10 Events That Define The Border Of Greece
The border of Greece has an interesting story. As the first civilization in Europe, Greece as a place has been redefined for thousands of years.
Greece today is a country, but throughout centuries it was just a geographical region, and even at that point, the definition of its boundaries kept on changing.
These are the 10 events that reshape the way we consider the land Greece. They can be wars, treaties, and political arrangements.
Keywords is a series to share words, terminologies, phrases, special people and events. Today we bring you 10 events that form the modern border of Greece.
1. Macedonian Conquest of the Greek Peninsula, 335 BC
Before the time historians called the Hellenic Period, there was no unified entity that ruled the whole of Greece. This status quo starts from the first known civilization in Greece - the Minoan Civilization, all the way up to the end of the Classic Age.
In the worldview of ancient Greeks, the border of Greece was basically the cultural and ethnic border between Greeks and non-Greeks, who were collectively coined as "barbarians".
The kingdom of Macedonia was a northern kingdom that Ancient Greeks regarded as barbaric, albeit the ruling Argead Dynasty was Greek. It gradually became a powerful country in the late Classic Age. Under King Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, Macedonia launched a series of campaigns to subjugate the Greek Peninsula.
In 335 BC, Alexander the Great suppressed the revolt of Thebes and destroyed the city, completing the consolidation of Macedonian rule over Greece.
This was the first time there was a central authority that could represent Greece as a whole. But despite the achievement of Alexander the Great, some parts of Greece were never subject to Macedonia.
2. The Fall of Constantinople, 1453
After the sudden death of Alexander the Great caused the dissolution of the Macedonian Empire, Greeks no longer had the power to withstand Roman encroachment. In 146 BC Rome conquered Greece in the Fourth Macedonian War.
Roman rule over Greece for thousands of years, but ever since the Eastern half of the Roman Empire became the last holdout of Roman Civilization, the empire became more and more Hellenized. By the 8th century, the Eastern Roman Empire is basically a Greek country, thus being called "Byzantine Empire" or "Byzantium" by later historians.
But by that point, the Byzantine Empire only became weaker and weaker. After the terrible Third Crusade that overthrew Byzantium, the Greek population largely moved south, concentrated in the Greek Peninsula. By 1453, Constantinople was a largely depopulated city.
When the Ottomans successfully conquered Constantinople in 1453, basically it was the end of Greek domination between Bosporus Strait. From that point onward, the area around the Sea of Marmara would be populated dominantly by Turks. The border of Greece would be decided by tradition, anywhere outside of the Greek Peninsula would not be called Greece.
3. Independence, 1829
After the fall of Constantinople, it took another ten years for the Ottoman Empire to gain control of the Greek peninsula. Then, until the 19th century, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire.
In the 19th century, Greek nationalism rose up. It called for an independent Greece that is unified as one. In 1821, Greek nationalists started a revolution that would be known as the "Greek War of Independence".
With the aid of Russia, Britain, and France, Greek Revolutionaries would eventually win the independence war, forming the Hellenic State, which would then be assigned a king and became the Kingdom of Greece.
The first territories of this new Greek state were the Peloponnese, Saronic Islands, Cyclades, Sporades and Continental Greece. The border of Greece divided the Greek Peninsula between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, as it continued to control Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia.
4. Obtaining Ionian Islands, 1864
When the Byzantine Empire declined, Venice gradually acquired the Ionian Islands starting in 1204. When Venice gained control of the entire archipelago, they successfully fought off the Ottomans, making the area the only part of Greece to escape Ottoman rule.
During Napoleonic War, Venice was conquered by France. As a result, the British took over Ionian Islands. The British officially obtained the islands in 1815, but as we know in the 19th century, Greek nationalism was growing. Ever since Greece gained independent, islanders urged to join Greece.
In 1862, King Otto was so unpopular that he was deposed in a coup. To boost the reputation of the new king George I, and to make sure the Italians did not consider getting the Ionian Islands, the British transferred the islands to Greece. In 1864, Greece officially received the Ionian Islands.
5. Treaty of San Stefano, 1878
Following the Russo-Turkish War, this treaty granted Greece some territorial expansions, including Thessaly and parts of Epirus, which expanded its northern border.
6. The Balkan Wars, 1913
Greece, along with other Balkan states, fought against the Ottoman Empire and gained additional territories such as Macedonia, Epirus, and the Aegean Islands, which further expanded its northern and eastern borders. The northwestern border of Greece has stayed this way ever since.
The island of Crete was already in chaos since 1866, when Christians started a series of revolts. It was also granted to Greece after the war.
7. Treaty of Neuilly, 1919
Thrace was captured by Bulgaria in the First Balkan War, but it lost the eastern part in the second war. Eastern Thrace would stay under Turkey, while Western Thrace was recognized as a part of Bulgaria.
In the First World War, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and lost. Western Thrace was transferred to Greece as part of the Treaty of Neuilly in 1919. This determined the current eastern land border of Greece.
8. The death of "Megali Idea" with the Greco-Turkish War, 1922
Starting from the birth of Greek nationalism, there was a doctrine for the Greek nationalists: the Megali Idea. It demanded a return to the border similar to the Byzantine Empire, holding Thrace and Constantinople, controlling the entire western coast of Asia Minor, and putting the capital to Constantinople.
After the Ottoman Empire lost the First World War and signed the Treaty of Sèvres, Greece was granted Thrace and Ionia, while Constantinople was under international occupation. This was a step forward for the Greeks to fulfil their Megali Idea, but Turks despised the treaty, Mustafa Kemal overthrew the Ottoman Sultan and founded Turkey.
The new Turkish government resisted the post-war arrangement, and the Turkish War of Independence commenced. Turkish forces fought fiercely and Greek forces were expelled from Asia Minor.
In 1923, Treaty of Lausanne was signed between Greece and Turkey, setting the boundaries back to the pre-WWI status. This determined the borders between the two countries, but also declaring the bankruptcy of the Megali Idea.
9. Paris Peace Treaty, 1947
Ever since Italy became a fascist state, it openly proclaimed to retake the Ionian Islands. In the end, Greece was pulled into World War II with an Italian invasion.
While Greece successfully expelled the Italian forces, it lost to Germany in 1942. But Italy would be invaded from the south and became the first Axis Power to surrender.
Italy sided with the Entente in World War I, where they acquired the Dodecanese Islands from the Ottoman Empire. But as it lost to the Allies in World War II, it had to abandon the islands. Allied forces occupied the islands from 1944 to 1947, when they formally joined Greece under the 1947 Peace Treaty with Italy.
The union of Dodecanese established the current Greece border in the east, including the islands of Rhodes and Kos.
10. Cyprus Crisis, 1974
While Cyprus was mostly inhabited by Greeks, there are significant number of Turks. Although Greece lost to Turkey in 1922, Cyprus at that time was under British control, and gained independence in 1960.
Greek nationalists had long been emphasizing the ambition to unify Greece and Cyprus. Before leaving, the British made a treaty with Greece and Turkey to guarantee that Cyprus would be a separated country that would not be annexed by either of them.
After a coup in 1974, the right-wing Greek junta government installed a Greek nationalist government in Cyprus. This could be an opportunity for Greece to annex Cyprus, but Turkey decided to step in, invaded the island and created a breakaway Turkish state in the north of the island.
Once again, Greece and its Cypriot proxy lost to Turkey. The attempt to annex Cyprus was a failure, and the subsequent outrage forced the Greek junta to step down.
This war did not change the territory and border of Greece but ended the idea of annexing Cyprus. Today, unrecognized Northern Cyprus remains under Turkish protection and unifying all of Cyprus is already a challenge, let alone reaching a consensus to join Greece.
That's how the border of Greece changed
The border of Greece in a large part of ancient history was determined by outside force. First it was the Macedonians, then it was the Romans, and then it was the Ottomans.
The country we now call Greece was only established in 1829. Under the call of "Megali Idea" it greatly expanded its territories within a span of a century.
The border of Greece has stayed this way after obtaining the Dodecanese in 1947. Today, Greece covers an area of 131,957 square kilometers and controls approximately 6,000 islands, 227 of which are inhabited. It borders Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey.
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