History History

Prehistory began with the discovery of Dmanissi man, at the eponymous site not far from Tbilisi, dating back some 1.8 million years. The lands of present-day Georgia were thus inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic. These sedentary tribes cultivated cereals and raised livestock, as attested by the stone hoes, millstones and flint sickles found at these sites.

In Georgia, the Bronze Age began in the 2nd millennium BC. In ancient times, metals were believed to have originated in the Caucasus regions. Pastoralists' tribes occupied the central part of the country. They were led by rich and powerful chiefs, as evidenced by the gold and silver tableware found in their graves under mounds.

At the beginning of the first millennium, the Assyrian chronicles mention the Georgians for the first time. They are the Diauhi, ancestors of the Thaoki, living in the Tao province in south-western Georgia, and the Khulka, who are the predecessors of the Georgians. The latter lived over large territories in the far west of the Black Sea. This is where the myth of Colchis and his fortune is inscribed. The Greeks were aware of this and attributed the country's exceptional wealth to it. The inhabitants of Colchis lived from the extraction of gold, iron and copper ores. Its symbol? The famous legend of Medea and the golden fleece, probably originating in a gold panning technique using sheepskin.

It was a turning point in the country's history: the arrival of Christianity, then in full expansion, on its territory. In 337, King Mirian III converted to Christianity. His wife, Nana, had encouraged him to do so, having herself been influenced by Saint Nino, the initiator of this religion. The sovereign immediately made it a state religion. His decision was certainly based on political calculation. Indeed, conversion to Christianity would play a key role in unifying the country. By doing so, the sovereign freed himself from the powerful pagan clergy, secured the support of the powerful Christian community established in all the other cities of the Roman Empire, gave religious legitimacy to his kingdom and gained Western protection against Iran. In vain, Tbilisi fell to the Persians in 368. In the centuries that followed, the two regions of Colchis and Iberia were the object of covetous interest from the expanding Constantinople and Iran. Only King Vakhtang Gorgasali (447-502), considered the father of the nation and founder of Tbilisi, succeeded - for a time only - in repelling both the Persians and the Byzantines. The ^6th century also marked a period of intense evangelization in the country. Christianity took root here once and for all, through monasticism led by the famous monk David, who became a national saint. But a new threat was looming on the horizon, which in turn would erase the tug-of-war between the two rival powers.

Between 642 and 645, the first Arab Muslim incursions into the Caucasus upset the balance of the entire region and the Orient. Muslim occupation lasted until 1122.

In 645, the Arabs took Tbilisi. The city and surrounding region became an emirate until its fall in 1122. In 654, the entire region came under Arab rule, as did the whole country by the end of the ^7th century. The west of the country remained under Constantinople's control. In 809, Achot Bagrani (780-826), claiming descent from David, the ancestor of Christ, founded the kingdom of Tao-Klardjetia and gave birth to the Bagratid dynasty. A long struggle by this dynasty against the Muslim occupiers finally bore fruit: in 888, the national monarchy was re-established. His successor Bagrat III (975-1014) brought about the reunification of Georgia. This purely Georgian dynasty remained the only one until the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1801.

One invasion followed another, and this time it was the turn of the Seljuk Turks, who rocked the Caucasus in the ^10th century and invaded Georgia in 1065. In 1068, Tbilisi fell again, and the typhoon of these new invaders was summed up in massacres, raids, pillaging and fertile land turned into desert. Today, this period is still referred to as the Didi Turkoba: "the great Turkish troubles", a traumatic event in Georgia's history.

David: that's a name you'll hear a lot on your trip to Georgia. And with good reason: these rulers and saints Christianized and built Georgia's history. They were responsible for some of the country's most golden periods.

Georgia rose from the ashes thanks to King David IV the Builder (1089-1125). He drove the Seljuk Turks out of the country and subdued insubordinate vassals. He established a modern central administration, reformed the judiciary, built a good road infrastructure, and encouraged trade and religious tolerance. This patron of the arts founded the Gelati monastery and academy. He also reformed the army and supervised spiritual and temporal entities. In this way, he reformed the Church while maintaining control over it, making it an effective instrument in the service of the state. Numerous churches were built and Saint Andrew, Georgia's traditional evangelizer, was celebrated. He extended his influence throughout the Caucasus region. Under his reign, Georgia became a center of Christian culture. The sovereign finally liberated Tbilisi, which had been Muslim for four centuries. A new page in Georgia's history was opened, and the city became the country's capital. The military genius of King David IV gave his country an international dimension for the first time. The Georgian Church will canonize this emblematic figure.

King David's great-granddaughter, Queen Tamar (1184-1213), was responsible for the apogee of the Georgian kingdom. The Georgian empire, stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, and from the Caucasus to Speri in Armenia, has never been so extensive. The empire had a population of 12 million, maintained relations from Europe to the East, preserved its interests in the Holy Land, and flourished in all fields: artistic, literary, architectural, scientific... The poet Chota Roustavéli (1172-1216), one of Georgia's most prestigious writers, drew his inspiration from Persian letters. When the queen died in 1213, Georgia was more powerful than ever.

From 1220, the Mongol invasions put an end to this apogee. In 1243, Georgia became a vassal of the new Mongol empire for almost a century. The country regained its independence under George the Brilliant (1318-1346), only to fall under the domination of new Mongol armies led by Tamerlane in 1386. Georgia, divided into twenty-six rival principalities, sank into anarchy. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 completed Georgia's isolation from the Christian world.

From the ^15th to the ^18th century, the divided country was under constant assault from neighboring empires. The western states of Georgia fell under the yoke of Ottoman Turkey. The east of the country remained under Persian domination.

Under the reign of Catherine II, Russia was expanding rapidly, moving ever closer to the borders of the Caucasus. The Treaty of Gheorghievsk, signed in January 1784 between the Tsarina and King Irakli II, established a Russian protectorate over Georgia. Indeed, the sovereign sought the protection of an Orthodox Christian country to guard against the Muslim threat. Russia undertook not to intervene in Georgia's internal affairs, while taking charge of its foreign relations. This proved to be an outright betrayal: between December 1800 and February 1801, Tsar Alexander ^I annexed the regions of Kartlia and Kakhetia outright. The protectorate was annulled and a terrible war was waged against western Georgia. The monarchy was abolished and the Georgian royal family forced into exile. The Russian Empire gradually annexed the whole country. In 1828, the Treaty of Turkantchai established Georgia's current borders.

In the late ^19th and early ^20th centuries, Georgia, like the rest of Europe, was one of the cradles of the industrial revolution. October 1917 brought not only the birth of the Soviet Socialist Republic in Russia, but also the liberation of Georgia. With Russia in the midst of a civil war, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was proclaimed on May 26, 1918. The Menshevik government set up a new assembly and a constitution. France and England recognized the young democracy, but not for long. From February 16 to March 18, 1921, the Red Army invaded Georgia and took Tbilisi. The Georgian government went into exile in France. The country's independence was over. On December 30, 1922, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the birth of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Although Stalin, born in Gori, was Georgian, the country was not spared by the Soviet policy of purges and terror. As terrible as Communist power was over Georgia, the economic and social balance sheet was not entirely negative. Although it started from a long way off, Georgia is now two-thirds urbanized, the literacy rate has risen to almost 100%, living standards have improved and industrialization has really taken off. Nevertheless, the Georgian economy, supported by the USSR, collapsed immediately after independence.

From 1985 onwards, Gorbachev's reform policy in the USSR hit Georgia hard. Its economy deteriorated completely. The country had been one of the Soviet bloc's most prosperous satellites. On October 9, 1989, a demonstration by thousands of Georgians against the separatist aspirations of Ossetia and Abkhazia, harshly repressed by the Russian authorities, left 21 people dead. A month later, on November 9, 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall led to the collapse of the so-called People's Democracies. On October 28, 1990, the first multi-party elections were held: Zviad Ghamsakourdia, a nationalist leader and long-time opponent, led a coalition and won with 64% of the vote. He proclaimed the country's independence on April 9, 1991. However, his authoritarian drift marked the beginning of a long decade of civil war, anarchy and chaos. Edouard Chevanardze, a former Gorbachev minister, was one of the parties involved in the civil war, his camp opposing that of Ghamsakourdia. To make matters worse, the struggles for independence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia flared up again in 1992 and 1993. Ghamsakhourdia's death on December 31, 1993 did much to end the civil war. It left 15,000 dead and 250,000 displaced. In 1995, Chevanardze was elected President of the Republic. He was re-elected in 2000. For a decade, Georgia juggled periods of calm (a new Constitution was adopted in 1995, followed by a Civil Code and a law designed to encourage foreign investment) with periods of instability (large-scale crime, gang warfare, lack of maintenance of basic infrastructure).

The ongoing chaos is gradually making Eduard Shevardnadze very unpopular. Georgians are exasperated by ever-increasing economic difficulties and corruption at all levels. They expressed their exasperation by taking to the streets, roses in hand, and invading Parliament. They were led by Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the opposition United National Movement party. His watchwords were "eradication of corruption and nepotism". On November 4, 2003, this popular movement, dubbed the "Rose Revolution", ousted the President from power. On January 4, 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili was elected President of the Republic. He ostensibly turned his back on Russia with a pro-European policy, launched a liberal economy and encouraged foreign investment. He replaced all the members of a police force plagued by corruption, set up a young, pro-Western government and a much more muscular judicial system, and renovated the country's infrastructure. For a time, the country enjoyed a certain economic boom.

The President was thus able to plug the gaps in a country that had been practically ruined, but the economy was having trouble confirming its upturn. The euphoria did not last long; the President's violently anti-Russian stance, the conflicts and violent tensions with Russia, the wars with South Ossetia and his increasingly pronounced authoritarianism tarnished his image. However, he was re-elected in 2008 with far less enthusiasm. His policies had left many people behind, including teachers, who were paid a pittance.

On the night of August 7-8, 2008, to the surprise of the rest of the world, the Georgian government launched its assault on the Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. By August 11, the Georgian armies were in full rout, and the Russian armies had crossed the Ossetian border into Gori, right in the middle of Georgian territory. They cut the road between Tbilisi and the Black Sea. The wildest rumors circulated, the Georgian capital panicked and saw itself already under Russian bombardment. Abkhazia took advantage of the situation to reclaim the Kodori Gorge, previously controlled by Georgia. Europe did not want a conflict on its doorstep. President Sarkozy presided over the European Union and got both parties to sign a peace plan.

Why such a maneuver? Because the President had one objective: to recover the de facto independent provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with the green light from Russia. He achieved the opposite, with South Ossetia and Abkhazia now formally independent. They were officially recognized by Russia. The ceasefire was signed on August 16, and this was the beginning of the end for the Georgian president. Russia has shown its muscles, and will do what it wants with Georgia, whenever it pleases. It also wants to maintain its rivalry with the United States around the Black Sea, and of course prevent Georgia from joining NATO.

A new man enters the scene: Bidzina Ivanichvili, the man in the shadows. A Russian, Georgian and French national, this billionaire made his fortune in Russia. He created a new party, Georgian Dream (center-left), supported by the Orthodox Church. In 2012, he became Prime Minister alongside Saakashvili in a coalition government. In 2013, Georgi Margvelashvili won the presidential elections, supported by Ivanichvili, who retired from politics. He continues to pursue a pro-Western policy of NATO integration and EU membership, while maintaining a much less confrontational relationship with Russia. Relations between the two countries have normalized and economic exchanges have resumed. On the economic front, Ivanichvili's resignation left the reins in the hands of his right-hand man, who pursued a policy of decentralization, recovery and a move towards a market economy. Supported by international institutions, Georgia has recovered well economically, but its political future remains uncertain.

On November 28, 2018, Salome Zurabishvili, ex-Foreign Minister under Saakashvili and ex-French diplomat, backed by the Georgian Dream, was elected President of the Republic of Georgia. The elections took place in a far from serene atmosphere. The usual accusations of electoral fraud and corruption have not disappeared from the Georgian landscape. Her victory, with 59.9% of the vote, seems indisputable. She claims to be above party politics, but she has the endorsement of a man who cannot be ignored. It is said that, behind the scenes, he holds the reins of real power: Ivanishvili, again and again.

On November 17, 2019, thousands of Georgians demonstrate in the face of the ruling majority's rejection of a reform of the electoral system. The oligarch Ivanichvili had promised to introduce proportional representation in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2020, but this will finally be the case for the elections scheduled for the end of October 2024. The Georgian Dream party has been in power since 2012, with Georgia in the throes of economic stagnation and the people accusing Ivanishvili of underhand control of the government despite his official retirement from politics.

Georgia was relatively unscathed in terms of health during the Covid epidemic, even though the country still suffered around 18,000 deaths during this period. The economic impact, on the other hand, was quite brutal, putting a stop to the country's economic growth and depriving part of the population of resources, whether due to the halt in tourism, or the return to the country of people usually working in neighboring countries, notably Turkey and Russia.

Shortly after the outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia, Georgia applied for membership of the European Union in early March 2022. At the end of December 2023, Georgia was granted the status of official candidate for EU membership. Hopes of closer ties with the EU were dashed in 2024 with the enactment of the so-called "foreign influence" law. This Russian-inspired law requires any NGO or media organization receiving more than 20% of its funding from abroad to register in Georgia as an "organization pursuing the interests of a foreign power". For several months, daily demonstrations took place in Tbilisi. The majority of the population was against the law, as was Georgia's President Salome Zurabishvili, but the Georgian Dream party held firm and had the law enacted at the end of May 2024, despite the President's veto. The consequences are almost immediate: at the end of June 2024, the European Council decides to suspend Georgia's accession process to the European Union.

The Georgian population eagerly awaits the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26, 2024. The Georgian president will be elected shortly afterwards using the new indirect voting system with a college made up of members of parliament and members of regional and municipal councils. In the run-up to these elections, the situation remains highly uncertain, and the Georgian Dream Party continues to cause concern, between Ivanishvili's official return to politics in April 2024 and the announcement in September 2024 that, should the Georgian Dream Party win these parliamentary elections, the main opposition party - the United National Movement - would be banned...