Home Germany Italy United Kingdom France Poland Austria Spain Portugal Russia Greece Netherlands Belgium Sweden Finland
Norway Denmark Japan China India Egypt Australia USA Mexico Brazil Turkey Mongolia Bulgaria Romania Hungary
 
BERLIN WEATHER  

Countries of the World: Afghanistan Argentina Australia Belgium Brazil Canada Chile China Colombia Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Egypt Ethiopia Finland France Germany

 
Ancient Greece: The Cradle of Western Civilization 
Early civilizations in Greece included the Minoan (on Crete) and Mycenaean cultures (on the mainland). After a "Dark Age," the Archaic period saw the rise of the polis (city-state) as the dominant form of political organization and Greek colonization across the Mediterranean. 
  • Classical Period: The 5th and 4th centuries BCE were the "Golden Age," particularly for Athens, which developed the world's first democracy. This era was marked by the Persian Wars, the flourishing of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle), theater, and architecture (the Parthenon). Rivalry between Athens and Sparta led to the Peloponnesian War, which weakened both city-states.
  • Hellenistic Period: The rise of Macedon under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great unified Greece and led to a vast empire that spread Greek culture across Western Asia and North Africa. After Alexander's death, the empire fragmented, and the region eventually fell to the Roman Republic in 146 BCE. 
Roman and Byzantine Empires
Greece became a province of the Roman Empire. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Eastern Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople (ancient  ), continued for another thousand years as the Byzantine Empire. This Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian empire preserved Greek and Roman learning and served as a major cultural and military power in the Middle Ages until its fall to the Ottomans in 1453 CE. 
Ottoman Rule and Independence
Greece came under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, where its people endured four centuries of foreign rule. Greek identity and the Orthodox Church persisted during this period. The Greek War of Independence (1821–1829), fueled by nationalistic fervor, led to the establishment of the modern Greek state. 
Modern Greece
The new kingdom grew through a series of wars in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Balkan Wars, World War I and II, and a subsequent civil war marked the 20th century. A military dictatorship ruled from 1967 to 1974, after which democracy was restored, establishing the current 
Third Hellenic Republic
. Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and adopted the Euro in 2001.