Period of Modern Greek State

The revolution which begun in 1821 led to the independence of Greece and the establishment of the Greek state in 1830. Initially, the state was a monarchy ruled by the Bavarian King Otto. In 1843, after a rise up of the army under General Makriyannis, the system of governance became a constitutional monarchy, while after the accession of George I to the throne (1864), Greece becomes a crowned republic. The newly established state consists of the Peloponnese, Central Greece and the Cyclades, the Ionian Islands (after 1863) and Thessaly (after 1881). Nafplio serves as its first capital, until it is replaced by Athens after 1834.

The 19th century was marked by the efforts to build the infrastructure of the new state through the creation of public administration, schools, financial services, security forces etc., the development of urban centres and ports (Athens, Piraeus, Patras, Syros etc.), and the first attempts at industrialisation. However, economic dependence on external borrowing (which began during the War of Independence) was high and often led to national bankruptcies and the imposition of strict fiscal controls.

Greece’s territory expanded after the Balkan Wars (1912–13) with the addition of Macedonia, Epirus, Crete and the large islands of the eastern Aegean (Lemnos, Chios, Mytilene, Samos, Ikaria). However, irredentism and the “Great Idea” led to a head-on collision with Turkey, which ended in the 1922 catastrophe and the uprooting of some 1,000,000 Greeks from Asia Minor.

The end of the 1940s found Greece territorially enlarged with the addition of the Dodecanese after World War II, but politically divided due to the Civil War. The effects of the Civil War were felt over the next two decades, in which economic growth was accompanied by intense social inequalities and political persecutions – a situation which led to the military dictatorship of 1967–74.

The restoration of democracy in 1974 and the state’s change into a presidential parliamentary democracy led to a long period of stability and development known as the Third Hellenic Republic. Greece’s accession to the European Economic Community (later the European Union) has played a role in making the nation more prosperous and in modernizing society.