HISTORY

A brief history of Greece

7000 BC First Stone Age settlements in mainland Greece.

2500 BC Bronze Age is effective on mainland and some islands.

1550 BC Mycenaean civilization starts on mainland Greece.

1450 BC Mycenaean culture spreads to islands.

1200 BC Disappearance of Mycenaean civilization.

1100 BC Dorian movements to the islands and Asia Minor.

776 BC First official Olympic Games held in Greece.

800-600 BC First Greek city-states appear, Athens and Sparta are among them.

545 BC Persian invasion of Asia Minor cities.

490 BC Persian incursion and the battle of Marathon.

479 BC Persian invasion of mainland Greece.

430-404 BC War between Athens and Sparta ends in Spartan victory.

359 BC Philip II becomes the king of Macedonia.

336 BC After Philip II, Alexander the Great becomes the king of Macedonia.

0-300 AD Romans rule Greece.

 324 AD Emperor Constantine establishes the Byzantium and Constantinople becomes the capital.

 529 AD Non-Christian schools of philosophy in Athens are forced to close.

650 AD Invasion of Greece by Slavic tribes.

800 AD Byzantium establishes the control over Greece again.

1200 AD Latin - Venetian crusaders take control of Greece.

1260 AD Byzantium reclaims the control over Greece.

1430 AD Ottomans conquer Thessaloniki.

1453 AD Ottomans conquer Constantinople (Istanbul). This marks the end of Byzantium.

1460 AD Ottomans take Mistra.

1522 AD Ottomans conquer Rhodes.

1566 AD Ottomans take Chios and Naxos.

1577 AD Samos taken by Ottomans.

1669 AD Ottomans conquer the whole of Crete island.

1685-1715 Venetians occupy Peloponnese.

1799-1814 France, Russia and Britain occupy Ionian islands successively.

1821-1830 Greece gains independence against Ottomans after the battle of Navarino.

1831 President Capodistrias is assassinated.

1833 Otto is declared the king of Greece by Russia, France and Britain.

 1864 Britain gives the control of Corfu and Ionian islands to Greece.

1881 Ottomans surrender Thessaly to Greece.

 1912 First Balkan war and Greece claims Thessaloniki, Ioanina and Chios.

 1913 Second Balkan war. After Bulgarian attacks, Greece gains Crete, Lesbos and Ikaria.

 1914 World War I. Divisions in Greece and finally joining the war on the side of Allied forces.

 1919 Britain and France convince Greece to annex the land at Smyrna (Izmir) in Turkey. After the collapse of Ottoman Empire, the existing 1919-1923 conditions trigger a war between Greece and newly formed Turkey. Greece loses the war and Greek population in Anatolia is exchanged with Turkish or muslim population in Greece.

1936 After a long period of political chaos, General Metaxas becomes a dictator.

 1939 After the invasion of Albania, Italy demands access to Greek ports. Metaxas refuses (28th October "Ochi Day").

1941 World War II and the German invasion.

1944 After 3 years of German occupation, British troops take the county back from Germans.

1945-1949 Civil war between royalists and communists.

1967 Military junta takes control of political power. Pro-democracy movement mainly led by students is crushed.

1974 Turkey's intervention to the island of Cyprus. The Greek junta collapses.

 1975-1997 Socialist PASOK and right-wing New Democracy Party maintain the democratic process uninterruptedly since then.

Last modified 10/11/97 by: Tania Kiouprouli.