History of Greece. Greece chronology

History of Greece

Early History
Medieval Greece and Ottoman Rule
Greece during World Wars
Recent History
Greece Chronology
Famous people from Greece

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Greece Chronology

Ancient Greece
3300 - 1000 BC	Greece is the first prehistoric civilization. During this period the Minoan and the Mycenaean Greek civilisations rose and fell.
800 BC	The flourish of commerce and the establishment of government defence fortifications bring about the appearance of the Greek city – states, called the metropolises.
800-500 BC	Art, literature, politics, philosophy and science are created. After being monarchies, turn to oligarchies and go through tyranny the metropolises become democracies. Athens and Sparta were the two most important metropolises.
612 BC	Sappho, the most famous female poet, was born and lived in the island of Lesbos.
530 BC	Pythagoras, famous mathematician and philosopher, founded the city of Croton, together with his followers.
525 BC	Greek drama evolves from the Dionysian festivals.
490-479 BC	The Persian Wars between Greece and Persia. They included the famous battle at Marathon. At the end of the war the Greeks won.
485 BC	The school of the Sophists emerged. Their opponents were Socrates, as well as Plato and Aristotle.
484 BC	Herodotus, the Father of History, was born.
469 BC	Sophocles, the second most significant dramatist after Aeschylus, was born.
431-404 BC	The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Sparta won.
384 BC	Aristotle was born.
338 BC	Philip of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great, conquered Greece.
323 BC	After the death of Alexander the Great, there are no heirs to his great throne and conquests. His empire was divided into four major states. The Greeks are still under Macedonian rule.
146 - 30 BC	Greek territories fell under Roman rule.

Medieval Greece
330- 1204 AD	During this period Greece was a part of Byzantine Empire, successor of the Roman Empire. Its centre was the great city of Constantinople.
330	Constantine established New Rome in Constantinople.
421	Greek woman Athenais became Byzantine empress Eudocia.
435	The remaining pagan temples are closed by emperor Theodosius II.
529	The philosophical schools, reminders of ancient Greece, are closed by emperor Justinian.
590s	The Parthenon is converted into a Christian cathedral.
1019	Byzantine enslaves Bulgarian Kingdom.
1147	Roger of Sicily attacks Athens.
1204-1453	During this period Greece is under the rule of the Western Crusaders.
1392	Venetian occupation of the city of Athens.
1456-1821	Greece is a part of the Ottoman Empire.

Post Ottoman Rule Greece
1821- 1832	The War of Independence. The Greek rebellion resulted in the establishment of independent Greek Kingdom.
1823	Lord Byron came to Greece to support its struggle for liberation. The next year he died of fever in Greece, he was 36.
1864	The island of Corfu was ceded to Greece by the Britain.
1896	The first modern Olympic Games are held in Athens. They were organised by Pierre de Coubertin.

Greece in the Early 20th Century
1913	The Bucharest Treaty assigned almost all of Greek speaking territories in the Balkans to Greece.
1916	Greece took part in the World War I by joining the Allies and declaring war on Bulgaria.
1924	Greece became a republic after it abolished the monarchy.
1935	Monarchy was restored.
1940	Mussolini's troops attacked Greece from Albania but were repelled.
1942-1944	The Communist and royalist factions in Greece strongly resisted Nazi occupation.
1946-1949	The royalists won the elections after liberation from the occupation. Monarchy was restored to the dislike of the Communists. Later their rebellion was defeated.

Greece after the World Wars
1952	Greece is declared a parliamentary democracy with a monarch as head of the country. Greece joins NATO.
1973	The monarchy is once more abolished, Greece is a republic.
1975	Greece officially declared a parliamentary republic with a president.
1980	Former premier Karamanlis is elected president.
1981	Greece joins the EU.
2002	The Drachma is replaced by Euro.
2004	Athens hosts Olympic Games.
2007	Dozens of people are killed in the fires that devastate the country. Luckily, they don't leave a big damage on Greece.