History History

Neanderthal man would have begun to navigate between the islands 100,000 years ago, but it was not until the end of the last ice age, 11,700 years ago, thatHomos sapiens really settled on these lands. The islands of the North Aegean bear the traces of the first Neolithic inhabitants in a few exceptional sites, with advanced social and urban organization for the period. These include the site of Poliochni, on the island of Lemnos, which is the oldest organized "city" excavated in Europe (^5th-2nd millennia BC) or the fortified site of Palamari, on the island of Skyros, beautifully preserved (^3rd-2nd millennia BC).

Around 3,200 B.C.E., Helladic, or Greek protohistory, began, a period that lasted until the 10th century B.C.E. The Cyclades have not yet entered the Bronze Age, which they gave birth to the first Greek 'civilization'. From Antiparos to Syros, passing through Milos and Amorgos, we find the same polished statuettes with emaciated features. Admire these idols at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens: their lines are so pure that those who discovered them in the 19th century imagined that they were produced much later, in the archaic period. It was not until a century later that it became clear that these works worthy of Picasso were indeed prehistoric. Since then, we have been learning more and more about this people of sailors and merchants whose traces can be traced as far as Serbia.

Settled in Crete and across the Aegean Sea, the so-called Minoan civilization invented the first Greek alphabets, left many vestiges and disappeared around 1200 BC. In the current state of research, that's about all we know. Everything else is questioned today: this people was not called the Minoans, was not a thalassocracy, did not have a palace, etc.. The British Sir Evans, the main discoverer of this civilization in 1900, started from a false reasoning: the Minoans are the descendants of the mythical king Minos. In fact, the Minoans were probably called the Kaphti, they had no king and their organization was not based on palaces, but on granaries where a seemingly very egalitarian society converged. In 2012, the Greek state did launch a project to start all over again, but the funding did not follow. In the meantime, in Knossos (Crete), we still visit the improbable reconstruction of a "palace" that never existed.

Implanted especially in the Peloponnese, this people called the Acheans by Homer is also a mystery. In Mycenae, when the first scholars discovered the Cyclopean walls, the circular tombs and the Lioness Gate, they were so impressed that an entire civilization was baptized "Mycenaean". Once again, Sir Evans would set the research on the wrong track, by imagining the foundation of a Mycenaean kingdom by the Minoans. It is true that the Cretan civilization dominated trade with mainland Greece, passing on to it its alphabet, the "linear B". But as for the rest, it is still very unclear. During Antiquity, the Greeks themselves wondered about the ruins inherited from the Mycenaeans, who disappeared around 1100 B.C. For lack of an answer, they created myths by attributing to the Cyclops the construction of the enormous stone walls, making Perseus the first king of Mycenae, etc.

The period from the end of the Mycenaeans to the beginning of Antiquity, which has been little known for a long time, now benefits from a new light. During these four so-called "dark" centuries, the population of Greece declined and the knowledge of writing was lost, but the arts continued to evolve (Orientalist, proto-geometric and geometric periods) and men continued to build temples, including those at the origin of the sanctuaries of Delos andOlympia. And, above all, researchers have put an end to claims that Minoans and Mycenaeans disappeared because of a cataclysm (the eruption of Santorini), an invasion (the semi-legendary Dorians) or revolts (against supposedly tyrannical regimes). None of these hypotheses is more advanced, but several combined factors are considered.

The archaic period marks the beginning of antiquity. At the end of the "Dark Centuries", the Hellenes were present in Greece, but also in Asia Minor (now Turkey) and Cyprus. While the Phoenicians founded Carthage (814 BC) and dominated the Mediterranean, the Greeks turned to them to regain their mastery of writing. The Phoenician alphabet is modified with the addition of vowels: it is the first complete alphabet, later adapted by the Romans. This revolution heralded others. The population of the Greek world grew and agriculture flourished. Trade developed, but it was not until 650 BC that the Greeks of Lydia (now Turkey) struck the first Greek currency. In the 8th century B.C. independent cities were born. They still have only 500 to 1,500 inhabitants and are still dominated by the aristocracy. However, in the 7th century B.C. several cities began to reduce the privileges of the nobility. Under the influence of thinkers such as the Athenian Solon, politics became the business of more people. The beginnings of citizenship led to the emergence in the 6th century B.C. of the polis: a city-state ruled by and for its inhabitants. The citizen acquires rights, but also duties, such as compulsory conscription. The size of armies increases, leading to the invention of the hoplitic phalanx: heavily armed infantrymen (hoplites) who advance in close ranks. Cities became conquerors and, faced with their demographic growth, created colonies. From the Black Sea to Marseilles, the Greek world experienced an immense expansion. In contact with the Phoenicians, Syrians and Egyptians, Greek philosophy took shape (6th century BC) and art took a phenomenal leap forward: massive statues of kouros (young man) and koré (young girl) appeared in the Cyclades in the 7th century BC, painters abandoned geometric forms in favour of the figurative, and poetry developed under the influence of Homeric narratives. Religion and mythology constitute, together with language, the common basis of an otherwise very divided Greek world. Indeed, there are many conflicts, especially between Athens and Sparta, who seek to control the Peloponnese.

It all begins with the Medieval Wars (490-479 BC). Faced with the Persians (then called the Medes) who subdued the Greeks of Asia Minor, the rival cities united. In 490 BC, the Athenians crush Darius' troops at Marathon. In 480 BC, 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas sacrifice themselves at Thermopylae, before the Greek fleet wins at Salamis. Finally, on 27 August 479 BC, the Athenian hoplites confirmed the Persian defeat at the Battle of Plateaeus. This victory allowed the emergence of democracy in Athens in 510 BC. The city was then rich and powerful. Its success was based on its mastery of the sea. With its port of Piraeus, its merchant fleet and its combat galleys (the trières), Athens exerted a real hegemony over the Greek world. Since the end of the medieval wars, it has led the League of Delos, an alliance of cities against the Persians. Gradually, Athens behaves in an imperialist way towards the league, confiscating the common treasure provided in case of war. This money was used to finance, among other things, the Parthenon, completed in 432 BC. Sparta fears that the Athenian empire will make it lose control of the Peloponnese. Thus the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) broke out. The conflict engulfed the whole Greek world, opposing almost all the cities on either side of Sparta or Athens. The latter seemed to have the advantage with its fleet, its alliance and its strategist Pericles. Despite brilliant victories, Athens was weakened by a plague epidemic and the disastrous Sicilian expedition (413 BC). Sparta's victory was not complete, however, as Thebes and Corinth emerged as its new rivals. For Athens, however, it meant the disappearance of its empire and the end of democracy, replaced by a tyrannical regime. For two centuries, Athens prospered, its population doubled (400,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the^5th century BC) and, above all, it played a leading role in the development of the arts, sciences and philosophy.

Paradoxically, it was the Spartans who made democracy possible by helping the Athenians to overthrow the tyrant Hippias in 510 BC. Immediately, the reformer Clisthenes established the foundations of the regime: an ecclesia (assembly) made up of equal citizens who vote the laws and among whom are drawn by lot the 500 members of the boule (council) responsible for drafting the laws. But out of about 200,000 inhabitants in Clisthenes' time, only 10% were citizens: slaves, dago (non-Athenians) and women were not allowed to vote. Democracy, however, was to spread from Kos to Rhodes, via Cyrene (Libya) and Syracuse (Sicily). Other cities opted for the second major Greek political model, that of Sparta. It too guarantees equality, but according to a collective and military way of life, at the expense of the arts and individual liberties, and retaining certain aspects of tyranny.

This golden age reached its peak during the so-called "Pericles' century" (461-431 BC). At that time, the city was home to remarkable men such as the historians Thucydides and Herodotus or the sculptor Phidias, author of the Parthenon. It is the home of the philosophers Plato and Socrates, of orators such as Protagoras (movement of the sophists), and of the playwrights Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. The city also attracted the mathematician Pythagoras and the physician Hippocrates. Despite the end of democracy, the city will continue to shine with the sculptor Praxiteles and the philosopher Aristotle, tutor of Alexander the Great.

Since the end of the Peloponnesian War, conflicts between Thebes, Athens and Sparta have weakened the cities. This benefits the kingdom of Macedonia, located in northern Greece. Founded in the 8th century B.C., the dynasty of the Aegeans originated from Argolide (Peloponnese). But the Macedonian population is perceived as "barbaric", i.e. not Greek. From 359 B.C., Philip II of Macedonia subdues the neighbouring peoples (Illyrians, Thracians...), then seizes the Athenian colonies of Macedonia (354 B.C.). The dreaded Macedonian phalanxes are then called by Thebes, and Thessaly is integrated into the kingdom. The cities try alliances, resisting the Macedonians both by arms and by violent speeches(The Philippians of the Athenian tribune Demosthenes). However, Philip wins at the Battle of Chéronnée in 338 B.C. Controlling all Greece except Sparta, he proposes a sacred union to liberate the cities of Asia Minor under Persian control. But Philip is assassinated in 336 BC.

A Greek-speaking Macedonian and pupil of the philosopher Aristotle, the greatest conqueror in history was not considered Greek by most ancient Greeks. And his legacy is today claimed as much by the neighbouring small Northern Macedonia as by the Iranians, Afghans or Egyptians. All this makes Alexander the Great the most universal figure in Greek history. He changed the world if only by making the Persian Empire, the hereditary enemy of the Greek cities, disappear. But, above all, his campaigns spread Hellenism as far as India. And while his vast empire collapsed immediately after his death, his diadochs (generals) founded dynasties from Egypt to the Middle East that lasted three centuries and gave birth to a new Greco-Eastern culture. This was the basis for the Romans as well as the Byzantines and the Ottomans

The most famous conqueror was only 20 years old when he succeeded his father. After having quelled a revolt of the cities, Alexander the Great took up the idea of a sacred union against the Persians. In May 334 BC, an army of 45,000 Macedonians, Greeks and Barbarians landed in present-day Turkey. The troops of the Persian Emperor Darius III were quickly routed. Alexander went down to Egypt, where he was made pharaoh and founded Alexandria (331 BC). He then heads to the heart of the Empire, captures Babylon and Persepolis, and in the summer of 330 BC, succeeds Darius III, who has just been killed. The young Macedonian set off for India. The Punjab valley and then the Indus valley are taken. Alexander will go no further. In the spring of 325 B.C., faced with the grumbling of his soldiers, he returns to his capital, Babylon. There, surrounded by his wife Roxanne, mistresses and lovers, he is caught up in a storm of rivalries, jealousies and revolts. He died, probably poisoned, on June 11, 323 BC. His empire immediately broke up. But his generals, the Diadochs, created Hellenistic dynasties, three of which lasted until the arrival of Rome. In Egypt, Ptolemy founded the kingdom of the Lagides, which died out with the death of Cleopatra (30 BC) and where Alexandria replaced Athens as the cultural capital of the Greek world. In the Middle East, Seleucos erected the immense Seleucid Empire. Greece itself was long disputed before the Antigonid dynasty came to power in the 3rd century BC. While the Macedonian cities of Pella and Thessaloniki emerge as political centres, Sparta and Athens resist

It was on the pretext of "liberating the Greeks" that Rome unleashed the wars of Macedonia (215-148 B.C.). For almost 80 years, four conflicts opposed the Romans to the Antigonids. The latter enjoyed the support of Carthage and the Seleucid Empire before finding themselves isolated. As for Rome, at the beginning, it is only a small power. But it is fascinated by Greek culture and will embark on the conquest of cities. The latter sometimes rally to one side, sometimes to the other. However, the Greeks are increasingly leaning towards Rome. The Republic of Lazio became their first economic partner and, above all, it proved its love of Hellenism by adopting the gods of Olympus. Thus, during the Fourth Macedonian War (150-148 B.C.), the cities refused to rise up against the Romans, causing the end of the Kingdom of Macedonia. In 146 B.C., present-day Greece was attached to Rome as a province of Macedonia.

Things are off to a bad start. In 146 B.C., after razing Carthage to the ground, the Romans destroy Corinth. The city had been a valuable ally against the Macedonians. But Rome used the pretext of a slight dispute to seize the Peloponnese and prove its military superiority. This will not prevent Greek revolts like those of Pergamos (Asia Minor) and Athens in 129 and 88 BC. Then the Romans were generous: they financed the reconstruction of Corinth and, in 27 BC, Julius Caesar made the city the capital of the new province of Achaia (southern Greece). The transformation of the Republic into an Empire coincided with the longest period of peace ever experienced by the Greeks: the Pax Romana (27 BC -180 AD). Deprived of their armies, the cities benefited from a favourable economic environment. Thanks to the Empire, which soon spread throughout the Mediterranean, merchants no longer had to fear pirates and renewed close ties with the Greek cities of Egypt, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Italy and Gaul. The emperors' passion for Hellenism is reflected in the creation of numerous monuments: Hadrian's Gate in Athens, Nero's villa in Olympia... The Romans also built aqueducts, cities and roads like the Via Egnatia linking Rome to Byzantium. Within the Empire, ideas circulate more easily. Greek culture and language spread among the Roman elite as well as among the merchants of Palestine. In the eastern half of the Empire, texts and inscriptions are more often written in Greek than in Latin. Artists and authors copied Greek works over and over again. In short, Hellenism has never been so powerful. But ideas also travel in the other direction. Thus, Christianity enters Europe via Greece. The Apostle Paul stayed there twice between 50 and 58. If his preaching is rejected by the Stoics in Athens, he forms communities in the Peloponnese, Macedonia and Thrace. The link between Christianity and Hellenism accompanied the changes in the Roman Empire, allowing it to continue in Byzantium until 1453.

He is the most revered Christian martyr among the Orthodox, making his native city, Thessaloniki, a high place of pilgrimage for Greeks, Bulgarians and Russians alike. Coming from a wealthy converted family, he began a campaign of evangelization during the harshest anti-Christian persecution, at a time when the co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius were thinking of making Thessaloniki the Roman capital. He is therefore quickly executed. What will ensure his notoriety, it is especially the miracles which are allotted to him after his death, in particular the defense of his city against the avaricious and Bulgarian invaders in the Middle Ages. Thessaloniki is indeed the main meeting point with the new peoples who arrived since the 6th century. And it was two other saints of Thessaloniki, Cyril and Methodius, who launched the conversion of the Slavs from the 9th century, spreading the cult of Demetrios to Kiev

From the 2nd century onwards, the Roman Empire was weakened by the rise of Christianity and the invasions of the Germans and Huns. The Christians questioned the unifying cult dedicated to the emperor. They are thus fought by persecutions. But as these were mainly aimed at the Greco-Roman elite, the new religion was gradually tolerated. As for the invasions, it is thought to remedy this by splitting the Empire in two, between East and West: first administratively in 285, then totally in 395. In the meantime, Constantine (306-337) temporarily reunified the Empire. But the emperor did two things above all: he converted to Christianity and moved the capital to the East, where Hellenism was perceived as the best bulwark of "Romanity". In 330, he designated an ancient Greek colony: Byzantium. Later renamed Constantinople, then Istanbul, it is ideally located between Asia and Europe. Constantine's choices were confirmed by his successors: they made Christianity the official religion (392) and, when the Western Empire disappeared (476), Constantinople became the seat of Christianity.

Today's Greece is the most direct heir to the Eastern Roman Empire, known as Byzantine. Almost unknown in French history textbooks, this medieval superpower nevertheless beats all records for longevity in Europe: eleven centuries. The Greek-speaking "Byzantines", the successors of ancient Rome, called themselves "Romans". For a long time, this empire retained territories as far as Italy. Although fought by the Catholics, it will serve as a model for future European states: efficient army, balanced taxation, broad access to education, enriched Roman law, etc.. Although the Byzantines laid the foundations of Christianity, they continued to study the ancient authors and were tolerant of other cults. The influence of Byzantium was such that it allowed the emergence of the Italian Renaissance after the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453.

The first shock came in the 6th century with the invasion of the Slavs. They founded sklavinies (autonomous colonies), as in Macedonia and the Peloponnese, then kingdoms in Bulgaria (635) and Serbia (780). The Slavs remained a constant threat, barely contained by the Christianization launched by Cyril and Methodius from Thessaloniki. From the 8th century onwards, the Byzantine Empire was shaken by a religious conflict (the iconoclastic crisis), while the Islamicized Arabs took over large territories, including Egypt. The other danger came from the West, where the Pope and the Germanic kings challenged the supremacy of Constantinople. Taking the title of Emperor of the West in 800, Charlemagne went so far as to modify Christian dogma in order to establish his authority, which led to the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054. Despite the spectacular reconquests of Basil II (976-1025), Byzantium could no longer defend Great Greece (southern Italy and Sicily): in the 12th century, it was conquered by the Normans supported by the Pope. In 1204, it is the ultimate break: the Crusaders and the Venetians capture Constantinople and Greece. The Byzantine Empire, which had been torn apart by the Catholics, was then given up for dead. However, it was re-established in 1261. With the Paleologic dynasty (1261-1453), it even experienced a new golden age, as witnessed by the churches of Mistra (Peloponnese). This "Palaeologic Renaissance" influenced the European arts and heralded the Italian Renaissance. If Byzantium has survived, it is because its foundations are solid: efficient administration and taxation, constantly enriched Roman law, the capacity to assimilate various peoples, an experienced army... The Paleologians thus recovered most of Greece and Anatolia. While Crete, the Ionian Islands, Nafplio and the Cyclades remained in the hands of the Venetians, a new enemy broke out: the Ottoman Empire. Founded in 1299, this Turkish and Muslim power gradually conquered the Byzantine territories. Constantinople itself was besieged four times before its walls gave way under the guns of Mehmed II on 29 May 1453.

The history of Ottoman Greece is not the same according to the territories. Thrace is conquered from 1347 and massively Islamized. On the other hand, the Cyclades remained Venetian for a long time and were never really occupied by the Ottomans. Tinos is herself captured only in 1715. Corfu was never Ottoman, remaining Venetian until its annexation by France in 1797. The case of Crete is more complex: the Ottomans seized the island two centuries after Constantinople, in 1646, settling there many Turkish settlers. Thus, the Muslims represented half of the Cretan population until they were expelled from the island in 1923. As for present-day Turkey, it will retain important Greek communities in Trebizond, Smyrna and Constantinople. Pragmatically, the Ottomans showed religious tolerance. Although they encouraged conversions to Islam by means of tax incentives, on the whole they allowed the "infidels" to practise their religion. In 1492, Sultan Bajazet II took under his protection the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. This decision was primarily a response to the need to repopulate the cities taken during the conquest. Thus, for four centuries, Thessaloniki became the largest city with a Jewish majority in Europe. In the same practical spirit, the Patriarch of Constantinople was entrusted with the responsibility for all Christians in the Balkans, whether Greek or Slavic, Orthodox or Catholic. The aim is to relieve the pashas (governors) of the burden of collecting community taxes. The favouritism enjoyed by the Greek Church also results in the almost invulnerability of monasteries, especially those on Mount Athos. There, monks keep alive the memory of the Byzantine Empire, maintain a language and age-old traditions, and then become the spearhead of resistance.

Gentlemen, if you ever have to put in a good word for a Greek woman, tell her that she is a bouboulina : that is the nicest compliment you can pay her. Born in captivity among the Ottomans in Constantinople and from a family of Arvanite shipowners (Hellenized Orthodox Albanians) on the island of Hydra, Laskarina Bouboulina was the Greek heroine of the War of Independence (1821-1829). Widowed by a captain from the island of Spetses, she had theAgamemnon, a ship armed with 18 cannons, built for her and in 1820 took command of a flotilla to blockade Nafplio, even before the beginning of the conflict. She then lost a son during the Battle of Argos (May 1821) and remarried General Kolokotronis, taking part with him in the liberation of the Peloponnese. Dreaded by the Ottomans, but caught up in internal conflicts, Bouboulina returned to Spetses where a family vendetta caused her death.

Greece chose 25 March 1821 as the date of the beginning of the uprising in Patras. In fact, the motto "liberty or death" is brandished from 15-17 March 1821 in several localities of the Peloponnese. There were many reasons for this: the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the fragmentation of Greece into local potentates, the increase in taxes, etc. The causes were numerous. The conflict extended from Macedonia to Crete, but the independence fighters were divided. The Ottomans and their Egyptian allies take back all of Greece, except for Nafplio and Hydra. The massacre of Chios (April 1822) and the bloody siege of Missolonghi (April 1826) provoke indignation. The emotion relayed by Delacroix, Hugo, Byron and Lamartine gave rise to philhellenic movements. The latter put pressure on the European states to support the Greeks. On 6 July 1827, the Treaty of London marked a turning point with the intervention of Russia, England and France in favour of the Greeks. The naval victory of Navarin (20 October 1827), then the French expedition of Morée and the ninth Russian-Turkish war finally forced the Ottomans to withdraw from southern Greece on 14 September 1829.

The fragile Hellenic Republic that came into being at independence represents about one third of present-day Greece. Taking Aegina and then Nafplio as their capital, the rebel leaders chose Jean Capo of Istria as their first head of state. But this Greco-Venetian, who was a Russian minister, did not meet with unanimous approval: he was assassinated on 31 October 1831. The following year, the "protective" monarchies (Great Britain, Russia and France) overthrew the Republic. The Kingdom of Greece was established with the Bavarian Prince Otto I at its head. Reigning as absolute monarch, he launched the modernization of the country, settled in Athens (1834) and undertook the project of the "Great Idea" (Megali Idea), that of reuniting the territories inhabited by the Greeks with Constantinople as its capital. Supporting revolts, as in Crete (1841), he failed to enlarge his kingdom, only deepening the public debt and provoking the anger of both Ottomans and Europeans. He was finally overthrown by a revolution in 1862. His successors, George I and Constantine I, Danish princes also chosen by the great powers, will nevertheless continue the project of the Great Idea. Despite a worrying public debt, political crises and a heavy defeat in 1897 against the Ottomans, Greece recovered the Ionian Islands from the British (1863) and part of Thessaly (1878). Then, at the end of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the country took its present form, with the exception of the Dodecanese islands, which were ceded by Italy in 1947.

During the conflict, the country is being torn apart over which side to join. It is the "National Schism": on one side, King Constantine I, pro-German, on the other, his Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, in favour of the Entente. The arrival of Franco-British troops on the Macedonian front exacerbated tensions. In 1917, the King gave the order to shoot French soldiers. Paris and London had Constantine deposed, and Athens entered the war on their side. Ranked among the victors, Greece obtained part of present-day Turkey in the Treaty of Sèvres (1920).

Thanks to Franco-British support, Venizélos hopes to complete the Great Idea. He launches the army towards Constantinople. But everything changed in 1922. In Athens, Constantine rose to the throne, causing the immediate cessation of aid from Paris and London. And, above all, Atatürk remobilizes the Ottoman army that reconquers Asia Minor. After the massacres of Muslims by the Greeks, the revenge of the Turks is just as terrible. It is the "Great Catastrophe": the loss of land inhabited by the Hellenes for millennia. It resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Christians and the exodus of a million Greeks from Asia Minor. Politically, this upheaval led to the end of the Ottoman Empire, the birth of Turkey (1923) and the fall of the Greek monarchy (1924)

Greece is rebuilding itself in pain. While the uprooted from Asia Minor bring with them a whole Eastern culture, hundreds of thousands of Slavs, Turks and Jews are driven out. Paralysed by corruption and political instability, the Second Republic was overthrown by General Ioannis Metaxas in 1936. He suspended Parliament and re-established the monarchy. His authoritarian regime borrowed certain aspects of fascism. But Metaxas was more tolerant of minorities than his predecessors. He also imposed a modern approach to tourism, for example by having the houses of the Cyclades painted with white lime. Unloved by his people, Metaxas is also feared by Western democrats who consider him pro-German. The dictator nevertheless became a national hero by refusing Mussolini's ultimatum on 28 October 1940 ("Day of No"). After fierce resistance against the Italians, Greece was invaded by Nazi Germany in April 1941

During the occupation, the country experienced two major traumas: the famine of the winter of 1941-1942 (more than 250,000 deaths) and the extermination of 86% of the Jewish population. The other striking fact is the intensity of the resistance, organised into two rival movements, royalist and communist. The Germans responded to ambushes and sabotage with fierce reprisals. In all, the Second World War resulted in the death of 574,000 Greeks (8% of the population). In 1944, the Communists succeeded in liberating the territory. However, under pressure from the British, they were removed from power. This led to the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the first confrontation of the Cold War. On the one hand, King George II and the state are supported by London and Washington. On the other hand, the communist insurgency was aided by Tito's Yugoslavia, but was soon dropped under pressure from Stalin. Indeed, at Yalta (1945), the Allies had agreed that Greece should be integrated into the Western sphere, while the rest of the Balkans were to come under Soviet control. In the name of this agreement, the Greek communists were hunted down. Former collaborators of the Nazis return to business, while the Americans use napalm on a large scale for the first time. The conflict results in 150,000 deaths and a mass exodus.

On May 30, 1941, he committed the first act of resistance in Greece by removing the Nazi flag flying on the Acropolis. This is one of the many episodes in the life of this non-communist left-wing activist. Committed against the dictatorship of Metaxas since high school, Glezos is a fierce opponent of the Germans, the pro-British regime and then the junta of the colonels. This led to a death sentence, eleven years in prison and five years in exile. Elected several times as a member of parliament, including when he was imprisoned, he joined Pasok in 1984, promoted local democracy on his island of Naxos, sat as an MEP, and then became the leader of the radical left, soon renamed Syriza. Opposed to austerity measures after the 2009 crisis, he was the most comfortably elected MP in the country's history in 2014. But in 2015, he criticized the Tsipras government and left Syriza. He died in Athens on March 30, 2020.

At the end of a decade of war, Greece is plunged into poverty. The constitutional monarchical regime was dominated by Constantin Karamanlis (1907-1998), on the right, and Georges Papandreou (1888-1968), on the centre left. The country is still weakened by weak industrialisation, debt, corruption and a civil service that is as plethoric as it is inefficient. Faced with this situation, a group of officers seized power on 21 April 1967. Led by Georges Papadopoulos, the "dictatorship of the colonels" intended to restore order and relaunch the Great Idea. With the support of the United States and Great Britain, the communists are imprisoned, rock music and long hair are banned. Europe was moved when, on 17 November 1973, tanks stormed the Polytechnic School in Athens. But it was another event that was to cause the fall of the regime. Weakened, the junta tried to restore its coat of arms with theEnosis: the union of Greece and Cyprus. On 15 July 1974, the Greek military overthrew Cypriot President Makarios. Turkey fears for the Turkish Cypriot minority and sends its army to capture the northern part of the island. The fiasco is such that the colonels give up power.

Since the return to democracy in the summer of 1974, the country has opted for the end of the monarchy. It has been led alternately by two political parties and three family dynasties: the New Democracy, centre-right, with the Karamanlis and Mitsotakis clans, and the Pasok, centre-left, with the Papandreou. But the system is gangrenous: corruption, tax gifts to shipowners and the Church, fictitious jobs in the civil service, etc. On¹ January 1981, Greece joined the European Community. A poor country in a "club of the rich", it benefited from enormous structural aid. The first shock came with the fall of the communist regimes. Driven out of poverty, 900,000 Albanians settle in Greece from 1991 onwards. In the same year, the small Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared its independence. It was the beginning of a long conflict: Athens refused to use the term "Macedonia" and went so far as to suffocate its neighbour with an economic blockade (1995-1996). Greek nationalism was also fuelled by the wars in Yugoslavia (1991-1999). In the name of Greek-Serbian friendship, Athens condemned NATO's interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo, and Greek extremists took part in the massacre of Srebrenica (1995). The end of the Cold War also led to closer relations with Bulgaria and Turkey. If the agreement with Sofia is lasting, the coming to power of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara (2003) rekindled tensions. The organisation of the Olympic Games (2004) further increases the debt.

In October 2009, Prime Minister Georges Papandreou revealed the extent of the deficit. Placed under supervision, Greece obtained new loans with draconian conditions: reduction of public spending, tax increases, pension cuts and the elimination of 25% of civil service jobs. While the state was saved, the economy collapsed. The crisis is also moral and political. In 2015, for the first time, voters rejected the Pasok-New Democracy system: they entrusted power to the left-wing party Syriza. But Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is forced to continue the austerity policy. And he has to deal with the departure of around 500,000 Greeks and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing, among other things, the Syrian conflict. Despite a return to a balanced budget (2017) and a compromise with Skopje on the name "North Macedonia" (2018), Syriza is defeated in the 2019 elections, allowing Kyriakos Mitsotakis to become Prime Minister.

In 2019, the MedECC network (network of Mediterranean experts on climate and environmental change), warned that current warming was +1.5°C compared to pre-industrial averages in the Mediterranean. This observation has been borne out in the field. In 2021, fire ravaged more than 50,000 hectares in the north of the island of Evia. Since then, tourists have been called upon to be extremely vigilant. Hardly a year goes by without fires affecting Greek islands or the mainland. In 2023, Greece experienced the hottest summer in its history: the country recorded up to 80 fires a day, along with other huge blazes. In addition to mainland Greece, the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia were again particularly hard hit.