Greece

  

Hellenic Republic Ελληνική Δημοκρατία (Greek) Ellinikí Dimokratía
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος Elefthería í Thánatos (English: "Freedom or Death")
Anthem: Ύμνος εις την Ελευθερίαν Ímnos is tin Eleftherían (English: "Hymn to Liberty")
Capital and largest city	Athens
Official languages	Greek
Religion (2017)	93% Christianity —90% Greek Orthodox (official) —Other Christian 4% No religion 2% Islam 1% Others
Demonym(s)	Greek Hellene
Government	Unitary parliamentary republic
• President	Christos Tsatsos
• Prime Minister	Ioannis Karamanlis
• Parliament Speaker	TBD
Legislature	Hellenic Parliament
Establishment
• Independence	25 March 1821 (start of the Greek War of Independence) 11 January 1822 (official declaration)
• Recognition	3 February 1830
• Current constitution	11 June 1954
Area
• Total	131,957 km2 (50,949 sq mi) (29)
• Water (%)	1.51%
Population
• 2021 census	10,432,481 (54th)
• Density	79.1/km2 (204.9/sq mi) (133th)
Currency	Drachma
ISO 3166 code	GR

Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα, romanized: Elláda), officially the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, romanized: Elliniki Dimokratia) is a country located in Southeastern Europe, situated on the southern tip of the Balkans and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. Greece shares landborders with Albania to the northwest, Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and the Anatolian Republic to the southeast. Greece's southern border is dominated by coast with the Aegean Sea lying to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sewa to the south. Greece has the longest continious coastline in the world on the Mediterranean Basin and features thousands of islands. The country consists of nine geographical regions and has a population of 10.7 million as of 2021. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras.

Greece is considered to be the cradle of Western civilization and culture being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography, political science, major advancements in both science and mathematics, theatre and the Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, Greece was organized in the form of several city-states, known as poleis (singular Polis), spanning from the Mediterranean Basin to the Black Sea. In the fourth century BC, Philip II of Macedon united much of modern-day Greece and his son Alexander the Great would go on to conquer much of the ancient world, from the eastern Meditterannean to India. The subsequent Hellenistic period would see Greek culture and its influence reach its peak during antiquity. In the second century BC, Greece was conquered by Rome, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire later the Eastern Roman Empire, the latter of which was linguistically and culturally Greek. In the first century AD, the Greek Orthodox Church was founded and would help propel Greek relations and presence in the Orthodox world while also influencing Greek national identity. In the mid-15th century, Greece was annexed by the Ottoman Empire and would remain under Ottoman rule until the 1820s after Greece won its war of independence and emerged as a nation-state in the 1830s. Greece was placed under monarchial rule by the foreign royal family from the 1830s until the 20th century.

During the 20th century, Greece would emerge as a prominent regional power in the Balkans that was at odds with the Ottoman Empire and made diplomatic overtures towards various nations, most notably Russia, and ended with close ties with Russia. During the 1910s, Greece supported the Balkan League during the Balkan Wars and would grow closer ties with Germany in the 1920s due to German overtures towards Greece and fears of continued Landonist expansion across Southern Europe following the Italian Revolution in 1918. Due to this, Greece aligned itself with the Anglo-German Alliance and remained supportive of Germany following the outbreak of the Great War. During the war, Greece would be invaded by Greece and would fall to Italian occupation, resulting in the establishment of the Hellenic Democratic Republic, a provisional socialist state that lasted until the formal establishment of the Hellenic Socialist Republic in 1938 at the end of the war. Shortly after the start of the Cold War, the Greek Civil War began between the communist government and anti-communist rebels with the former emerging victorious by early 1941. The Hellenic Socialist Republic would dominant Greek politics from its formation in 1938 until its eventual overthrow in 1990. Since the end of the Hellenic Socialist Republic, Greece has gradually transitioned into a multiparty democracy.

Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic and is a developed country, with a high-income economy and a high quality of life, ranking 32 in the Human Development Index. Greece has the largest economy in the Balkans and is an important regional investor. Greece is a member of various international organizations such as the League of Nations, of which it's a founding member, the European Community and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greece is also a member of the Northern Treaty Organization (NTO), World Trade Organization and the Council of Europe. Greece's unique cultural heritage combined with its tourism industry, prominent shipping sector, and geostrategic importance has led it to being classified as a middle power by most political scientists and observers.

History

Main article: History of Greece

Modern history

Kingdom of Greece

Main article: Kingdom of Greece

Great War and reconstruction

Main article: Greece during the Great War

Politics

Main article: Politics of Greece

Political parties

Main article: Political parties in Greece

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations

Military

Main article: Hellenic Armed Forces

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Greece

See also

• Outline of Greece

This page uses material from the Wikipedia page Greece, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).