The Economy of Ancient Greece

Greece is, as is Europe itself, a peninsula of peninsulas and islands. The terrain of Greece strongly encouraged the development of seamanship. Limited land and abundant sheltered harbors put a great premium on learning to sail. Sailing may have initially have been pursued for fishing and warfare but later it was utilized for trading, or maybe it was the other way around. In any case the glory of Greece stemmed from the cosmopolitaness engendered by its environment.

There were people and cultures in Greece before the people known as Greeks moved into the region. Some of those known as the People of Sea who attacked the Egyptian Empire in the eastern Mediterranean area came from the land of Greece. Some of those people were allowed to settle in Egyptian territory at the east end of the Mediterranean and were known as Philistines. This was the origin of the name Palestine.

The ancient Greeks spoke a language in the Indo-European family of languages which meant that their ancestors probably migrated out of the Caucasian Mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and subsequent generations crossed the steppes north of the Black Sea before coming into the Balkan Penensula.

There was a well developed civilization on the island of Crete when the Greeks came. This civilization had well developed links to the Middle East. Among other things that the Greeks got from this civilization was the alphabet. The Greeks augmented the Phoenician alphabet with signs for vowels and used it to record a great literature. They also passed this alphabet on to the Romans and the Slavs.

(To be continued.)

Timeline of Modern Greece History

• 1821: The War of Greek Independence began in the Ottoman Empire.
• 1828: Ioannis Kapodistrias became the first president of the Greek State.
• 1832: The War of Greek Independence ends with the signing of the Treaty of Constantinople (Istanbul) in which the Ottoman Empire recognize Greek Independence under the protection of the empires of Britain, France and Russia. Only part of the Greek-speaking population of the region are included within the boundaries of the Greek state defined by the Treaty of Constantinople. Otto of Wittgenstein is made king of Greece.
• 1844: The constitution of Greece makes it a constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected parliment.
• 1854: When Greece attempts to liberate parts of Thrace and Epirus, Britain and France intervene preventing the invasion.
• 1862: The Greek military execute a number of coups d'etat and force Otto to abdicate.
• 1864: A new constitution is created with greater power for the parliament than existed under the old one. Prince William of Denmark is made king of Greece as George I.
• 1866: Crete which was not part of the Greek state rebells against the Ottoman empire.
• 1875: Kharilaos Trikoupis and Theodoros Deliyannis are dominant rival politicians in the Greek parliament. Trikoupis is made prime minister.
• 1878: The Congress of Berlin advocates the ceding of Thessaly and Epirus to the Greek state. by the Ottoman Empire.
• 1881: The Ottoman Empire accedes to the recommendation of the Congress of Berlin and transfers control of Thessaly and part of Epirus to the Greek state.
• 1886: Greece mobilizes to acquire territory from Serbia and Bulgaria when those two countries go to war against each other. Britain and France prevent Greece from intervening in the war.
• 1897: The Greek state has a financial collapse and is declared bankrupt.
• 1909: The military carry out a coup d'etat and choose Eleutherios Venizelos to form a government.
• 1912-13: Greek participates in the Balkan wars and acquires Macedonia, Crete and some of Epirus.
• 1915: King Constantine chooses not to join the Allied side in World War I. Eleutherios Venizelos resigns his prime ministership over the king's decision.
• 1917: King Constantine abdicates, passing the kingship to his son, Alexander. Under King Alexander Greece joins the Allied side in the World War.
• 1920: Treaty of Sévres between the Allied Powers and the Ottoman Empire designates the area around Smyrna on the coast of Anatolia as Greek territory. Smyrna while ethnically Greek proves to be indefenciable.
• 1922: The Turkish general Kemal Attaturk lures the Greek army into the interior of Anatolia where the supply lines are inadequate and administers a crushing defeat to the Greek army.
• 1923: The Treaty of Lausanne ends the conflict between Greece and the Turkish Republic and relinquishes the territorial claim to the Smyrna region. The Greek inhabitants of Turkey flee to Greece and Turkish residents of the Greek state migrate to Turkey.
• 1928: Eleutherios Venizelos returns to power as the prime minister of the Greek parliament.
• 1930: The Great Depression spreads from the United States and the rest of the world, including Greeece. There is high unemployment and political unrest in Greece.
• 1932: Eleutherios Venizelos resigns as prime minister and a period of political chaos follows.
• 1936: General Ioannis Metaxas carries out a coup d'etat and begins his five years of rule as a dictator. Metaxis suppresses labor unrest and begins persecution of communists in Greece. The communists go underground.
• 1941: Greek forces hold off Mussolini's Italian army but Adolf Hitler sends German troops through Yugoslavia to conquer Greece for Mussolini. Metaxas dies. The Greek monarch and the Greek government go into exile in Egypt.
• 1941-1944: The communist underground leads the resistance to the German occupation. The communist-led resistance is called the Ethnikon Apeleftherotikon Metopon (EAM) (National Liberation Front).
• 1944: Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill conclude an agreement that Greece would be in the British sphere of influence and Romania would be in the Soviet sphere.
• 1944: Athens is liberated. A government is formed under the prime ministership of Georgios Papandreou. The communist-led insurgency leads to the resignation of Papandreou. The communist insurgency is not supported by Joseph Stalin.
• 1945: A agreement between the government and the communist insurgents is concluded in which in return for the insurgents surrender of arms they would be granted amnesty. This was called the Varkiza Agreement. The Ministry of Justist does not honor the amnesty granted by the Varkiza Agreement and continues to persucute the communists. This persecution along with vigilante actions by non-government anti-communists was called the White Terror.
• 1946: The communist insurgents organize into a Democratic Army of Greece and continue the Greek civil war.
• 1947: The U.S. provides massive amounts of economic and military aid to fight the insurgents and rebuild Greece. This was part of the Truman Doctring of containment of world communism.
• 1949: The Greek civil war ends and Greece begins to receive more aid under the Marshall Plan.
• 1950: Martial law is lifted.
• 1955: Konstantinos Karamanlis becomes prime minister.
• 1963: Karamanlis resigns as prime minister.
• 1967: The military carries out a coup d'etat and a junta of military men rules Greece. King Konstantine goes into exile.
• 1973: Student uprisings sparks political resistance to the junta.
• 1974: Junta relinquishes power to a civilian government under Konstantinos Karamanlis. The Greek monarchy is abolished as a result of a referendum. Turkey invades Cyprus and establishes a separate Turkish Cypriot state.
• 1975: A Hellenic Republic is created with a new constitution. The Communist Party of Greece is legalized.
• 1981: Andreas Papandreou, the son of the leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) returns to Greece from the University of California in Berkeley and leads the party to electoral victory. Greece is granted full membership in the European Community (EC).
• 1986: Amendments to the 1975 constitution which reduce the power of the presidency.
• 1989: PASOK looses popular support and its majority in the legislature.
• 1990: The New Democratic (ND) Party under the leadership of Konstantinos Mitsotakis wins enough seats in the election to form a government.
• 1992: The privatization program of Mitsotakis government, particularly of the mass transit system, leads to a general strike.
• 1993: The European Community (EC) recommends a five-year economic reform program for Greece. A new political party, the Political Spring Party, is formed. Papandreou's PASOK wins the fall election and Papandreou is again prime minister. The Maastrict Treaty brings further European economic integration.
• 1994: Greece expels thousands of illegal Albanian immigrants.
• 1995: Konstantinos Stefanopoulos is elected president of the National Assembly as a compromise candidate.
• (To be continued.)