The western side of the Parthenon on the Acropolis.

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Greece

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Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα or Ελλάς ), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία ), is a country in south-eastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan peninsula. It is bordered by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the north and by Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece while the Ionian Sea lies to the west. Both parts of the eastern Mediterranean basin, feature a vast number of islands.

Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is heir to the heritages of classical Greece, the Byzantine Empire, and nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule. Regarded as the cradle of western civilization and being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, western literature, political science, major scientific principles as well as drama including both tragedy and comedy, Greece has a particularly long and eventful history and a cultural heritage considerably influential in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Today, Greece is a developed country, member of the European Union since 1981 and a member of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union since 2001. Athens, Thessaloniki, Piraeus and Patra are the country's major cities.

History

See also: Names of the Greeks for a different angle.

See also:Ancient Greece

The shores of Greece's Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first advanced civilizations in Europe whose impact is inseparable from today's western institutions.

Home to the Classical civilization, Greece became a Roman province and in the process transformed Rome itself. Following the emergence of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire and 400 years of Ottoman control the modern Greek state evolved after 1821-1830 as an independent Kingdom. It increased its territorial area up until 1922, which saw the collapse of the Greek presence in Asia Minor.

Greece was growing economically, whilst becoming politically more liberal. In 1877, Prime Minister Charilaos Trikoupis curbed the power of the monarchy to interfere in the Assembly. This period was punctuated by the undertaking of one of the largest construction initiatives in Europe: the creation of the Corinth Canal (1881 - 1893), and in 1896 the Olympic Games were revived in Athens, judged a success. As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, Crete, Chios, Samos, most of Epirus and southern Macedonia, including Thessaloniki, were incorporated into Greece. King George was assassinated in Thessaloniki in 1913 and succeeded by his Germanophile son, King Constantine I, whose struggle with Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos resulted in Greece's joining of the Entente against Germany and Austria, and the abdication of King Constantine in favor of his son, Alexander.