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Travel to Greece — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorGreece
| Hellenic Republic National
name: Elliniki Dimokratia President: Karolos Papoulias (2005) Prime Minister: Kostas Karamanlis
(2004)
Current government officials
Land area: 50,502 sq mi (130,800 sq km);
total area: 50,942 sq mi (131,940 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 10,706,290 (growth
rate: 0.2%); birth rate: 9.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.3/1000;
life expectancy: 79.4; density per sq mi: 212
Capital (2003 est.):
Athens, 3,247,000 (metro. area), 747,300 (city
proper) Other large cities:
Thessaloníki, 361,200; Piraeus, 179,300; Patras, 167,000 Monetary unit: Euro (formerly drachma)
Languages:
Greek 99% (official), English, French
Ethnicity/race:
Greek 98%, other 2%; note: the Greek government
states there are no ethnic divisions in Greece
Religions:
Greek Orthodox 98%, Islam 1%, other 1% Literacy rate: 98% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$324.6 billion; per capita $29,200. Real growth rate: 4%.
Inflation: 3%. Unemployment: 8.3%. Arable land:
21%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives,
tomatoes, wine, tobacco, potatoes; beef, dairy products. Labor
force: 4.94 million; agriculture 12%, industry 20%, services 68%
(2004 est.). Industries: tourism, food and tobacco processing,
textiles, chemicals, metal products; mining, petroleum. Natural
resources: lignite, petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc,
nickel, magnesite, marble, salt, hydropower potential. Exports:
$25.76 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): food and beverages,
manufactured goods, petroleum products, chemicals, textiles.
Imports: $79.92 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery, transport
equipment, fuels, chemicals. Major trading partners: Germany,
Italy, UK, Bulgaria, U.S., Cyprus, Turkey, France, Netherlands,
Russia, South Korea (2006) . Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 6.185 million (2006); mobile cellular: 11.098 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 26, FM 88, shortwave 4 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 36 (plus 1,341 low-power
repeaters); also two stations in the US Armed Forces Radio and
Television Service (1995). Internet hosts: 905,824 (2007).
Internet users: 2.048 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 2,571 km
(2006). Highways: total: 114,931 km; paved: 105,507 km
(including 880 km of expressways); unpaved: 9,424 km (2004).
Waterways: 6 km; note: Corinth Canal (6 km) crosses the Isthmus
of Corinth; shortens sea voyage by 325 km (2007). Ports and
harbors: Agioitheodoroi, Aspropyrgos, Irakleion, Pachi, Peiraiefs,
Thessaloniki. Airports: 81 (2007). International disputes: Greece and Turkey
continue discussions to resolve their complex maritime, air,
territorial, and boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea; Cyprus question
with Turkey; Greece rejects the use of the name Macedonia or Republic
of Macedonia.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Located in southern Europe, Greece forms an irregular-shaped peninsula
in the Mediterranean with two additional large peninsulas projecting from
it: the Chalcidice and the Peloponnese. The Greek islands are generally
subdivided into two groups, according to location: the Ionian islands
(including Corfu, Cephalonia, and Leucas) west of the mainland and the
Aegean islands (including Euboea, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Crete) to the
east and south. North-central Greece, Epirus, and western Macedonia are
all mountainous. The main chain of the Pindus Mountains extends from
northwest Greece to the Peloponnese. Mount Olympus, rising to 9,570 ft
(2,909 m), is the highest point in the country.
Government
Parliamentary republic.
History
Indo-European peoples, including the Mycenaeans, began entering Greece
about 2000 B.C. and set up sophisticated
civilizations. About 1200 B.C., the Dorians,
another Indo-European people, invaded Greece, and a dark age followed,
known mostly through the Homeric epics. At the end of this time, classical
Greece began to emerge (c. 750 B.C.) as a loose
composite of city-states with a heavy involvement in maritime trade and a
devotion to art, literature, politics, and philosophy. Greece reached the
peak of its glory in the 5th century B.C., but
the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.) weakened
the nation, and it was conquered by Philip II and his son Alexander the
Great of Macedonia, who considered themselves Greek. By the middle of the
2nd century B.C., Greece had declined to the
status of a Roman province. It remained within the eastern Roman Empire
until Constantinople fell to the Crusaders in 1204. In 1453, the Turks
took Constantinople and by 1460, Greece was a province in the Ottoman
Empire. The Greek war of independence began in 1821, and by 1827 Greece
won independence with sovereignty guaranteed by Britain, France, and
Russia.
The protecting powers chose Prince Otto of Bavaria as the first king of
modern Greece in 1832 to reign over an area only slightly larger than the
Peloponnese peninsula. Chiefly under the next king, George I, chosen by
the protecting powers in 1863, Greece acquired much of its present
territory. During his 57-year reign, a period in which he encouraged
parliamentary democracy, Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, Crete, and most of
the Aegean islands were added from the disintegrating Turkish empire.
Unfavorable economic conditions forced about one-sixth of the entire Greek
population to emigrate (mostly to the U.S.) in the late 19th and early
20th centuries. An unsuccessful war against Turkey after World War I
brought down the monarchy, which was replaced by a republic in 1923.
Two military dictatorships and a financial crisis brought back the
exiled king, George II, but only until 1941, when Italian and German
invaders overcame tough Greek resistance. After British and Greek troops
liberated the country in Oct. 1944, Communist guerrillas staged a long
military campaign against the government; the Greek civil war, infamous
for its brutality, began in Dec. 1944 and continued until Oct. 16, 1949,
when the Communist guerrillas conceded defeat. The Greek government
received U.S. aid under the Truman Doctrine, the predecessor of the
Marshall Plan, to fight against the Communists.
Greece was a charter member of the UN and became a member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1951. A military junta seized power
in April 1967, sending young King Constantine II into exile. Col. George
Papadopoulos, a leader of the junta, gradually attempted to modify his
hard-line right-wing image. A coup ousted Papadopoulos in Nov. 1973.
A referendum in Dec. 1974, five months after the demise of the military
dictatorship, ended the Greek monarchy and established a republic. Former
premier Karamanlis returned from exile to become premier of Greece's first
civilian government since 1967. Greece has continued to be ruled by freely
elected civilian governments ever since. On Jan. 1, 1981, Greece became
the 10th member of the European Union. Andreas Papandreou, son of former
premier George Papandreou, founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement
(PASOK) and became Greece's first Socialist premier (1981–1989).
Greece continued to experience tensions with Turkey over a disputed,
unpopulated 10-acre island and over Cyprus, which is divided into Greek
and Turkish sectors.
The pro-Western Socialist prime minister Kostas Simitis (1996–2004) was
credited with reviving the Greek economy. Still, The Economist
magazine estimated in 2001 that it would be at least another 15 years
before the per capita GDP in Greece comes close to the current EU
average.
In the summer of 2002, the government was finally able to crack down on
the 17 November (17N) terrorist organization, which had eluded the Greek
authorities for the previous 27 years. The radical leftist group was
responsible for more than 20 murders of diplomats and businessmen. In
parliamentary elections in March 2004, the conservative New Democracy
Party swept to power, defeating Pasok, the ruling Socialist Party. The new
prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis, vowed to deliver a successful and safe
Olympics (Greece had been criticized for being lax on terrorism), and, in
spite of last-minute construction, the Athens Olympics was widely hailed
as a triumph.
Some 220 separate fires ravaged the Greek countryside and threatened
ancient Olympic sites around Athens in late August 2007. At least 60
people died and more than half a million acres were destroyed in the
blazes. Prime Minister Karamantis faced criticism over the country's
response to the devastating blazes. The anger did not carry over to the
polls, however, as Karamantis was reelected to a second term in September.
His center-right party, New Democracy, won 42.6% of the vote in
parliamentary elections, defeating the Panhellenic Socialist Movement
(PASOK), headed by George Papandreou.
On June 3, 2008, the mayor of the island of Tilos, Anastassios
Aliferis, performed the marriage of two same-sex couples. They were the
first same-sex marriages in Greece's history.
See also Encyclopedia: Greece
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Greece
National Statistical Service
www.statistics.gr/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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