Greece fell to the Romans in 146 B.C. emperor Constantine moved in 330 A.D. the Capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople and founded the Eastern Roman Empire, the later renamed Byzantine Empire or Byzantium. In Byzantium the linguistic heritage of ancient Greece was transferred to the new Christian civilization.

The Ottoman Empire

In 1453 the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks. The Greeks remained under the Ottoman yoke for nearly 400 years but they made it to retain their identity, their language and religion.

The establishment of the Greek state

On March 25, 1821, they revolted against the Ottomans and became independent in 1830. The Greeks kept on struggling for the liberation of all the Greeks and so in 1864, the Ionian Islands were added to the Greek state, in 1881 parts of Epirus, in 1913 Crete, the islands of Eastern Aegean and Macedonia and in 1919 western Thrace. The Dodecanese Islands were returned to Greece after World War II.

Greece knew economical growth and political liberty. In 1877 Prime Minister, Charilaos Trikoupis, curbed the power of monarchy to interfere in the Assembly and created the Corinth Canal. In 1896 the Olympic Games were revived in Athens.

During World War II, Greece was occupied by Bulgaria, Germany and Italy. On October 12, 1944 German troops finally withdrew after landing Allied Forces in Athens. A government in exile was established. After the struggle between left and right-wing factions, Alexandros Papagos and Konstantinos Karamanlis became the leaders of new conservative coalition parties. With the aid of the Marshall Plan, political and economical conditions stabilized but the country's dependence on foreign factor was obvious.

The ‘Colonels'

Despite economic growth, social conditions were getting no better, resulting in military coups in 1963 and 1967. Crowding into cities caused demands for social welfare and better income distribution. The ‘Colonels' remained in power until 1973 (Athens Polytechnic Uprising, November 17). The military dictatorship was unseated by a Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and as a result a new constitution was written. The monarchy was abolished through elections and a republic was established once again.

Modern Greece

Greece became the tenth member of European Union on January 1, 1981. on October 18, 1981 Andreas Papandreou of PASOK won the elections and was succeeded by Kostas Simitis in 1996 as Prime Minister. The country adopted the Euro in 2001 and in 2004 the Olympic Games were held in Athens. On March 7, 2004 Konstantinos Karamanlis of New Democracy party became Prime Minister, until today.