Over the centuries, the Greek islands have been the stepping stones between North Africa, Asia Minor and Europe, across which warriors, tradesmen, conquerors and even civilisations have hopped. Since ancient times the islands have been fought over and claimed as prizes by successive invaders. Their strategic location, in a seafaring world, made many islands prosperous and autonomous trading centres. Some were run by foreign masters, as evidenced by the Venetian ports, Roman aqueducts and Frankish castles found on the islands today.
The Cycladic civilisation – centred on the islands of the Cyclades – comprised a cluster of small fishing and farming communities with a sophisticated artistic temperament. Scholars divide the Cycladic civilisation into three periods: Early (3000–2000 BC), Middle (2000–1500 BC) and Late (1500–1100 BC).
The most striking legacy of this civilisation is the famous Cycladic figurines – carved statuettes from Parian marble. Other remains include bronze and obsidian tools and weapons, gold jewellery, and stone and clay vases and pots. Cycladic sculptors are also renowned for their impressive, life-sized kouroi (marble statues), carved during the Archaic period.
The Cycladic people were also accomplished sailors who developed prosperous maritime trade links with Crete, continental Greece, Asia Minor (the west of present-day Turkey), Europe and North Africa.
The Minoans – named after King Minos, the mythical ruler of Crete (and stepfather of the Minotaur) – built Europe’s first advanced civilisation, drawing their inspiration from two great Middle Eastern civilisations: the Mesopotamian and the Egyptian.
The Minoan civilisation (3000–1100 BC) reached its peak during the Middle period; around 2000 BC the grand palace complexes of Knossos, Phaestos, Malia and Zakros were built, marking a sharp acceleration from Neolithic village life. Evidence uncovered in these palaces indicates a sophisticated society, with splendid architecture and wonderful, detailed frescoes, highly developed agriculture and an extensive irrigation system.
The advent of bronze enabled the Minoans to build great boats, which helped them establish a powerful thalassocracy (sea power) and prosperous maritime trade. They used tremendous skill to produce fine pottery and metalwork of great beauty, and exported their wares throughout Greece, Asia Minor, Europe and North Africa.
Scholars are still debating the sequence of events that led to the ultimate demise of the Minoans. Scientific evidence suggests they were weakened by a massive tsunami and ash fallout attributed to the eruption of a cataclysmic volcano on Santorini (Thira) around 1500 BC. Some argue that a second powerful quake a century later decimated the society, or perhaps it was the invading force of Mycenae. The decline of the Minoans certainly coincided with the rise of the Mycenaean civilisation on the mainland (1600–1100 BC).
The Dorians were an ancient Hellenic people who settled in the Peloponnese by the 8th century BC. In the 11th or 12th century BC these warrior-like people fanned out to occupy much of the mainland, seizing control of the Mycenaean kingdoms and enslaving the inhabitants. The Dorians also spread their tentacles into the Greek islands, founding the cities of Kamiros, Ialysos and Lindos on Rhodes in about 1000 BC, while Ionians fleeing to the Cyclades from the Peloponnese established a religious sanctuary on Delos.
The following 400-year period is often referred to as Greece’s ‘dark age’. In the Dorians' favour, however, they introduced iron and developed a new intricate style of pottery, decorated with striking geometric designs. They also introduced the practice of polytheism, paving the way for Zeus and his pantheon of 12 principal deities.
By about 800 BC, the Dorians had developed into a class of landholding aristocrats and Greece had been divided into a series of independent city-states. Led by Athens and Corinth (which took over Corfu in 734 BC), the city-states created a Magna Graecia (Greater Greece), with southern Italy as an important component. Most abolished monarchic rule and aristocratic monopoly, establishing a set of laws that redistributed wealth and allowed citizens to regain control over their lands.
During the so-called Archaic Age, from around 800 to 650 BC, Greek culture developed rapidly. Many advances in literature, sculpture, theatre, architecture and intellectual endeavour began; this revival overlapped with the Classical Age. Developments from this period include the Greek alphabet; the verses of Homer, including epics the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey'; the founding of the Olympic Games; and the creation of central sanctuaries such as Delphi.
From the 6th to 4th centuries BC, Greece continued its renaissance in cultural creativity. As many city-states enjoyed increased economic reform and political prosperity, literature and drama blossomed.
Athens’ rapid growth meant heavy reliance on food imports from the Black Sea, while Persia’s imperial expansions threatened coastal trade routes across Asia Minor. Athens’ support for a rebellion in the Persian colonies of Asia Minor sparked the Persian Wars.
In 477 BC Athens founded the Delian League, the naval alliance that was based on Delos. It was formed to liberate the city-states still occupied by Persia, and to defend against further Persian attack. The alliance included many of the Aegean islands and some of the Ionian city-states in Asia Minor. Swearing allegiance to Athens and making an annual contribution to the treasury of ships (later contributing just money) were mandatory.
When Pericles became the leader of Athens in 461 BC, he moved the treasury from Delos to the Acropolis, using the funds to construct new buildings and grander temples to replace those destroyed by the Persians.
With the Aegean Sea safely under its wing, Athens looked westwards for more booty. One of the major triggers of the first Peloponnesian War (431–421 BC) that pitted Athens against Sparta was Athens’ support for Corcyra (present-day Corfu) in a row with Corinth, the island's mother city. Athens finally surrendered to Sparta after a drawn-out series of pitched battles.
While Alexander the Great was forging his vast empire in the east, the Romans had been expanding theirs to the west, and were keen to start making inroads into Greece. After several inconclusive clashes, they defeated Macedon in 168 BC. By 146 BC the mainland became the Graeco-Roman province of Achaea. Crete fell in 67 BC, and the southern city of Gortyn became capital of the Roman province of Cyrenaica, which included a large chunk of North Africa. Rhodes held out until AD 70.
As the Romans revered Greek culture, Athens retained its status as a centre of learning. Indeed, the Romans adopted many aspects of Hellenic culture, spreading its unifying traditions throughout their empire. During a succession of Roman emperors, namely Augustus, Nero and Hadrian, the whole empire experienced a period of relative peace, known as the Pax Romana, which was to last for almost 300 years.
The Pax Romana began to crumble in AD 250 when the Goths invaded what is now Greece – the first of a succession of invaders.
In an effort to resolve the conflict in the region, in AD 324 the Roman Emperor Constantine I, a Christian convert, transferred the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, a city on the western shore of the Bosphorus, which was renamed Constantinople (present-day İstanbul). While Rome went into terminal decline, the eastern capital began to grow in wealth and strength as a Christian state. In the ensuing centuries, Byzantine Greece faced continued pressure from Venetians, Franks, Normans, Slavs, Persians and Arabs; the Persians captured Rhodes in 620, but were replaced by the Saracens (Arabs) in 653. The Arabs also captured Crete in 824. Other islands in the Aegean remained under Byzantine control.
The Byzantine Empire began to fracture when the renegade Frankish leaders of the Fourth Crusade decided that Constantinople presented richer pickings than Jerusalem. Constantinople was sacked in 1204, and much of the Byzantine Empire was partitioned into fiefdoms ruled by self-styled ‘Latin’ (mostly Frankish or western-Germanic) princes. The Venetians, meanwhile, had also secured a foothold in Greece. Over the next few centuries they took over key mainland ports, the Cyclades, and Crete in 1210, becoming the most powerful traders in the Mediterranean.
On 29 May 1453, Constantinople fell under Turkish Ottoman rule (referred to by Greeks as turkokratia). Once more Greece became a battleground, this time fought over by the Turks and Venetians. Eventually, with the exception of the Ionian Islands (where the Venetians retained control), Greece became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman power reached its zenith under Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, who ruled from 1520 to 1566. His successor, Selim the Sot, added Cyprus to Ottoman dominion in 1570. Although they captured Crete in 1669 after a 25-year campaign, the ineffectual sultans that followed in the late 16th and 17th centuries saw the empire go into steady decline.
Venice expelled the Turks from the Peloponnese in a three-year campaign (1684–87), during which Venetian artillery struck gunpowder stored inside the ruins of the Acropolis and badly damaged the Parthenon.
The Ottomans restored rule in 1715, but never regained their former authority. By the end of the 18th century, pockets of Turkish officials, aristocrats and influential Greeks had emerged as self-governing cliques that ruled over the provincial Greek peasants. But there also existed an ever-increasing group of Greeks, including many intellectual expatriates, who aspired to emancipation.
Women have played a strong role in Greek resistance movements throughout history. One national heroine was Laskarina Bouboulina (1771–1825), a celebrated seafarer who became a member of Filiki Eteria (Friendly Society), an organisation striving for independence against Ottoman rule. Originally from Hydra, she settled in Spetses, from where she commissioned the construction of and then commanded, as admiral, several warships that were used in significant naval blockades (the most famous vessel being the Agamemnon). She helped maintain the crews of her ships and a small army of soldiers, and supplied the revolutionaries with food, weapons and ammunition, using her ships for transportation. Her role in maritime operations significantly helped the independence movement. However, political factionalism within the government led to her postwar arrest and subsequent exile to Spetses, where she died.
Streets across Greece bear her name and there are statues dedicated to her and her great-granddaughter, Lela Karagianni – who fought with the resistance in WWII – in Spetses Town, where Bouboulina’s home is now a private museum.
In 1814 the first Greek independence party, the Filiki Eteria (Friendly Society), was founded and their message spread quickly. On 25 March 1821, the Greeks launched the War of Independence. Uprisings broke out almost simultaneously across most of Greece and the occupied islands. The fighting was savage and atrocities were committed on both sides; in the Peloponnese 12,000 Turkish inhabitants were killed after the capture of the city of Tripolitsa (present-day Tripoli), while the Turks retaliated with massacres in Asia Minor, most notoriously on the island of Chios.
The campaign escalated, and within a year the Greeks had won vital ground. They proclaimed independence on 13 January 1822 at Epidavros.
Soon after, regional wrangling twice escalated into civil war, in 1824 and 1825. The Ottomans took advantage and by 1827 the Turks (with Egyptian reinforcements) had regained control. Western powers intervened and a combined Russian, French and British naval fleet sunk the Turkish-Egyptian force in the Battle of Navarino in October 1827. Despite the long odds against him, Sultan Mahmud II and proclaimed a holy war, prompting Russia to send troops into the Balkans to engage the Ottoman army. Fighting continued until 1829 when, with Russian troops at the gates of Constantinople, the sultan accepted Greek independence with the Treaty of Adrianople. Independence was formally recognised in 1830.
In April 1827, Greece elected Corfiot Ioannis Kapodistrias as the first president of the republic. Nafplio, in the Peloponnese, became the capital. There was much dissension and Kapodistrias was assassinated in 1831. Amid the ensuing anarchy, Britain, France and Russia declared Greece a monarchy and set on the throne the non-Greek, 17-year-old Bavarian Prince Otto, in January 1833. The new kingdom (established by the London Convention of 1832) consisted of the Peloponnese, Sterea Ellada, the Cyclades and the Sporades. Otto ruled until he was deposed in 1862.
Greece’s foreign policy (dubbed the ‘Great Idea’) was to assert sovereignty over its dispersed Greek populations. Set against the background of the Crimean conflict, British and French interests were nervous at the prospect of a Greek alliance with Russia against the Ottomans.
British influence in the Ionian Islands had begun in 1815 (following a spell of political ping-pong between the Venetians, Russians and French). The British did improve the islands’ infrastructure, and many locals adopted British customs (such as afternoon tea and cricket in Corfu). However, Greek independence put pressure on Britain to give sovereignty to the Greek nation, and in 1864 the British left. Meanwhile, Britain eased onto the Greek throne the young Danish Prince William, crowned King George I in 1863, whose reign lasted 50 years.
In 1881, Greece acquired Thessaly and part of Epiros as a result of a Russo-Turkish war. But Greece failed miserably when it tried to attack Turkey in an effort to reach enosis (union) with Crete (which had persistently agitated for liberation from the Ottomans). Timely diplomatic intervention by the Great Powers prevented the Turkish army from taking Athens.
Crete was placed under international administration, but the government of the island was gradually handed over to the Greeks. In 1905 the president of the Cretan assembly, Eleftherios Venizelos (later to become prime minister), announced Crete’s union with Greece (although this was not recognised by international law until 1913).
The declining Ottomans still retained Macedonia, prompting the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. The outcome was the Treaty of Bucharest (August 1913), which greatly expanded Greek territory to take in the southern part of Macedonia (which included Thessaloniki, the vital cultural centre strategically positioned on the Balkan trade routes), part of Thrace, another chunk of Epiros and the northeastern Aegean Islands; the treaty also recognised the union with Crete.
During the First World War, the Allies (Britain, France and Russia) put increasing pressure on neutral Greece to join forces with them against Germany and Turkey, promising concessions in Asia Minor in return. Greek troops served with distinction on the Allied side, but when the war ended in 1918 the promised land in Asia Minor was not forthcoming. Prime Minister Venizelos then led a diplomatic campaign to further the ‘Great Idea’ and sent troops to Smyrna (present-day İzmir) in May 1919. With a seemingly viable hold in Asia Minor, by September 1921 Greece had advanced as far as Ankara. But by this stage foreign support for Venizelos had ebbed, and Turkish forces, commanded by Mustafa Kemal (later to become Atatürk), halted the offensive. The Greek army retreated and Smyrna fell in 1922, and tens of thousands of its Greek inhabitants were killed.
The outcome of these hostilities was the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, whereby Turkey recovered eastern Thrace and the islands of Imvros and Tenedos, while the Italians kept the Dodecanese (which they had temporarily acquired in 1912 and would hold until 1947).
The treaty also called for a population exchange between Greece and Turkey to prevent any future disputes. Almost 1.5 million Greeks left Turkey and almost 400,000 Turks left Greece. The exchange put a tremendous strain on the Greek economy and caused great bitterness and hardship for the individuals concerned. Many Greeks abandoned a privileged life in Asia Minor for one of extreme poverty in emerging urban shanty towns in Athens and Thessaloniki.
During a tumultuous period, a republic was declared in 1924 amid a series of coups and counter-coups. Then in November 1935, King George II installed the right-wing General Ioannis Metaxas as prime minister. He assumed dictatorial powers under the pretext of preventing a communist-inspired republican coup. Metaxas’ grandiose vision was to create a utopian Third Greek Civilisation, based on its glorious ancient and Byzantine past. He then exiled or imprisoned opponents, banned trade unions and the recently established Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (KKE, the Greek Communist Party), imposed press censorship, and created a secret police force and fascist-style youth movement. But Metaxas is best known for his reply of ohi (no) to Mussolini’s ultimatum to allow Italian forces passage through Greece at the beginning of WWII. The Italians invaded anyway, but the Greeks drove them back into Albania.
Despite Allied help, when German troops invaded Greece on 6 April 1941, the whole country was rapidly overrun. The Germans used Crete as an air and naval base to attack British forces in the eastern Mediterranean. The civilian population suffered appallingly during the occupation, many dying of starvation. The Nazis rounded up more than half the Jewish population and transported them to death camps. Numerous resistance movements sprang up, eventually polarising into royalist and communist factions which fought one another with as much venom as they fought the Germans, often with devastating results for the civilian Greek population.
The Germans began to retreat from Greece in October 1944, but the resistance groups continued to fight one another. A bloody civil war resulted, lasting until 1949. The civil war left Greece in chaos, politically frayed and economically shattered. More Greeks were killed in three years of bitter civil war than in WWII, and a quarter of a million people were left homeless. The sense of despair triggered a mass exodus. Villages – whole islands even – were abandoned as almost a million Greeks left in search of a better life elsewhere, primarily to countries such as Australia, Canada and the US.
Georgos Papandreou came to power in February 1964. He had founded the Centre Union (EK) and wasted no time in implementing a series of radical changes: he freed political prisoners and allowed exiles to come back to Greece, reduced income tax and the defence budget, and increased spending on social services and education. The political right in Greece was rattled by Papandreou’s tolerance of the left, and a group of army colonels led by Georgos Papadopoulos and Stylianos Patakos staged a coup on 21 April 1967. They established a military junta, with Papadopoulos as prime minister.
The colonels declared martial law, banned political parties and trade unions, imposed censorship, and imprisoned, tortured and exiled thousands of dissidents. In June 1972, Papadopoulos declared Greece a republic and appointed himself president.
On 17 November 1973, tanks stormed a building at the Athens Polytechnic (Technical University) to quell a student occupation calling for an uprising against the US-backed junta. While the number of casualties is still in dispute (more than 20 students were reportedly killed and hundreds injured), the act spelt the death knell for the junta.
Shortly after, the head of the military security police, Dimitrios Ioannidis, deposed Papadopoulos and tried to impose unity with Cyprus in a disastrous move that led to the partition in Cyprus and the collapse of the junta.
Konstandinos Karamanlis was summoned from Paris to take office and his New Democracy (ND) party won a large majority at the November 1974 elections against the newly formed Panhellenic Socialist Union (PASOK), led by Andreas Papandreou (son of Georgos). A plebiscite voted 69% against the restoration of the monarchy, and the ban on communist parties was lifted.
When Greece became the 10th member of the EU in 1981, it was the smallest and poorest member. In October 1981 Andreas Papandreou’s PASOK party was elected as Greece’s first socialist government, ruling for almost two decades (except for 1990–93). PASOK promised ambitious social reform, to close the US air bases and to withdraw from NATO. US military presence was reduced, but unemployment was high and reforms in education and welfare were limited. Women’s issues fared better: the dowry system was abolished, abortion legalised, and civil marriage and divorce were implemented. But by 1990, significant policy wrangling and economic upheaval wore thin with the electorate and it returned the ND to office, led by Konstandinos Mitsotakis.
Intent on redressing the country’s economic problems – high inflation and high government spending – the government imposed austerity measures, including a wage freeze for civil servants and steep increases in public utility costs and basic services.
By late 1992 corruption allegations were being levelled against the government, and many Mitsotakis supporters abandoned ship; ND lost its parliamentary majority, and an early election held in October returned PASOK to power.
Andreas Papandreou stepped down in early 1996 due to ill health and he died on 26 June, sparking a dramatic change of direction for PASOK. The party abandoned Papandreou’s left-leaning politics and elected economist and lawyer Costas Simitis as the new prime minister. Simitis then won a comfortable majority at the October 1996 polls.
Since the 1930s, Greek Cypriots (four-fifths of the island’s population) had desired union with Greece, while Turkey had maintained its claim to the island ever since it became a British protectorate in 1878 (it became a British crown colony in 1925). Greece was in favour of a union, a notion strongly opposed by Britain and the US on strategic grounds. In 1959, after extensive negotiations, Britain, Greece and Turkey agreed on a compromise solution whereby Cyprus would become an independent republic, with Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios as president and a Turk, Fazil Kükük, as vice-president. In reality this did little to appease either side: right-wing Greek Cypriots rallied against the British, while Turkish Cypriots clamoured for partition of the island.
In July 1974, Greece’s newly self-appointed prime minister Ioannidis tried to impose unity with Cyprus by attempting to topple the Makarios government. However, Makarios got wind of an assassination attempt and escaped. Consequently, mainland Turkey sent in troops until they occupied northern Cyprus, partitioning the island and displacing almost 200,000 Greek Cypriots, who fled their homes for the safety of the south (reportedly more than 1500 remain missing).
The UN-protected Green Line separating modern-day Cyprus is a ghost town. Decades on from the 1974 partition, negotiations have failed to resolve the issue. A divided Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 after a failed referendum on unification, and international mediation continues.
The new millennium saw Greece join the eurozone in 2001, amid rumblings from existing members that it was not economically ready – its public borrowing was too high, as was its inflation level. In hindsight, many look back on that year and bemoan the miscalibration of the drachma against the euro, claiming Greece’s currency was undervalued, and that, overnight, living became disproportionately more expensive. That said, billions of euro poured into large-scale infrastructure projects across Greece, including the redevelopment of Athens – spurred on largely by its hosting of the 2004 Olympic Games. However, rising unemployment, ballooning public debt, slowing inflation and the squeezing of consumer credit took their toll. Public opinion soured further in 2007 when the conservative government (who had come to power in 2004) was widely criticised for its handling of severe summer fires, responsible for widespread destruction throughout Greece. Nevertheless, snap elections held in September 2007 returned the conservatives, albeit with a diminished majority.
A series of massive general strikes highlighted mounting electoral discontent. Hundreds of thousands of people protested against proposed radical labour and pension reforms and privatisation plans that analysts claimed would help curb public debt. The backlash against the ND government, also mired in a series of political scandals, reached boiling point in December 2008 when urban rioting broke out across the country, led by youths in Athens outraged by the fatal shooting by police of a 15-year-old boy.
Concern continued over political tangles in investigations regarding alleged corruption among state executives (on both sides of the political fence) in connection with the Siemens Hellas group. This followed another controversy that involved land-swap deals between a monastery and the government, which some commentators believe to have gone heavily in the monastery’s favour, at the expense of taxpayers. A general election held in October 2009, midway through Karamanlis' term, saw PASOK (under George Papandreou) take back the reins in a landslide win against the conservatives.
In 2009 a lethal cocktail of high public spending and widespread tax evasion, combined with the credit crunch of global recession, threatened to cripple Greece’s economy. In 2010 Greece’s fellow eurozone countries agreed to a €125 billion package (half of Greece’s GDP) to get the country back on its feet, though with strict conditions – the ruling government, PASOK, still led by George Papandreou, would have to impose austere measures of reform and reduce Greece’s bloated deficit. Huge cuts followed, including 10% off public workers’ salaries, but it was too little too late and foreign creditors continued to demand ever-higher interest rates for their loans.
Greece was stuck between a real-life Scylla and Charybdis – to receive yet another bailout, which was absolutely essential to stop them toppling the euro as a credible currency, they had to effect reforms that penalised the average Greek even further, pushing formerly non-political citizens towards revolution. Some longed for a return to the drachma; however, many believed that Greece would still be saddled with massive debt and a monetary system with absolutely no standing.
Prime Minister Papandreou asked the people for a referendum on the EU bailout, then failed to form a coalition government and stepped down from office. In November 2011, Lucas Papademos – a former vice president of the European Central Bank – became prime minister. Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy party, succeeded him the following year and assembled a coalition with third-placed PASOK and smaller groups to pursue the austerity program. A second bailout of €130 billion brought further austerity requirements, and Athens again saw major strikes aimed at the massive cuts – 22% off the minimum wage, 15% off pensions and the axing of 15,000 public sector jobs. Suicide rates in the capital were up by 40%. Also up was support for the far-right fascist organisation, the Golden Dawn, bringing with them a rising tide of racism aimed squarely at Greece’s immigrant population.
These were indeed brutal times for the average Greek, with wage cuts of around 30% and up to 17 ‘new’ taxes crippling monthly income. While the EU and IMF initially predicted that Greece would return to growth in 2014, the inability of many Greeks to pay their taxes at the end of the year meant that growth was a mere 0.4%. In January 2015, the New Democrat party lost at the polls to left-wing Syriza. The new prime minister, 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, won the election with an anti-austerity platform.
This was the first ever election win for radical Syriza. To reach a majority, Syriza established a coalition with right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL), unlikely bedfellows united by their mutual condemnation of the bailout program.
Initially, Tsipras stuck to his guns and June 2015 saw Greece become the first first-world nation to go into arrears with the EU and IMF. Attempts to negotiate a new bailout and avoid default were unsuccessful as Tsipras took the offer back to the Greek people and held a referendum. Over 61% of voters were not willing to accept the bailout conditions.
The week that followed was one of turmoil. Greek banks closed and began running out of cash, and markets around the world fell as the EU produced a detailed plan for a possible 'Grexit' – Greece’s removal from the EU.
At the eleventh hour, Tsipras secured an €86 billion bailout loan – but the austerity measures attached were even more vigorous than those proposed before the referendum, and many felt that, with Greek banks on the brink of collapse, Tsipras had been bullied into accepting the terms. Further tax hikes, pension reforms and privatisation of €50 billion worth of public companies left many viewing Greece as a financial ward of Europe.
Dissent within Syriza and ANEL, brought on by hardliners opposed to the bailout, led Tsipras to resign in August 2015 and return to the polls in September. This was Greece’s fourth election in just over three years. The outcome was an unexpectedly large victory for Tsipras, just six seats short of an absolute majority. Nevertheless, voter turnout was 57%, the lowest recorded in Greece. For many Greeks, choosing between the austerity measures and Grexit had become akin to rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
3000–1100 BC
After 4000 years of agrarian life, the discovery of an alloy blending copper and tin gives rise to the Bronze Age. Trade sees the flourishing of the Cycladic, Minoan – and later, the Mycenaean – civilisations.
1700–1550 BC
Santorini erupts with a cataclysmic explosion, causing a massive Mediterranean-wide tsunami that scholars suggest contributed to the destruction of the Minoan civilisation.
1500–1200 BC
The authoritarian Mycenaean culture from the Peloponnese usurps much of the Cretan and Cycladic cultures. Goldsmithing is a predominant feature of Mycenaean life.
800–700 BC
Homer composes the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey' around this time. The two epic poems are Greece’s earliest pieces of literary art.
800–650 BC
Independent city-states begin to emerge in the Archaic Age as the Dorians develop. Aristocrats rule these mini-states, while tyrants occasionally take power by force. The Greek alphabet emerges.
594 BC
Solon, a ruling aristocrat in Athens, introduces rules of fair play to his citizenry. His radical rule-changing – in effect creating human and political rights – is credited as being the first step to real democracy.
477 BC
Seeking security while building a de facto empire, the Athenians establish a political and military alliance called the Delian League. Many city-states and islands join the new club.
461–432 BC
New Athenian leader Pericles shifts power from Delos to Athens, and uses the treasury wealth of the Delian League to fund massive works, including building the magnificent Parthenon.
334–323 BC
Born in Macedonia, Alexander the Great sets out to conquer the known world, from Greece to the peoples of today’s Central Asia. He dies in 323 BC.
86 BC–AD 224
Roman expansion includes Greek territory. First defeating Macedonia at Pydna in 168 BC, the Romans ultimately overtake the mainland and establish the Pax Romana. It lasts 300 years.
AD 63
Christianity emerges after St Paul visits Crete and leaves his disciple, Titus, to convert the island. St Titus becomes Crete's first bishop.
250–394
The AD 250 invasion of Greece by the Goths signals the decline of the Pax Romana, and in 324 the capital is moved to Constantinople. In 394 Christianity is declared the official religion.
529
Athens’ cultural influence is dealt a fatal blow when Emperor Justinian outlaws the teaching of classical philosophy in favour of Christian theology, by now regarded as the ultimate intellectual endeavour.
1204
Marauding Frankish crusaders sack Constantinople. Trading religious fervour for self interest, the Crusaders strike a blow that sets Constantinople on the road to a slow demise.
1453
Greece becomes a dominion of the Ottoman Turks after they seize control of Constantinople (modern-day İstanbul), sounding the death knell for the Byzantine Empire.
1541
Domenikos Theotokopoulos, later known as 'El Greco', is born in Candia (Crete); his subsequent creations in Italy and Spain are marked by both Cretan School influence and bold personal innovation.
1669
Venetian-ruled Crete falls under Ottoman power after keeping the Turks at bay in a fierce 20-year siege (Spinalonga Island and Souda hold out until 1715).
1821
The War of Independence begins on the mainland on 25 March. Greece celebrates this date as its national day of independence.
1827–31
Ioannis Kapodistrias is appointed prime minister of a fledgling government with its capital in the Peloponnesian town of Nafplio. Discontent ensues and Kapodistrias is assassinated.
1833
The powers of the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) decree that Greece should be a monarchy and dispatch Prince Otto of Bavaria to be the first appointed monarch in modern Greece.
1862–63
The monarchy takes a nosedive and King Otto is deposed in a bloodless coup, with Prince William of Denmark taking over as George I a few months later. Britain returns the Ionian Islands (a British protectorate since 1815) in an effort to quell Greece's expansionist urges.
1896
The first modern Olympic Games in Athens mark Greece’s coming of age. Winners receive a silver medal and olive crown, second and third places receive a bronze medal and a laurel branch, respectively.
1914
The outbreak of WWI sees Greece initially neutral but eventually siding with the Western Allies against Germany and Turkey on the promise of land in Asia Minor.
1919–23
Greece’s ‘Great Idea’ attempts to unite the former Hellenic areas of Asia Minor. It fails and leads to a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, known as the 'Asia Minor catastrophe'.
1924–35
Greece is proclaimed a republic and King George II leaves. The Great Depression counters the nation’s return to stability. Monarchists and parliamentarians under Eleftherios Venizelos tussle for control of the country.
1940
Greeks shout Ohi! (No!) to Italian fascists demanding surrender without a fight on 28 October. Officially referred to as Ohi Day, many Greeks use language that is rather more colourful for this day.
1941–44
Germany invades and occupies Greece. Monarchists, republicans and communists form resistance groups that, despite infighting, drive out the Germans after three years.
1944–49
The end of WWII sees Greece descend into civil war, pitching monarchists against communists. The monarchy is restored in 1946; however, many Greeks migrate in search of a better life.
1967
Right- and left-wing factions continue to bicker, provoking a right-wing military coup d’état by army generals who establish a junta. They impose martial law and abolish many civil rights.
1973
On 17 November tanks ram the gates of the Athens Polytechnic and troops storm the school buildings in a bid to quash a student uprising. More than 20 students reportedly die.
1974
A botched plan to unite Cyprus with Greece prompts the invasion of Cyprus by Turkish troops, and the military junta falls. It’s a catalyst for the restoration of parliamentary democracy in Greece.
1981
Greece joins the EU, effectively removing protective trade barriers and opening up the Greek economy to the wider world for the first time. The economy grows smartly.
1981–90
Greece acquires its first elected socialist government (PASOK) under the leadership of Andreas Papandreou. The honeymoon lasts nine years, before the conservatives reassume power.
1999
Turkey and Greece experience powerful earthquakes within weeks of each other that result in hundreds of deaths. The two nations pledge mutual aid and support, initiating a warming of diplomatic relations.
2001
Greece joins the eurozone, with the drachma currency replaced by the euro.
2004
Athens successfully hosts the 28th Summer Olympic Games. Greece also wins the European football championship.
2007
Vast forest fires devastate much of the western Peloponnese as well as parts of Evia and Epiros, causing Greece’s worst ecological disaster in decades. Thousands lose their homes and 66 people perish.
2008
Police shoot and kill a 15-year-old boy in Athens following an alleged exchange between police and youths. This sparks a series of urban riots nationwide.
2009
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis calls for an early general election. Socialist PASOK, under George Papandreou, wins the October election with a landslide result against the conservatives.
2010
Greece is granted the biggest financial bailout in history, with EU countries committing a €125 billion package. Strict austerity measures by the Greek government to cut the deficit are met with civil protest.
2011
Despite loans, the economy continues to shrink, with rising unemployment and riots in Athens. The EU and IMF rally to prevent a Greek default and avert a crisis across the eurozone.
2012
Proposed government cuts include 22% off the minimum wage, 15% off pensions and the loss of 15,000 public-sector jobs.
2013
Unemployment rises to 26.8% – the highest rate in the EU. Youth unemployment climbs to almost 60%.
2014
The EU and IMF's prediction that Greece would return to growth in 2014 is not realised.
2015
The New Democrat party is replaced by left-wing Syriza, led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras.
2015
Unable to pay its debt, Greece faces the very real possibility of an exit from the eurozone and is forced to take on further debt, with the strictest austerity measures yet.
2017
The number of refugees in Greece reaches 62,000 (over half of them women and children). With borders to other European countries closed, they are trapped, mainly in island camps.