Greece
Greece was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic period and by 3000
BC had become home, in the Cycladic Islands, to a culture whose art
remains among the most evocative in world history. In the second
millennium BC, the island of Crete nurtured the maritime empire of
the Minoans, whose trade reached from Egypt to Sicily. The Minoans
were supplanted by the Mycenaeans of the Greek mainland, who spoke a
dialect of ancient Greek. During the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman
Empires (1st-19th centuries), Greece's ethnic composition became
more diverse. The roots of Greek language and culture date back at
least 3,500 years, and modern Greek preserves many elements of its
classical predecessor.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion in Greece and
receives state funding. During the centuries of Ottoman domination,
the Greek Orthodox Church preserved the Greek language and cultural
identity and was an important rallying point in the struggle for
independence. There is a centuries-old Muslim religious minority
concentrated in Thrace and an estimated 300,000 Muslim immigrants
living elsewhere in the country. Smaller religious communities in
Greece include Old Calendar Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jews,
Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons.
Greek education is free and compulsory for children between the ages
of 6 and 15. Overall responsibility for education rests with the
Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs. Private
colleges and universities (mostly foreign) do have campuses in
Greece despite the fact that their degrees are not recognized by the
Greek state. Entrance to public universities is determined by
state-administered exams.
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The Greek War of Independence began in 1821 and concluded in 1830
when England, France, and Russia forced the Ottoman Empire to grant
Greece its independence under a European monarch, Prince Otto of
Bavaria.
At independence, Greece had an area of 47,515 square kilometers
(18,346 square mi.), and its northern boundary extended from the
Gulf of Volos to the Gulf of Arta. Under the influence of the
"Megali Idea," the expansion of the Greek state to include all areas
of Greek population, Greece acquired the Ionian islands in 1864;
Thessaly and part of Epirus in 1881; Macedonia, Crete, Epirus, and
the Aegean islands in 1913; Western Thrace in 1918; and the
Dodecanese islands in 1947.
Greece entered World War I in 1917 on the side of the Allies. After
the war, Greece took part in the Allied occupation of Turkey, where
many Greeks still lived. In 1921, the Greek army marched toward
Ankara, but was defeated by Turkish forces led by Ataturk and forced
to withdraw. In a forced exchange of populations, more than 1.3
million refugees from Turkey poured into Greece, creating enormous
challenges for the Greek economy and society.
Greek politics, particularly between the two world wars, involved a
struggle for power between monarchists and republicans. Greece was
proclaimed a republic in 1924, but George II returned to the throne
in 1935. A plebiscite in 1946 upheld the monarchy, which was finally
abolished by referendum on December 8, 1974.
Greece's entry into World War II was precipitated by the Italian
invasion on October 28, 1940. Despite Italian superiority in numbers
and equipment, determined Greek defenders drove the invaders back
into Albania. Hitler was forced to divert German troops to protect
his southern flank and overran Greece in 1941. Following a very
severe German occupation in which many Greeks died (including over
90% of Greece's Jewish community) German forces withdrew in October
1944, and the government-in-exile returned to Athens.
After the German withdrawal, the principal Greek resistance
movement, which was controlled by the communists, refused to disarm.
A banned demonstration by resistance forces in Athens in December
1944 ended in battles with Greek Government and British forces.
Continuing tensions led to the outbreak of full-fledged civil war in
1946. First the United Kingdom and later the U.S. gave extensive
military and economic aid to the Greek Government. In 1947,
Secretary of State George C. Marshall implemented the Marshall Plan
under President Truman, which focused on the economic recovery and
the rebuilding of Europe. The U.S. contributed hundreds of millions
of dollars to rebuilding Greece in terms of buildings, agriculture,
and industry.
In August 1949, the Greek national army forced the remaining
insurgents to surrender or flee to Greece's communist neighbors. The
insurgency resulted in 100,000 killed, 700,000 displaced persons
inside the country, and catastrophic economic disruption. This civil
war left Greek society deeply divided between leftists and
rightists.
Greece became a member of NATO in 1952. From 1952 to late 1963,
Greece was governed by conservative parties--the Greek Rally of
Marshal Alexandros Papagos and its successor, the National Radical
Union (ERE) of the late Constantine Karamanlis. In 1963, the Center
Union Party of George Papandreou was elected and governed until July
1965. It was followed by a succession of unstable coalition
governments.
On April 21, 1967, just before scheduled elections, a group of
colonels led by Col. George Papadopoulos seized power in a coup
d'etat. The junta suppressed civil liberties, established special
military courts, and dissolved political parties. Several thousand
political opponents were imprisoned or exiled to remote Greek
islands. In November 1973, following an uprising of students at the
Athens Polytechnic University, Gen. Dimitrios Ioannides replaced
Papadopoulos and tried to continue the dictatorship.
Gen. Ioannides' attempt in July 1974 to overthrow Archbishop
Makarios, the President of Cyprus, brought Greece to the brink of
war with Turkey, which invaded Cyprus and occupied part of the
island. Senior Greek military officers then withdrew their support
from the junta, which toppled. Leading citizens persuaded Karamanlis
to return from exile in France to establish a government of national
unity until elections could be held. Karamanlis' newly organized
party, New Democracy (ND), won elections held in November 1974, and
he became Prime Minister.
Following the 1974 referendum, the Parliament approved a new
constitution and elected Constantine Tsatsos as president of the
republic. In the parliamentary elections of 1977, New Democracy
again won a majority of seats. In May 1980, the late Prime Minister
Karamanlis was elected to succeed Tsatsos as president. George
Rallis was then chosen party leader and succeeded Karamanlis as
Prime Minister.
On January 1, 1981, Greece became the 10th member of the European
Community (now the European Union). In parliamentary elections held
on October 18, 1981, Greece elected its first socialist government,
the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), led by Andreas
Papandreou. In 1985, Supreme Court Justice Christos Sartzetakis was
elected president by the Greek parliament. PASOK under Papandreou
was re-elected in 1985.
Greece had two rounds of parliamentary elections in 1989; both
produced weak coalition governments with limited mandates. In the
April 1990 election, ND won 150 seats and subsequently gained 2
others. After Prime Minister Mitsotakis fired Foreign Minister
Andonis Samaras in 1992, the rift led to the collapse of the ND
government and a victory in the September 1993 elections for Andreas
Papandreou's PASOK.
On January 17, 1996, following a protracted illness, Prime Minister
Papandreou resigned and was replaced by former Minister of Industry
Constantine Simitis. In elections held in September 1996,
Constantine Simitis was elected Prime Minister. In April 2000,
Simitis and PASOK won again, gaining 158 seats to ND's 125.
Parliamentary elections were held March 8, 2004, and ND won 165
seats to PASOK's 117; Konstantinos Karamanlis, ND leader and the
nephew of the former prime minister, became Prime Minister. Karolos
Papoulias was elected President by Parliament in February 2005. Most
recently, parliamentary elections were held September 16, 2007. ND
won 152 seats to PASOK's 102; Karamanlis was re-elected Prime
Minister.
Greece's exemplary success in hosting a safe and secure 2004 Summer
Olympics in Athens has enhanced its international prestige. The 2004
Olympics and Paralympics left an impressive and expensive legacy of
new roads, spectacular stadiums, and modern public transportation
systems, which the PASOK government began in 1997 and the New
Democracy government of Karamanlis completed in 2004.
In December 2008, violent protests by "anarchists" and, later,
students and labor groups, broke out in Athens and other Greek
cities following the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy by the
police. Athens, in particular, suffered damage in its commercial
center, where hundreds of shops and cars were burned and looting was
reported. The Karamanlis government came under criticism by the
opposition for the shooting of the teenager, with PASOK demanding
early elections. |
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