Greco-Turkish Wars (1897, 1921-22) Two military conflicts between the Greeks and the Turks. The first, or Thirty Days’ War, took place after an 1896 rebellion on Turkish-ruled Crete between Christian residents and their Muslim rulers. Greek troops occupied the island in 1897. The Euro¬ pean powers imposed a blockade to prevent assistance to the island. Unable to reach Crete, the Greeks sent a force to attack the Turks in Thes¬ saly, but it was overwhelmed by the superior Turkish army. Though a peace treaty forced the Greeks to withdraw, Turkish troops also left Crete, which had been made an international protectorate and was later (1913) ceded to Greece. The second war occurred after World War I, when the Greeks attempted to claim territories assigned to them by the Treaty of Sevres (1920). In 1921 the Greek army launched an offensive in Anatolia against nationalist Turks who would not recognize the treaty. The Greek forces were driven out by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the Treaty of Lau¬ sanne (1923) returned the disputed territories to Turkey.
Greece officially Hellenic Republic Country, Balkan Peninsula, south¬ eastern Europe. Area: 50,949 sq mi (131,957 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 11,088,000. Capitaclass="underline" Athens. The people are predominantly Greek. Language: Greek (official). Religion: Christianity (predominantly Eastern Orthodox [official]). Currency: euro. The land, with its 2,000-odd islands and extensive coastline, is intimately linked with the sea. About one-fifth of this mountainous country consists of lowland, much of this as coastal plains along the Aegean or as mountain valleys and small plains near river mouths. The interior is dominated by the Pindus Mountains, which extend from Albania on Greece’s northwestern border into the Peloponnese. Mount Olympus is the country’s highest peak. Among the Greek islands
Slavonian, or horned, grebe (Podiceps auritus)
INGMAR HOLMASEN
are the Aegean and Ionian groups and Crete. The climate is Mediterranean. Greece has an advanced developing economy characterized mainly by private enterprise and based on agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. It is a multiparty republic with one legisla¬ tive house; the chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. The earliest urban society in Greece was the palace- centred Minoan civilization, which reached its height on Crete c. 2000 bc. It was succeeded by the mainland Mycenaean civilization, which arose c. 1600 bc following a wave of Indo-European invasions. About 1200 bc a second wave of invasions destroyed the Bronze Age cultures, and a Dark Age followed, known mostly through the epics of Homer. At the end of this time, Classical Greece began to emerge (c. 750 bc) as a collection of independent city-states, including Sparta in the Peloponnese and Athens in Attica. The civilization reached its zenith after repelling the Persians at the beginning of the 5th century bc (see Persian Wars) and began to decline after the civil strife of the Peloponnesian War at the century’s end. In 338 bc the Greek city-states were taken over by Philip II of Macedon, and Greek culture was spread by Philip’s son Alexander the Great through¬ out his empire. The Romans, themselves heavily influenced by Greek cul¬ ture, conquered the city-states in the 2nd century bc. After the fall of Rome, Greece remained part of the Byzantine Empire until the mid-15th century, when it became part of the expanding Ottoman Empire; it gained its independence in 1832. It was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Civil war followed and lasted until 1949, when communist forces were defeated. In 1952 Greece joined NATO. A military junta ruled the country from 1967 to 1974, when democracy was restored and a refer¬ endum declared an end to the Greek monarchy. In 1981 Greece joined the European Community (see European Union), the first eastern European country to do so. Upheavals in the Balkans in the 1990s strained Greece’s relations with some neighbouring states, including the former Yugoslav entity that became the Republic of Macedonia. Greece revised its consti¬ tution in 2001.
Greek alphabet Writing system developed in Greece c. 1000 bc, the direct or indirect ancestor of all modem European alphabets. Derived from the North Semitic alphabet via that of the Phoenicians, it modified an all¬ consonant alphabet to represent vowels. Letters for sounds not found in Greek became the Greek letters alpha, epsilon, iota, omicron, and upsi- lon, representing the vowels a, e, i, o, and u. This greatly increased the accuracy and legibility of the new system. While the Chalcidian version of the Greek alphabet probably gave rise to the Etruscan alphabet and thus indirectly to the Latin alphabet, in 403 bc Athens officially adopted the Ionic version. This became the classical Greek alphabet, which had 24
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
798 i Greek Civil War ► Greek religion
letters, all capitals—ideal for monuments; various scripts better suited to handwriting were later derived from it.
Greek Alphabet
Letters
English
sound
Name
Letters
English
sound
Name
A a
a
alpha
Nv
n
nu
B|3
b
beta
Hi;
X
xi
r r
9
gamma
Oo
o
omicron
A 5
d
delta
n n
P
P'
E £
e
epsilon
Pp
rh, r
rho
ZC
z
zeta
2 a,q
s
sigma
H r|
e
eta
Tx
t
tau
0 0
th
theta
Yu
y. u
upsilon
I V
•
iota
<S cp
ph
phi
K K
k
kappa
Xx
kh
chi
AX
i
lambda
'By
ps
psi
Mu
m
mu
Q co
5
omega
Greek Civil War (1944-45, 1946-49). Two-stage conflict during which Greek communists unsuccessfully tried to gain control of Greece. The two principal Greek guerrilla forces that had resisted Nazi Germa¬ ny’s occupation—the communist-controlled National Liberation Front- National Popular Liberation Army (EAM-ELAS) and the Greek Democratic National Army (EDES)—came into conflict after EAM- ELAS set up a provisional government that rejected the Greek king and his government-in-exile. When Germany withdrew from Greece in 1944, the communists and royalist guerrillas were brought together by the Brit¬ ish in an uneasy coalition. Because the communist guerrillas refused to disband their forces, a bitter civil war broke out in late 1944 that was put down by British forces. After elections that the communists did not par¬ ticipate in, the Greek king was restored to his throne. In 1946 a full-scale guerrilla war was reopened by the communists. The U.S. government took over the defense of Greece, creating the Truman Doctrine as justification. After fierce skirmishes in the mountains, in 1949 the communists announced the end of open hostilities. An estimated 50,000 Greeks died in the conflict, which left a legacy of bitterness.
Greek fire Any of several flammable mixtures used in ancient and medieval warfare, particularly a petroleum-based mixture invented by the Byzantine Greeks in the 7th century. Flammable materials such as pitch and sulfur had been used in war since ancient times, but true Greek fire was especially deadly. Thrown in pots or discharged from tubes, it appar¬ ently caught fire spontaneously, and water could not put it out. Greek fire launched from tubes mounted on ship prows wrought havoc on the Arab fleet attacking Constantinople in 673. Its effectiveness was a prime rea¬ son for the long survival of the Byzantine Empire. The recipe was so secret that its precise composition remains unknown.