Greece's turbulent modern history
The history of modern Greece has been marked by political instability. Here are some of the most important events since the founding of the state in the 19th century to this day.
Hitler's army invades Greece
A turning point in the history of Greece: The German Wehrmacht invaded the country in April 1941. German field marshal Walther von Brauchitsch (center left), commander in chief of the army, is seen here visiting the Acropolis. Liberation of the mainland came in October 1944. Not all Greeks were opposed to the Nazis. But first, a look further back...
A Bavarian prince as the first 'Greek' king
In 1453, Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottomans. Greece thereby came under a centurieslong Ottoman rule. The liberation struggle of the Greeks began in 1821 in the Peloponnese, and the Greek state was established in 1830. Otto von Wittelsbach, second son of the Bavarian King Ludwig I, became its king (1832-1862).
A bitter defeat
Greece joined the Allies during the First World War. In 1919, with the approval of the victorious powers, they tried to use the Turkish defeat to bring Eastern Thrace and the area of Izmir and its Greek inhabitants under Greek control. In 1922, the Greco-Turkish War ended with the defeat of Greece.
Turkish-Greek population exchange
A large-scale exchange of minority populations was agreed upon in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Some 1.5 million Greeks left Turkey for Greece, while around 500,000 Turks left Greece for Turkey. Social unrest also began in Greece after WWI. From 1924 to 1936 the country was politically very unstable.
From authoritarian regime to the Wehrmacht
On August 4, 1936 General Ioannis Metaxas suspended the Greek parliament and constitution to install an authoritarian regime that ruled until April 1941. On October 28, 1940, Metaxas rejected Italian dictator Mussolini's ultimatum to grant Italy access to Greek territory, leading to the Greco-Italian war. After Italy was defeated and pushed back, the German Wehrmacht invaded Greece in April 1941.
German regime of terror
From June 1943 to June 1944, the German occupiers reportedly killed more than 20,000 suspected partisans, imprisoned nearly 26,000 more, and shot nearly 5,000 hostages. Altogether 81 percent of Greece's Jews were murdered in the extermination camps Auschwitz and Treblinka. In October 1944 the Nazi-German Wehrmacht was forced to withdraw from Greece.
Civil war in Greece
The Greek Civil War started shortly after World War II, lasting from March 1946 to October 1949. It was the continuation of a conflict that had started in 1943 between the leftist Democratic Army of Greece and the right-wing Greek conservatives and monarchists. The consequences were catastrophic. There were nearly 57,000 dead among the civilian population alone.
Military putsch
After the civil war, it was mainly the Americans who helped the Greeks rebuild the country. Political instability continued into the following years. On April 21, 1967, right-wing army officers (above) seized power in a coup and set up a military dictatorship that lasted until 1974. Politicians, trade unionists and intellectuals were arrested by the thousands, imprisoned and tortured.
Return to democracy
After seven years of dictatorship, the junta resigned in July 1974. Former Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, who lived in exile during the dictatorship, was sworn in as a transitional premier. Free elections were held within the following year, a new constitution was enacted and junta officers were arrested. Greece has been an EU member since 1981 and a member of the Eurozone since 2001.