During the Bronze Age (3000-1200 BC) the powerful Cycladic, Minoan and
Mycenaean maritime civilisations flourished. According to Homer, this was a time
of violence and wars based on trade rivalries, although it is thought that
Minoan culture was generally peaceful and harmonious. By the 11th century BC the
Minoan and Mycenaean cultures had collapsed, due to changing patterns of trade
and a Dorian invasion from the north, and a 'dark age' ensued.
By 800 BC Greece was undergoing a cultural and military revival, with the
evolution of city-states, the most powerful of which were Athens and Sparta.
Greater Greece was created, with southern Italy as an important component. This
period was followed by an era of great prosperity known as the classical (or
golden) age. During this time, the Parthenon was commissioned by Pericles,
Sophocles wrote Oedipus the King, Socrates taught young Athenians the
rigours of logic, and a tradition of democracy (literally, 'control by the
people') was ushered in. The classical age came to an end with the Peloponnesian
Wars (431-404 AD) in which the militaristic Spartans defeated the Athenians.
While embroiled in the Peloponnesian Wars, the Spartans failed to notice the
expansion of Philip of Macedon's kingdom in the north, which enabled him to
easily conquer the war-weary city-states. Philip's ambitions were surpassed by
his son Alexander the Great, who marched into Asia Minor, Egypt (where he was
proclaimed pharoah and founded the city of Alexandria), Persia and parts of what
are now Afghanistan and India. The reign of the Macedonian empire, which lasted
in the form of three dynasties after Alexander's death at the age of 33, is
known as the Hellenistic period, due to the merging of Greek ideas and culture
with the other proud cultures of antiquity, creating a new cosmopolitan
tradition.
From 205 BC there were Roman incursions into Greece, and by 146 BC Greece and
Macedonia had become Roman provinces. After the subdivision of the Roman Empire
into Eastern and Western empires in 395 AD, Greece became part of the
illustrious Byzantine Empire. By the 12th century, the Crusades were in full
flight and Byzantine power was much reduced by invasions by Venetians, Catalans,
Genoese, Franks and Normans.
In 1453 the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, was captured by the Turks, and
by 1500 almost all of Greece had also fallen under Turkish control. The lands of
present-day Greece became a rural backwater, with many merchants, intellectuals
and artists exiled in central Europe. It was traditional village life and
Orthodox religion which held together the notion of Greekness. A cultural
revival in the late 18th century precipitated the War of Independence (1821-32),
during which the Greeks were supported in their battle against the Turks by
aristocratic young philhellenes such as Byron, Shelley and Goethe. The
independence movement lacked unity, however, and in 1827 Russia, France and
Britain decided to intervene.
After independence, the European powers decided Greece should become a
monarchy, with a non-Greek ruler to frustrate Greek power struggles, and
installed Otto of Bavaria as king in 1833. The monarchy, with an assortment of
kings at the helm, held on despite popular opposition until well into the 20th
century, although George I established a new constitution in 1864 which returned
democracy and pushed the king into a largely ceremonial role.
During WWI, Greek troops fought on the Allied side and occupied Thrace. After
the war, Prime Minister Venizelos sent forces to 'liberate' the Turkish
territory of Smyrna (present-day Izmir) which had a large Greek population. The
army was repulsed by Ataturk's troops and many Greek residents were slaughtered.
This led to a brutal population exchange between the two countries in 1923, the
resultant population increase (1,300,000 Christian refugees) straining Greece's
already weak economy. Shanty towns spilled from urban centres, unions were
formed among the urban refugee population and by 1936 the Communist Party had
widespread popular support.
In 1936 General Metaxas was appointed as prime minister by the king and
quickly established a fascist dictatorship. Although Metaxas was sympathetic to
Nazi organisation and had created a Greek version of the Third Reich, he was
opposed to German or Italian domination and refused to allow Italian troops to
traverse Greece in 1940. Despite Allied help, Greece fell to Germany in 1941,
leading to carnage and mass starvation. Resistance movements sprang up, and
polarised into royalist and communist factions, and a bloody civil war resulted,
lasting until 1949, when the royalists claimed victory. During the civil war
America, inspired by the Truman Doctrine, gave large sums of money to the
anticommunist government, and implemented the Certificate of Political
Reliability, which remained valid until 1962. This document declared that the
wearer did not hold left-wing sympathies, and without it Greeks couldn't vote
and found it almost impossible to get work.
Fearing a resurgence of the left, a group of army colonels staged a coup
d'etat in 1967, said by Andreas Papandreou to be 'the first successful CIA
military putsch on the European continent'. The junta distinguished itself by
inflicting appalling brutality, repression and political incompetence upon the
people. In 1974 the colonels attempted to assassinate Cyprus' leader, Archbishop
Makarios, leading to Turkey's invasion and occupation of Northern Cyprus. This
is still a volatile issue for the Greeks and tension with Turkey is easily
inflamed.
In 1981 Greece entered the European Community (now the EU), and Andreas
Papandreou's socialist party (PASOK) won elections. PASOK promised removal of US
air bases and withdrawal from NATO but these promises were never fulfilled.
Women's issues fared better though, with the abolition of the dowry system and
legalisation of abortion. Scandals got the better of Papandreou and his
government was replaced by an unlikely coalition of conservatives and communists
in 1989. Elections in 1990 brought the conservatives to power with a majority of
only two seats, and intent on redressing the country's economic problems, the
government imposed unpopular and severe austerity measures. A general election
in 1993 returned the ageing, ailing Papandreou and PASOK to power.
Costas Simitis was appointed prime minister in early 1996 when it became
clear that Papandreou's time was drawing nigh - Greece's elder statesman died
mid-1996. Simitis has promised closer ties with Europe, but so far Greece's
impact on the EU has been restricted to vetoing an international aid package to
old rival Turkey. Greece and Turkey reached the brink of war in February 1996
when Turkish journalists symbolically replaced the Greek flag on the tiny rocky
outcrop of Imia (Kardak to the Turks).
Simitis was re-elected in September 1996 on a campaign ticket promising the
speedy integration of Greece into the EU, austere economic measures and
diplomatic negotiations with Turkey.
