Greece
Cape Sounion in Attica, looking out to the Aegean islands, is one of the most beautiful sites in Greece
- For other meanings see Greece (disambiguation).
Greece is formally called the Hellenic Republic (in Greek Elliniki Dimokratia). Greeks call their country Hellas, which in modern Greek is pronounced Ellas. In everyday speech the form Ellada is used. Greeks frequently call themselves Hellenes even in English. The English name "Greece" derives from a Latin name, Graecia, originally used for a region in what is now northern Greece inhabited by a people called the Graekos.
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| National motto: Eleftheria i thanatos (Greek: Liberty or Death) |
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| Official language | Greek | |||
| Capital | Athens | |||
| President | Kostis Stephanopoulos | |||
| Prime Minister | Kostas Karamanlis | |||
| Area - Total - % water |
Ranked 94th 131,940 km2 0.86% |
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| Population - Total (2001) - Density |
Ranked 70th 10,964,020 80.5/km² |
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| Independence - Declared - Recognised |
From the Ottoman Empire March 25, 1821 1828 |
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| Currency | Euro(€)¹, Greek euro coins | |||
| Time zone | UTC +2 | |||
| National anthem | Imnos pros tin Eleftherian | |||
| Internet TLD | .GR | |||
| Calling Code | 30 | |||
| (1) Prior to 2001: Greek drachma | ||||
| Table of contents |
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2 Politics 3 Local government 4 Geography 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Culture 8 Miscellaneous topics 9 See also 10 External links |
The shores of the Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilisations in Europe, namely the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations. After these has subsided a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC a new era of Greek civilisation emerged. It was this Greece of city-states that established colonies along the Mediterranean, resisted Persian invasions and whose culture would be the basis of Hellenistic civilisation that followed the empire of Alexander the Great (king of Macedonia).
Militarily Greece itself declined until it was conquered by the Romans from 168 BC onwards, though Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. A province of the Roman Empire, Greek culture would continue to dominate the eastern Mediterranean and when the Empire finally split in two the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, centred on Constantinople, would be Greek in nature, as well as encompassing Greece itself. From the 4th century to the 15th century the Eastern Roman Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from the west and east until Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to the Ottoman Empire. Greece had gradually been conquered by the Ottomans during the 15th century.
The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. In 1821 the Greeks rebelled and in 1822 they declared their independence, but did not succeed in winning it until 1832. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, in a series of war with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge Greece to include the Greek-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire, slowly growing in territory and population until it reached its present boundaries in 1947.
After World War II, Greece experienced a civil war that lasted until 1949. In 1967 the military seized power in a coup d'ÃÂétat, establishing what became known as the Regime of the Colonels. In 1973 the regime abolished the Greek monarchy. Conflict over the issue of Cyprus led to the collapse of the military regime in 1974 and the establishment of a democratic republic in 1975, following a plebiscite to abolish the monarchy. Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and adopted Euro as its currency in 2001.
The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in an indirectly elected president, who is advised by the Council of the Republic. The prime minister and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the president performs some governmental functions in addition to ceremonial duties. The president is elected by parliament to a five-year term and can be re-elected once.
Members of Greece's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) are elected by secret ballot for a maximum of four years, but elections can be called earlier. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and ensures that the party which leads in the national vote will win a majority of seats. A party must receive 3% of the total national vote to gain representation.
For a list of Greek political parties, see List of political parties in Greece.
Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which are further subdivided into 51 prefecturess (nomoi, singular - nomos):
History
Main article: History of GreecePolitics
Main article: Politics of GreeceLocal government
Main articles: Peripheries of Greece
Beyond these there is one autonomous region, Mount Athos (Ayion Oros - Holy Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty.
The nomoi are divided into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which are divided into 1,033 municipalities: 133 urban municipalities (demoi) and 900 rural communities (koinotetes). Before 1999, there were 5,775 local authorities: 457 demoi, 5,318 koinotetes, subdivided into 12,817 localities (oikosmoi).
The country consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula, which is separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth; and numerous islands, including Crete, Rhodes, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea. Greece has more than 14,880 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres.
About 80% of Greece is mountainous or hilly. Much of the country is dry and rocky; only 28% of the land is arable. Western Greece contains lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has an average elevation of 2,650 m. The legendary Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece at 2,917 m above sea level.
Greece's climate features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures are rarely extreme, although snowfalls do occur in the mountains and occasionally even in Athens in the winter.
Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about half of GDP. Tourism is a key industry, providing a large portion of GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 2.4% of GNP. The economy has improved steadily over the last few years, as the government tightened policy in the run-up to Greece's entry into the EU's single currency, the euro, on January 1, 2001.
Major challenges remaining include the reduction of unemployment and further restructuring of the economy, including privatising several state enterprises, undertaking social security reforms, overhauling the tax system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Economic growth is forecast at 4 - 4,5 % in 2004.
The national central bank of Greece is the Bank of Greece.
Most Greeks (98%) adhere to the Greek Orthodox Church, which is under the protection of the state that also pays the clergy's salaries, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the "prevailing" religion of Greece according to the constitution. The Greek Orthodox Church is self-governing but under the spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople.
Although Greece is hardly an ethnicaly homogenous society, the Greek Muslim minority (of 1.3%), concentrated in Thrace, which was given legal status by provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 is Greece's only officially recognised minority. There are also minorities of Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs (Romanians), and Roma.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Greece
Economy
Main article: Economy of GreeceDemographics
Main article: Demographics of GreeceCulture
Main article: Culture of GreeceMiscellaneous topics
See also
External links
Ministries
Other official sites
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