Greece

ABOUT Greece

Country Briefs: The mother of Olympic games, the land of gods and goddesses, comprising of 1400 beautiful islands and breathtakingly beautiful sites such as Santorini, Greece is the place where fun and excitement never ends.

The beautiful country of Greece lies in the southern Europe and on the tip of the Balkan Peninsula. Greece is a border nation to Bulgaria, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania and Turkey.

Bordered by the Aegean Sea in the east and the Ionian and Mediterranean Sea to the west and south respectively Greece covers an area of 309,050 square kilometers. Greece is ranked 74th in the world on the basis of its population that does not exceed 12 million.

If we ponder over the rich history of Greece we find that the country had its foremost civilization, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans near the Aegean Sea.

The Greeks established their colonies along the Mediterranean during the Dark Age.

Around 168 BC Greece was conquered and dominated by the Roman Empire. But the Greeks had full control over the eastern Mediterranean side of the country and so when the Roman Empire bifurcated into the eastern Roman Empire and the western one, the eastern half of it i.e. the Byzantine Empire was primarily Greek in nature.

The Byzantine Empire lasted for eleven centuries. Around 15th century the Ottoman Turks attacked and overpowered the Byzantines as a result of which Greece came under the domination of the Ottomans.

But while the Ottoman Turks were busy conquering the entire Greece the Greek intelligentsia migrated to the Western Europe particularly to Italy. While the Greeks residing in the plains went and settled in the Greek regions that were not under the Ottoman Empire.

Greece was under the Ottomans till 19th century. It was in 1821 that Greeks rose to nationalism and demanded their county's freedom. So they rebelled and declared their independence in 1829 but could not succeed in it.

However the Greeks did not lose hope and continued to rebel against the atrocious Turks. But the latter were still powerful and tried to suppress the Greek revolts when France, Great Britain and Russia made a military intervention.

Around 1774 Europe was a witness to the Eastern Question, when the Russio-Turkish War ended in defeat for the Ottoman Turks. As a result of this the Russian ex-minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias was made the president of the new Republic of Greek independence. But soon that Republic was replaced by a Greek monarchy.

Greece persisted with its revenge and dislike for Ottomans and so stood against the Turks as well as the central powers (Austria-Hungary, Ottomans, Germany, Bulgaria) in the First World War. After this war Greece was awarded with a small portion of Asia Minor, located near the city of Izmir.

But Asia Minor was seized back by the Turks after emerging victorious in the Greco-Turkish war in 1919 to 1922. The war ended in the Treaty of Lausanne, a peace treaty that encircled the boundaries of Greece and Turkey.

 

During 1940, Greece was engaged in conflict with Italian dictator Mussolini. In 1941 Greece was invaded by Germany. Germany continued to rule over Greece till 1944 when the Greeks revolted against German empire. British, Australia and New Zealand also helped Greeks in its rebellion.

From 1946 to 1949 Greece witnessed the Greece civil war. The victory of government anti-communist forces led to Greece's membership in NATO, as a founding member in 1949.

In 1973 the head of the junta abolished him Greek monarchy.

On 1st January 1981 Greece joined the European union.

At present Greece is one of the most successful nations of the world.

Greece Prefectures
Prefecture HASC ISO FIPS NUTS Population Area(km.²) Reg Capital
Achaea GR.AK 13 GR38 GR232 297,318 3,209 GW Patras (Patrai)
Aitolia and Akarnania GR.AA 01 GR31 GR231 230,688 5,447 GW Missolongi (Mesolongion)
Arcadia GR.AD 12 GR41 GR252 103,840 4,419 PP Tripolis (Tripolitza)
Argolis GR.AG 11 GR36 GR251 97,250 2,214 PP Nauplion
Arta GR.AR 31 GR20 GR211 78,884 1,612 EP Arta
Attica GR.AT A1 GR35 GR300 3,522,769 3,808 AT Athens (Athenai)
Boeotia GR.BT 03 GR33 GR241 134,034 3,211 GC Levadeia
Corfu GR.CF 22 GR25 GR222 105,043 641 II Corfu (Kerkyra)
Corinth GR.CN 15 GR37 GR253 142,365 2,290 PP Corinth (Korinthos)
Cyclades GR.CY 82 GR49 GR422 95,083 2,572 AS Hermoupolis (Ermoupole)
Dodecanese GR.DO 81 GR47 GR421 162,439 2,705 AS Rhodes (Rodos)
Drama GR.DR 52 GR04 GR114 96,978 3,468 MT Drama
Euboea GR.EU 04 GR34 GR242 209,132 3,908 GC Khalkis (Chalkida)
Evritania GR.ET 05 GR30 GR243 23,535 2,045 GC Karpenissi (Karpenesion)
Evros GR.ES 71 GR01 GR111 143,791 4,242 MT Alexandroupolis
Florina GR.FL 63 GR08 GR134 52,854 1,863 MW Florina
Fokis GR.FK 07 GR32 GR245 43,889 2,121 GC Amfissa
Fthiotis GR.FT 06 GR29 GR244 168,291 4,368 GC Lamia
Grevena GR.GR 51 GR10 GR131 37,017 2,338 MW Grevena
Heraklion GR.IR 91 GR45 GR431 263,868 2,641 CR Heraklion (Candia, Megalokastron)
Ilia GR.IL 14 GR39 GR233 174,021 2,681 GW Pyrgos
Imathia GR.IM 53 GR12 GR121 138,068 1,712 MC Veroia
Ioannina GR.IO 33 GR17 GR213 157,214 4,990 EP Ioannina (Yannina)
Karditsa GR.KT 41 GR23 GR141 126,498 2,576 TS Karditsa
Kastoria GR.KS 56 GR09 GR132 52,721 1,685 MW Kastoria
Kavala GR.KV 55 GR14 GR115 135,747 2,109 MT Kavala (Cavalla)
Kefallinia GR.KF 23 GR27 GR223 32,314 935 II Argostoli (Argostolion)
Khalkidiki GR.KD 64 GR15 GR127 91,654 2,945 MC Polygyros
Khania GR.KN 94 GR43 GR434 133,060 2,376 CR Khania (Canea)
Khios GR.KH 85 GR50 GR413 52,691 904 AN Khios
Kilkis GR.KK 57 GR06 GR123 81,845 2,614 MC Kilkis
Kozani GR.KZ 58 GR11 GR133 150,159 3,562 MW Kozani
Laconia GR.LC 16 GR42 GR254 94,916 3,636 PP Sparta (Sparte)
Larisa GR.LR 42 GR21 GR142 269,300 5,351 TS Larisa (Larissa)
Lasithi GR.LT 92 GR46 GR432 70,762 1,823 CR Agios Nikolaos
Lesvos GR.LS 83 GR51 GR411 103,700 2,154 AN Mytilene
Levkas GR.LV 24 GR26 GR224 20,900 325 II Levkas (Leucadia)
Magnesia GR.MG 43 GR24 GR143 197,613 2,636 TS Volos (Nea Ionia)
Messinia GR.MS 17 GR40 GR255 167,292 2,991 PP Kalamata (Kalamai)
Mount Athos GR.MA 69 GR15 GR127 1,472 336 MC Karyai (Karyes)
Pella GR.PL 59 GR07 GR124 138,261 2,506 MC Edessa
Pieria GR.PI 61 GR16 GR125 116,820 1,506 MC Katerini
Preveza GR.PV 34 GR19 GR214 58,910 1,086 EP Preveza
Rethymnon GR.RT 93 GR44 GR433 69,290 1,496 CR Rethymnon (Rethymni)
Rodopi GR.RD 73 GR02 GR113 103,295 2,543 MT Komotini
Samos GR.SM 84 GR48 GR412 41,850 778 AN Samos (Limin Vatheos, Vathy)
Serrai GR.SR 62 GR05 GR126 191,890 3,970 MC Serrai (Serres)
Thesprotia GR.TP 32 GR18 GR212 44,202 1,515 EP Hegoumenitsa
Thessaloniki GR.TN 54 GR13 GR122 977,528 3,560 MC Thessaloniki (Salonica)
Trikala GR.TR 44 GR22 GR144 137,819 3,367 TS Trikala (Trikkala)
Xanthi GR.XN 72 GR03 GR112 90,450 1,793 MT Xanthi
Zakynthos GR.ZK 21 GR28 GR221 32,746 406 II Zakynthos (Zante)
52 divisions 10,264,076 131,989    
  • Prefecture: except for Mount Athos, which is an autonomous monastic community.
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
  • ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2.
  • FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Note: Mount Athos is not specifically mentioned in the standard, so I assume it's included in GR15 Khalkidiki.
  • NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Same note applies for Mount Athos.
  • Population: 1991-03-17 census.
  • Reg: Region, keyed to the Abv column in the table of regions below.
  • Capital: Where two names are given, the first is the name most commonly found in English text. The second is a variant transliteration, a more Greek-like version, or an older name for the same city.
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