HELLENIST

The shores of the Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilisations in Europe, namely the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations. After these has subsided a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC a new Hellenic Greece emerged. It was this Greece of city-states that established colonies along the Mediterranean, resisted Persian invasions and whose culture would be the basis of Hellenistic civilisation that followed the empire of Alexander the Great (king of Macedonia).

Militarily Greece itself declined until it was conquered by the Romans from 168 BC onwards, though Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. A province of the Roman Empire, Greek culture would continue to dominate the eastern Mediterranean and when the Empire finally split in two the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, centred on Constantinople, would be Greek in nature, as well as encompassing Greece itself. From the 4th century to the 15th century the Eastern Roman Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from the west and east until Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to the Ottoman Empire. Greece had gradually been conquered by the Ottomans during the 15th century.

Ottoman rule remained until in 1821 the Greeks declared their independence. After the Greek War of Independence was concluded in 1828, Greece was then established as a monarchy in 1833. During the 19th and early 20th centuries Greece sought to encompass the Greek-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire, slowly growing in territory and population until it reached its present size in 1947.

After World War II, Greece experienced a civil war that lasted until 1949 after which it joined NATO in 1952. On April 21, 1967 the military seized power in a coup d'état, establishing what became known as the Regime of the Colonels. In 1973 the regime abolished the Greek monarchy. Conflict over the issue of Cyprus led to the collapse of the military junta in 1974 and the establishment of a democratic republic in 1975, following a plebiscite. Greece joined the European Union in 1981.

The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in an indirectly elected president, who is advised by the Council of the Republic. The prime minister and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the president performs some governmental functions in addition to ceremonial duties. The president is elected by parliament to a 5-year term and can be reelected once.

Members of Greece's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) are elected by secret ballot for a maximum of 4 years, but elections can be called earlier. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and makes a parliamentary majority possible even if the leading party falls short of a majority of the popular vote. A party must receive 3% of the total national vote to qualify for one of the 300 parliamentary seats.

Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which are further subdivided into 51 prefecturess (nomoi, singular - nomos):

Attica: Attica Central Greece: Euboea Evritania Fokis Fthiotis Viotia Central Macedonia Khalkidhiki Imathia Kilkis Pella Pieria Serres Thessaloniki

Crete Chania Heraklion Lasithi Rethimno East Macedonia and Thrace Drama Evros Kavala Rodhopi Xanthi Epirus Arta Ioannina Preveza Thesprotia

Ionian Islands Corfu Kefallinia Levkas Zakinthos North Aegean Chios Lesbos Samos Peloponnesus Arcadia Argolis Corinth Laconia Messinia

South Aegean Cyclades Dodecanese Thessaly Kardhitsa Larisa Magnesia Trikala West Greece Achaea Aitolia-Acarnania Ilia West Macedonia Florina Grevena Kastoria Kozani

Beyond these there is one autonomous region, Mount Athos (Ayion Oros - Holy Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty.

The nomoi are divided into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which are divided into 1,031 municipalities: 130 urban municipalities (dimi) and 901 rural communities (kinotites). Before 1999, there were 5,775 local authorities: 361 demoi, 5,560 koinotites, subdivided into 12,817 localities (oikosmoi).

The country consists of a large mainland, the southern end of the Balkans, and the Peloponnesus peninsula, separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth. With the mostly internal Aegean Sea there are numerous islands, including Crete, Rhodes, Euboea, and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups. Greece has more than 14,880 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres.

About 80% of Greece is mountainous or hilly. Much of the country is dry and rocky; only 28% of the land is arable. Western Greece contains lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has an average elevation of 2,650 m. The legendary Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece at 2,917 m above sea level.

Greece's climate features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures are rarely extreme, although snowfalls do occur in the mountains and occasionally even in Athens in the winter.

Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about half of GDP. Tourism is a key industry, providing a large portion of GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 3.3% of GDP. The economy has improved steadily over the last few years, as the government tightened policy in the run-up to Greece's entry into the EU's single currency, the euro, on January 1, 2001.

Major challenges remaining include the reduction of unemployment and further restructuring of the economy, including privatising several state enterprises, undertaking social security reforms, overhauling the tax system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Economic growth is forecast at 3%-3.5% in 2002.

The national central bank of Greece is the Bank of Greece.

Most Greeks (98%) adhere to the Greek Orthodox Church, which is under the protection of the state that also pays the clergy's salaries, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the "prevailing" religion of Greece according to the constitution. The Greek Orthodox Church is self-governing but under the spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople.

A Greek Muslim minority (of 1.3%), concentrated in Thrace, was given legal status by provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and is Greece's only officially recognised minority.

• List of famous Greeks
• Greek mythology
• Greek literature
• Greek architecture
• Greek cuisine
• Greek language

Miscellaneous topics

• Communications in Greece
• Transportation in Greece
• Military of Greece
• Foreign relations of Greece
• Tourism in Greece
• List of Greek television channels

See also

• National Statistical Service of Greece
• Bank of Greece
• National Bank of Greece

External links