History History

Prehistory begins with the discovery of the Dmanisi man at the site of the same name, not far from Tbilisi, which is said to date back about 1.8 million years. The lands of present-day Georgia were thus inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic. These sedentary tribes cultivated cereals and raised livestock, as evidenced by the stone hoes, pendulum wheels, and flint sickles found at these sites.

In Georgia, the Bronze Age began in the 2nd millennium BC. In ancient times, metals were believed to have originated in the Caucasus regions. Pastoralists' tribes occupied the central part of the country. They were led by rich and powerful chiefs, as evidenced by the gold and silver tableware found in their graves under mounds.

At the beginning of the first millennium, the Assyrian chronicles mention the Georgians for the first time. They are the Diauhi, ancestors of the Thaoki, living in the Tao province in south-western Georgia, and the Khulka, who are the predecessors of the Georgians. The latter lived over large territories in the far west of the Black Sea. This is where the myth of Colchis and his fortune is inscribed. The Greeks were aware of this and attributed the country's exceptional wealth to it. The inhabitants of Colchis lived from the extraction of gold, iron and copper ores. Its symbol? The famous legend of Medea and the golden fleece, probably originating in a gold panning technique using sheepskin.

It is a turning point in the history of the country: the arrival of Christianity, then in full expansion, on its territory. In 337, King Mirian III converted to Christianity.

His wife, Nana, had encouraged him to do so, herself influenced by Saint Nino, the initiator of this religion. The sovereign immediately made it a state religion. His decision was most certainly the result of political calculation. Indeed, conversion to Christianity would play a key role in the unification of the country. Through his own conversion, the sovereign freed himself from the powerful pagan clergy, secured the support of the powerful Christian community in all the other cities of the Roman Empire, gave religious legitimacy to his kingdom and gained Western protection against Iran. Tbilisi fell to the Persian onslaught in 368. In the centuries that followed, the two regions, Colchis and Iberia, were the object of covetousness of a growing Constantinople and Iran. Only King Vakhtang Gorgassali (447-502), considered the father of the nation and founder of Tbilisi, succeeded - for a time only - in repelling both the Persians and the Byzantines. The 6th century also marked a period of intense evangelization of the country. Christianity took root there definitively, through monasticism led by the famous monk David, who became a national saint. However, a new threat loomed on the horizon which, in turn, would erase the arm wrestling between the two rival powers.

Between 642 and 645, the first incursions of Muslim Arabs into the Caucasus upset the balance of the entire region and the East. The Muslim occupation lasted until 1122.

In 645, the Arabs take Tbilisi. The city and its region will become an emirate from 732 until its fall in 1122. In 654, the whole region is subjected to the Arab yoke, as well as the whole country at the end of the 7th century. The west of the country remained under the control of Constantinople. In 809, Achot Bagrani (780-826), claiming to be a descendant of David, the ancestor of Christ, founded the kingdom of Tao-Klarketia and gave birth to the Bagratid dynasty. A long struggle of this dynasty against the Muslim occupiers finally bore fruit: in 888 the national monarchy was re-established. His successor Bagrat III (975-1014) will put in place the reunification of Georgia. This purely Georgian dynasty will be the one and only one until the Russian annexation in 1801.

One invasion followed another, this time it was the turn of the Seljuk Turks, who shook the Caucasus in the 10th century and invaded Georgia in 1065. In 1068, Tbilisi fell again and the typhoon of these new invaders consisted of massacres, raids, looting and fertile land transformed into deserts. Nowadays, this period is still called Didi Turkoba, "the great Turkish troubles", experienced as a trauma in the history of Georgia.

David: this is a name you will hear many times on your journey. Street names, hotel names, airport names... And with good reason: these rulers and saints have Christianized and built the history of Georgia. They are the origin of the most golden periods.

Georgia will rise from its ashes thanks to King David IV the Builder (1089-1125).

He drove the Seljuk Turks out of the country and subdued the insubordinate vassals. He established a central and modern administration, reformed the judicial administration, established a good road infrastructure, encouraged trade and religious tolerance. This patron king founded the Gelati monastery and academy. He also reformed the army and supervised the spiritual and temporal entities. Thus he reformed the Church while ensuring control over it and made it an effective instrument at the service of the State. Many churches are built and St. Andrew, the traditional evangelizer of Georgia, is celebrated. He extends his influence throughout the Caucasus region. Under his reign, Georgia becomes a centre of Christian culture. The sovereign finally freed Tbilisi, which had been Muslim for four centuries. A new page of Georgian history opens; the city is now the capital of the country. The sovereign well deserved his title of "Builder" at his death at the age of 51. Subsequently, the Georgian Church will have him canonized. This military genius gave his country an international dimension for the first time.

King David's great-granddaughter, Queen Tamar (1184-1213), was the great-granddaughter of King David, and was responsible for the apogee of the kingdom of Georgia. The Georgian empire from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, and from the Caucasus to Speri, Armenia, has never been larger. The empire has a population of 12 million, maintains relations from Europe to the East, preserves its interests in the Holy Land, and is growing in all fields, artistic, literary, architectural, scientific ... The poet Chosta Roustaveli (1172-1216), one of Georgia's most prestigious writers, was inspired by Persian letters to write. When the Queen died in 1213, Georgia was more powerful than ever.

From 1220 onwards, the Mongol invasions put an end to this apogee. In 1243, Georgia became vassal, for almost a century, of the new Mongolian Empire. The country regained its independence under George the Brilliant (1318-1346), but only to fall under the domination of new Mongol armies led by Tamerlan in 1386. Georgia, split into twenty-six rival principalities, sank into anarchy. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 under the blows of the Ottomans would isolate Georgia from the Christian world.

From the 15th to the 18th century, the divided country was under constant assault from neighbouring empires. The western puppet states fell under the yoke of Ottoman Turkey. The east of the country, meanwhile, is kept under Persian rule.

Under the reign of Catherine II, Russia is expanding rapidly, moving ever closer to the borders of the Caucasus. The Treaty of Gheorghievsk, signed in January 1784 between the tsarina and King Irakli II, established a Russian protectorate over Georgia. Indeed, the sovereign sought the protection of a Christian Orthodox country to guard against the Muslim threat. Russia undertook not to intervene in Georgia's internal affairs while taking control of its external relations. This was pure treason: between December 1800 and February 1801, Tsar Alexander I annexed purely and simply the Kartli and Kakhetia regions, which were attached to Russia. The protectorate was cancelled and a terrible war was unleashed against western Georgia. The monarchy is abolished in the country and the royal family is forced into exile. The Russian Empire will gradually annex the whole country. In 1828, the Treaty of Turkmenchai established the present borders of Georgia.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Georgia, like the rest of Europe, was one of the cradles of the industrial revolution. October 1917 brought not only the birth of the Soviet Socialist Republic in Russia, but the liberation of Georgia. In the midst of Russia's civil war, on 26 May 1918, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was proclaimed. The government, Menshevik, set up a new assembly and a constitution. If France and England recognize the young democracy, it will not be for long. From 16 February to 18 March 1921, the Red Army invaded Georgia and took Tbilisi. The Georgian government went into exile in France. The country's independence is over. On December 30, 1922, the Bolsheviks proclaim the birth of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. If Stalin, born in Gori, were Georgian, the country would not be spared any more than the rest of the Soviet world in its policy of purges and terror. During the Soviet era, Georgian mentalities remained the same, through attachment to the Church and the family. As terrible as Communist power may have been over Georgia, the balance sheet was not entirely negative. From a distance, Georgia has become two-thirds urbanised, the literacy rate is 100%, the standard of living has improved and industrialisation has really taken off. But Georgia's economy, supported by the USSR, would collapse as soon as it gained independence.

From 1985 onwards, Gorbachev's reform policy in the USSR hit Georgia hard. Its economy deteriorated completely. A hard fall: the country was one of the most prosperous satellites of the Soviet bloc. On 9 October 1989, a demonstration by thousands of Georgians against the separatist tendencies of Ossetia and Abkhazia, which was harshly repressed by the Russian authorities, left 20 people dead. One month later, on 9 November 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall brought about the fall of the so-called people's democracies. On 28 October 1990, the first pluralist elections were held: Zviad Ghamsakourdia, a nationalist leader and long-time opponent, at the head of a coalition, won them with 64% of the votes. He proclaimed the country's independence on 9 April 1991. Its authoritarian drift will then mark the beginning of a long decade of civil war, anarchy and chaos. Tbilisi was in the grip of a civil war between the various factions. To make matters worse, the struggles for independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia resumed in 1992 and 1993. That same year, Ghamsakhourdia's suicide put an end to the civil war. It resulted in 15 000 deaths and 250 000 displaced persons. In 1993, Eduard Chevanardze, Gorbachev's former minister, grants himself full powers. He will be re-elected in 2000. For a decade, Georgia juggled periods of anarchy, lull or real instability. Large-scale crime, gang warfare and a lack of maintenance of basic infrastructure are the order of the day.

The permanent chaos gradually makes Eduard Shevarnadze very unpopular. The Georgians are exasperated by ever-increasing economic difficulties and corruption at all levels. They express their exasperation by taking to the streets with a rose in their hand and invading the Parliament. They are led by Michael Saakashvili, leader of the opposition party, the United National Movement. His watchwords are "eradication of corruption and nepotism". On 4 November 2003, this popular movement, called the "Rose Revolution", ousted the president from power. On 4 January 2004. Michael Saakashvili was elected president of the Republic. He ostensibly turned his back on Russia with a pro-European policy, started a liberal economy and encouraged foreign investment. He replaced all the members of a police force plagued by corruption, put in place a young, pro-Western government and a much stronger judicial system, and renovated the infrastructure. The country was, for a time, experiencing a certain economic boom.

The president is plugging the gaps in a country that is virtually ruined, but the economy is struggling to take off. The euphoria does not last long; the president's violently anti-Russian stance, the conflicts and violent tensions with Russia, the wars with South Ossetia and its increasingly authoritarianism are the cause. However, he was re-elected in 2008 with much less enthusiasm. His policies have left many people, including teachers, out in the cold.

On the night of 7-8 August 2008, to the general surprise of the rest of the world, the Georgian authorities launched an assault on the Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. On 11 August, the Georgian armies were in the midst of a stampede. The Russian armies left the Ossetian borders and were in Gori, on Georgian territory. They cut the road between Tbilisi and the Black Sea. The craziest rumours are circulating, the Georgian capital is panicking and can already see itself under Russian bombardments. Abkhazia is taking advantage of this to recover the Kodori Gorge, hitherto controlled by Georgia. Europe does not want a conflict on its doorstep. President Sarkozy then presided over the European Union and got both sides to sign a peace plan.

Why such a manoeuvre? Because the President had one objective: to recover the provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which had become de facto independent with the green light from Russia. He will obtain the opposite; the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are now formal. They are officially recognised by Russia. The ceasefire is signed on 16 August and that is the beginning of the end for the Georgian President. Russia has shown its muscle, it will do what it wants with Georgia, whenever it likes. In addition, it wants to maintain its Black Sea rivalry with the United States, and of course to prevent Georgia's accession to NATO.

A new man enters the scene: Bidzina Ivanishvili, the man in the shadows. Of Russian, Georgian and French nationality, this billionaire has made a fortune in Russia. He creates a new party, the Georgian Dream (centre left), supported by the Orthodox Church. In 2012 he took up the post of Prime Minister alongside Saakashvili in a coalition government. In 2013, Guiorgui Margvelachvili won the presidential elections, supported by Ivanichvili who withdrew from political life. He continues to pursue a policy of pro-Westernism, NATO integration and candidacy for membership of the European Union, while at the same time maintaining a much less confrontational relationship with Russia, which has normalised. Economic exchanges have resumed between the two countries. On the economic front, Ivanishvili, after his resignation, is leaving the reins to his right-hand man, who is pursuing a policy of decentralisation, recovery and relaunch towards a market economy. Supported by international institutions, Georgia has recovered well economically, but its political future remains uncertain.

On 28 November 2018, Salome Zurabishvili, former Foreign Minister under Saakashvili and former French diplomat, supported by the Georgian Dream, was elected President of the Republic of Georgia. The elections are taking place in an atmosphere that is far from serene. The usual accusations of electoral fraud and corruption have not disappeared from the Georgian landscape. Her victory, with 59.9% of the vote, seems indisputable. It wants to be above the parties, but it has the adoubtability of a man who cannot be ignored. It is said that it is he who, behind the scenes, holds the reins of real power: Ivanishvili, again and again.

On 17 November 2019, thousands of Georgians demonstrated in front of the rejection by the majority in power of a reform of the electoral system. The oligarch Ivanishvili had promised to introduce proportional representation in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2020. In power since 2012, Georgia is in the midst of economic stagnation and the people accuse Ivanishvili of controlling the government in an underhanded manner. The political situation is volatile to say the least..