Chronological 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 started 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 recorded 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 B.C. War between Athens and Sparta ends in Spartan victory.
359 B.C. Philip II became the king of Macedonia.
336 B.C. After Philip II, Alexander the Great became the king of Macedonia.
0-300 AD Romans rule Greece.
324 AD Emperor Constantine established the Byzantium and Constantinople became the capital.
529A.D. Non-Christian schools of Philosopy in Athens were forced to close.
650A.D. Invasion of Greece by Slavic tribes.
800A.D Byzantium established the control over Greece again.
1200A.D Latin – Venetian crusaders took control of Greece.
1260A.D Byzantium reclaimed the control over Greece.
1430A.D Ottomans conquered Thessaloniki.
1453A.D Ottomans conquered Constantinople. This marks the end of Byzantium.
1460A.D Ottomans took Mystra.
1522A.D Ottomans conquered Rhodes.
1566A.D Ottomans took Chios and Naxos.
1577A.D Samos taken by Ottomans
1669A.D Ottomans conquered whole Crete.
1685-1715 Venetians occupied Peloponnese
1799-1814 France, Russia and Britain occupied Ionian islands successively.
1821-1830 Greece gained independence against Turks after the sea battle of Navarino (25th March – Independence Day).
1831 President Kapodistrias was assasinated.
1833 Othon was declared as the king of Greece by Russia, France and Britain.
1864 Britain gave the control of Corfu and Ionian islands to Greece.
1881 Ottomans surrendered Thessaly to Greece.
1912 First Balkan war and Greece reclaimed Thessaloniki, Ioanina and Chios.
1913 2nd Balkan war. Greece gains Crete, Lesbos and Ikaria.
1914 World War I. Greece joins the war on the side of Allied forces.
1919 Britain and France convinced Greece to annex the land at Smyrna (Izmir) in Turkey.
1919-1923 After the collapse of Ottoman Empire, the existing conditions triggered a war between Greece and newly formed Turkey. Greece lost the war and Greek population in Anatolia was exchanged with Turkish population in Greece (Lausane Treaty).
1936 After a long period of political chaos, General Metaxas became dictator.
1939 After the invasion of Albania,Italy demanded access to Greek ports. Metaxas refused (28th October “Ochi Day”). Victorious battles against the Italians. Greek troops push Italians back towards Italy.
1941 World War II and the German invasion.
1944 After 3 years of German occupation, British troops took the county back from Germans.
1945-1949 Civil war between royalists and communists.
1951 Night of terror in Constantinople. Violent Turkish riots against the Greeks result in the elimination of a 300,000 minority in the City.
1967 Military junta took control of political power.
1973 Pro-democracy movement mainly led by students was crushed by fascist junta and a large number of students were brutally killed.
1974 Military junta supported a right-wing Greek coup in Cyprus. This led to Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus. Turkey is still occupying the Northern part of Cyprus.
1975-1999 The Junta falls. Socialist PASOK and right-wing New Democracy Party maintain the democratic process uninterruptedly since then.
2000 Greece, now part of the single-currency European Union, is one of the world’s 25 most developed countries. Its strong economy, its stable and flourishing society make Greece the guarantor of peace and progress in the Balkans.