the Ionian Islands lived in prosperity, much of the population of mainland Greece suffered the economic consequences of the 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 a serfdom.

The Greek Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were considered by the Ottoman governments as the ruling authorities of the entire Christian population of the Ottoman Empire, Greek or not. Although the Ottoman state did not force non-Muslims to convert to Islam, many did so superficially as they received tax benefits from the authorities.

The Ottoman administration of Greece varied. Some cities had governors appointed by the Sultan, while others, (like Athens), were self-governed municipalities. Some regions of Greece, like Crete and Epirus, remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for many centuries.

When military conflicts broke out between the Ottoman Empire and other states, Greeks usually took arms against the Empire, with few exceptions. Prior to the Greek revolution, 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-instigated Orlov Revolt in 1770 which aimed at breaking up the Ottoman Empire in favor of Russian interests. These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed.^[47][48]

The last century of Ottoman rule in Greece saw the birth of some of the most influential figures in Greece's struggle for independence as well as the modern Greek Enlightenment. Rigas Feraios, the first revolutionary to envision an independent Greek state, published a series of documents relating to Greek independence, including but not limited to a national anthem and the first detailed map of Greece, in Vienna. In 1798, he was murdered by Ottoman agents.^[49] Other influential figures include Adamantios Korais and Anthimos Gazis.

The War of Independence[link]

The sortie of Messolonghi, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830), by Theodoros Vryzakis.

In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolution in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities and Constantinople. The first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities under the leadership of Alexandros Ypsilantis, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese in action and on 17 March 1821 the Maniots declared war on the Ottomans. By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Ottomans and by October 1821 the Greeks under Theodoros Kolokotronis had captured Tripolitsa. The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia and Central Greece, which would soon be suppressed. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea. The Turks and Egyptians ravaged several Greek islands, including Chios and Psara.^[50]

Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gain. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and had immediate success: by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control, and the city of Missolonghi—put under siege by the Turks since April 1825—fell in April 1826. Although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese and Athens had been retaken.

Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers, Russia, the United Kingdom and France, decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet at Navarino. Following a week long standoff, a battle began which resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. With the help of a French expeditionary force, the Greeks drove the Turks out of the Peloponnese and proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828. As a result of years of negotiation, the nascent Greek state was finally recognized under the London Protocol in 1830.

The 19th century[link]

Map of the Kingdom of Greece, the Cretan State and the Principality of Samos in 1903, before the Balkan Wars.

In 1827 Ioannis Kapodistrias, from Corfu, was chosen as the first governor of the new Republic. However, following his assassination in 1831, the Great Powers installed a monarchy under Otto, of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. In 1843 an uprising forced the king to grant a constitution and a representative assembly.

Due to his unimpaired authoritarian rule he was eventually dethroned in 1862 and a year later replaced by Prince Wilhelm (William) of Denmark, who took the name George I and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain. In 1877 Charilaos Trikoupis, who is credited with significant improvement of the country's infrastructure, curbed the power of the monarchy to interfere in the assembly by issuing the rule of vote of confidence to any potential prime minister.

Corruption and Trikoupis' increased spending to create necessary infrastructure like the Corinth Canal overtaxed the weak Greek economy, forcing the declaration of public insolvency in 1893 and to accept the imposition of an International Financial Control authority to pay off the country's debtors. Another political issue in 19th-century Greece was uniquely Greek: the language question. The Greek people spoke a form of Greek called Demotic. Many of the educated elite saw this as a peasant dialect and were determined to restore the glories of Ancient Greek. Government documents and newspapers were consequently published in Katharevousa (purified) Greek, a form which few ordinary Greeks could read. Liberals favoured recognising Demotic as the national language, but conservatives and the Orthodox Church resisted all such efforts, to the extent that, when the New Testament was translated into Demotic in 1901, riots erupted in Athens and the government fell (the Evangeliaka). This issue would continue to plague Greek politics until the 1970s.

Territorial evolution of Kingdom of Greece until 1947.

All Greeks were united, however, in their determination to liberate the Greek-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Especially in Crete, a prolonged revolt in 1866–1869 had raised nationalist fervour. When war broke out between Russia and the Ottomans in 1877, Greek popular sentiment rallied to Russia's side, but Greece was too poor, and too concerned of British intervention, to officially enter the war. Nevertheless, in 1881, Thessaly and small parts of Epirus were ceded to Greece as part of the Treaty of Berlin, while frustrating Greek hopes of receiving Crete. Greeks in Crete continued to stage regular revolts, and in 1897, the Greek government under Theodoros Deligiannis, bowing to popular pressure, declared war on the Ottomans. In the ensuing Greco-Turkish War of 1897 the badly trained and equipped Greek army was defeated by the Ottomans. Through the intervention of the Great Powers however, Greece lost only a little territory along the border to Turkey, while Crete was established as an autonomous state under Prince George of Greece.

The 20th century and beyond[link]

As a result of the Balkan Wars Greece increased the extent of its territory and population. In the following years, the struggle between King Constantine I and charismatic Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos over the country's foreign policy on the eve of World War I dominated the country's political scene, and divided the country into two opposing groups. During part of WWI, Greece had two governments; a royalist pro-German government in Athens and a Venizelist pro-Britain one in Thessaloniki. The two governments were united in 1917, when Greece officially entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente.

In the aftermath of The First World War Greece fought against Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal, a war which resulted in a massive population exchange between the two countries under the Treaty of Lausanne.^[51] According to various sources,^[52] several hundred thousand Pontic Greeks died during this period.^[53] Instability and successive coups d'état marked the following era, which was overshadowed by the massive task of incorporating 1.5 million Greek refugees from Turkey into Greek society. The Greek population in Istanbul dropped from 300,000 at the turn of the 20th century to around 3,000 in the city today.^[54]

Following the catastrophic events in Asia Minor, the monarchy was abolished via a referendum in 1924 and the Second Hellenic Republic was declared. Premier Georgios Kondylis took power in 1935 and effectively abolished the republic by bringing back the monarchy via a referendum in 1935. A coup d'état followed in 1936 and installed Ioannis Metaxas as the head of a fascist regime known as the 4th of August Regime. Although fascist, Greece remained in good terms with Britain and was not allied with the Axis.

German soldiers raising the German War Flag over the Acropolis of Athens. The symbol of the country's occupation, it would be taken down in one of the first acts of the Greek Resistance.

On 28 October 1940 Fascist Italy demanded the surrender of Greece, but Greek dictator Metaxas refused and in the following Greco-Italian War, Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania, giving the Allies their first victory over Axis forces on land. The country would eventually fall to urgently dispatched German forces during the Battle of Greece. The German occupiers nevertheless met serious challenges from the Greek Resistance. Over 100,000 civilians died from starvation during the winter of 1941–42, and the great majority of Greek Jews were deported to Nazi extermination camps.^[55]

After liberation, Greece experienced a bitter civil war between communist and anticommunist forces, which led to economic devastation and severe social tensions between rightists and largely communist leftists for the next thirty years.^[56] The next twenty years were characterized by marginalisation of the left in the political and social spheres but also by rapid economic growth, propelled in part by the Marshall Plan.

King Constantine II's dismissal of George Papandreou's centrist government in July 1965 prompted a prolonged period of political turbulence which culminated in a coup d'état on 21 April 1967 by the United States-backed Regime of the Colonels. The brutal suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising on 17 November 1973 sent shockwaves through the regime, and a counter-coup established Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis as dictator. On 20 July 1974, as Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus, the regime collapsed.

Former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited back from Paris where he had lived in self-exile since 1963, marking the beginning of the Metapolitefsi era. On 14 August 1974 Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of NATO in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus.^[57][58] The first multiparty elections since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. A democratic and republican constitution was promulgated on 11 June 1975 following a referendum which chose to not restore the monarchy.

Meanwhile, Andreas Papandreou founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in response to Karamanlis's conservative New Democracy party, with the two political formations alternating in government ever since. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980.^[57] Traditionally strained relations with neighbouring Turkey improved when successive earthquakes hit both nations in 1999, leading to the lifting of the Greek veto against Turkey's bid for EU membership.

Greece became the tenth member of the European Communities (subsequently subsumed by the European Union) on 1 January 1981, ushering in a period of remarkable and sustained economic growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast-growing service sector have raised the country's standard of living to unprecedented levels. The country adopted the euro in 2001 and successfully hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens.

More recently, Greece has been hit hard by the late-2000s recession and central to the related European sovereign debt crisis. The Greek government debt crisis, subsequent economic crisis and resultant, sometimes violent protests have roiled domestic politics and have regularly threatened both European and world financial market stability in since the crisis began in 2010.

Geography and Climate[link]

Albania Rep. Macedonia Bulgaria Turkey Greece ATHENS Thessaloniki Kavala Thasos Alexandroupoli Samothrace Corfu Igoumenitsa Larissa Volos Ioannina Chalcis Patras Corinth Nafplion Sparta Areopoli Piraeus Eleusina Laurium Heraklion Macedonia Thrace Epirus Thessaly Euboea Central Greece Peloponnese Mt. Olympus Lefkada Kefalonia Zakynthos Lemnos Lesbos Chios Samos Andros Tinos Mykonos Icaria Patmos Naxos Milos Santorini Kos Rhodes Karpathos Kassos Kythira Gavdos Aegean Sea Sea of Crete Myrtoan Sea Ionian Sea Mediterranean Sea Crete Aegean Islands Cyclades Dodecanese Ionian Islands