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Heraklion is largest city of Crete and Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean.
Greece borders the Aegean sea, the Mediterranean sea, and the Ionian sea. These borders provided great defense in the old world. History is full of records of sea battles between Greece, the Turks, the Romans, and others.
By 1500 BC the Minoans had made their mark on Crete. The Minoans are sometimes credited with creating the first civilization in Europe. They began influencing the island in about 2700 BC and were skilled bronze workers. These people of Crete named by Arthur Evans after the mythical king Minos were conquered by the Mycenaean. The Minoan palaces were taken down and replaces in time. Mycenae was a fortified palace in the Peloponnese. The most popular Mycenaean King was likely Agememnon who is the legendary warlord who took his loyal followers into the Trojan war.
Initially the Mycenaeans and the Minoans were heavily involved in international trade and both were exceptional sea voyagers. However the Kings of Mycenae who ruled from the north of Argos came to dominate the suzerains of King Minos.
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Some legends have it that the lineage patron of Mycenae was none other than Perseus who was fathered by Zeus and mothered by Danae.
Perseus went to the cave of Graeae where strange women shared one eye and stole this oracle from them. " I have your eye", he said, " and if you don't direct me to the Nymph of the North........" This type of tale is the mystery behind the beginnings of the Greek culture. These are the stories of Medusa's serpents and of dragon's lairs and of one eyed cyclops and gorgons.
By 1000 BC the Mycenaeans have all but disappeared and Greece is in a dark age. When Homer comes of age in about 700 or 800 BC he is recounting the poiesis of Genesis and defining the villains and heroes who existed before the dark age.
After the dark age a slew of city states such as Sparta, Corinth, and Athens, rose into prominence. Each city state had its own political system but when the whole was threatened they would come together has one ( riding on the back of Perseus ) to defend the greater whole.
The Persian Empire led by King Xerxes starts invading the Greek Empire by 500 BC and the Greco-Persian wars continue to to plague the city states of Greece for about 50 years. At this time the forefathers of the great Greek philosopher Plato are amongst the leaders of the courts of Greece.
On the footsteps of the Persian wars came a generation of Peloponnesian war.
Plato is born in 427 BC and witnesses the tyranny of this period in Greece. This is the age of synthesis in Greece where oligarchical rule is about to merge with democracy. Plato writes a great thesis called the Republic which goes on to be used as a foundation for political ideology and continues to be studied today.
Plato also founds a great school called the Academy which is often considered the first University.
Alexander the Great follows on the footsteps of Greeks like Plato and Aristotle, and Democrates.......
Alexander the Great Macedon built an Empire for the Greeks but on his death the legacy quickly crumbled. His empire was divided between Ptolemy who received Egypt, Seleucus who received Persia, and Antigonus who received Greece and the league of cities loyal to Greece.
Then the Romans came.
The Roman story starts in a legend devoted to Remus and Romulas and the god Mars and possibly to the age of Homer. By 300 BC the people of Rome are building fortunes by conquering small territories where they can graze pasture to trade. In 146 BC the Romans go into battle with the Corinthians and conquer Greece.
In the early Christian era Paul of Tarsus, one of the apostles, is recorded as having preached for converts in Corinth and Athens.
The Roman influence in Greece is prominent for several hundred years. During this time Greece is no more than a Roman province. In the later part of this period Greece is further divided into smaller provinces ; Macedonia, Creta, Thessalia,.........and the pagan culture is being menaced by monotheist goths. The Christian Goths were productive in converting pagan Roman and Greek speaking Romans of Byzantine. The last straw for the Roman pagan force might be the conversion of Emporer Constantine in 313 AD.
Constantine is also responsible for moving the Roman capital to Constantinople which is on the border of the Byzantium world where Greek speaking Romans rule. By 550 AD the population of Constantinople has risen to nearly 1 million while the population of Rome, the old capital is now at about 30 thousand.
Persians, Langobards, Avars, and Slavs continue to threaten the Greek Romans until about 800 AD when Greece begins to see new economic recovery and the restoration of architecture and of cities. Still it remains a part of the Byzantine Empire and continues to be tossed around by political crisis.
The Greeks lose Constantinople in the 13th century when Latin crusaders conquered the capital. The Ottomans destroyed the last of the Byzantine Empire by 1450 AD.
With the Ottoman Empire came the Turks and the Ottomans ruled Greece until the Battle of Navarino in 1827. By this time many Greek Romans had converted to Islam.
This 1827 war was fought six years after the Annunciation of the Theotokos when Greeks began a rebellion for independence. France, Britain, and Russia helped the Greek independence cause. From 1832 to 1947 Greece expanded as a monarchy led by kings. The initial independence efforts had attempted republic rule but European forces pushed for a kingdom of Greece.
From 1944 to 1944 Greece was fighting a civil war. The US (NATO) supported Greek political names who looked to fight a military party with communist ideals.
Once this war ended the US pumped a lot of money into Greece to promote economic growth. However the balance of power between Communism and Constitutional Democracy has continued to flare up and all types of political powers have tried to influence the rule of law including the CIA.
In 1973 the Monarchy in Greece was ruled has a dictatorship after some coup d'etat ( complicated situation that needs more research ).
In 1975 the Monarchy was abandoned and ironically enough King Constantine the Second was the last Monarch. The new government of Greece was a Democratic Republic
There you have a limited "Greece before being a European nation " story.
Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and on January 1, 2001 became a fully accredited Eurozone nation and the Greek Drachma went the way of the DoDo bird when the Euro become the official currency traded on the interal markets of Greece and in international trade.
The 2010 Greek economic crisis is truly testing the wisdom behind the single currency European concept.
Greece before being a European Union nation is certainly full of details and the more one digs, the more one wants to know.
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