History History

Neanderthal man is thought to have begun sailing between the islands 100,000 years ago, but it wasn't until the end of the last Ice Age, 11,700 years ago, thatHomo sapiens really settled on these lands. The North Aegean islands bear traces of the first Neolithic inhabitants in a few exceptional sites, with advanced social and urban organization for the period. These include the site of Poliochni, on the island of Lemnos, which constitutes the oldest organized "city" excavated in Europe (^5th-2nd millennia BC), and the admirably preserved fortified site of Palamari, on the island of Skyros (^3rd-2nd millennia BC).

The Minoan civilization, born in Crete, conquered a large part of the island lands of the Aegean Sea and developed a quasi-monopoly on the maritime trade in the Mediterranean: the islands of the North Aegean are in the zone of influence of these powerful and brilliant navigators. It is a time of intense commercial exchanges with all the Mediterranean populations: these islands are on the north-south road between the Black Sea, Asia Minor, Crete and Egypt. This great civilization disappears mysteriously around 1200 BC, the decline certainly resulting from the combined effects of Achaean invasions, natural disasters and absorption by the Dorian tribes.

Coming from the north, the tribe of Achaeans founded Mycenae, in the Peloponnese. The most flourishing of the Achaean cities launched the beginning of the Mycenaean civilization and conquered a large part of Aegean Greece. The Mycenaeans settle in Asia Minor and in the islands of the south Aegean at about the same time as the Thessalians - or Pelasges - would have arrived from the continent in the Sporades and on some of the islands of the north Aegean. These do not constitute the heart of the zone of Mycenaean influence but continue to benefit from a strategic position on the great maritime routes of the Mediterranean. The Mycenaean civilization leaves traces there, in particular on the island of Psara where one still admires today the Mycenaean site ofArchontiki.

From 1100 BC, the Mycenaean civilization declines and gradually disappears, leaving the pre-eminence to the Dorians, then to the Aeolians and Ionians in the region of the North Aegean. Little is known about the so-called "dark" centuries that followed, while the reasons for the disappearance of the Mycenaeans are still debated. The trace of the Sporades and the islands of the North Aegean is then more or less lost, although the trade continues to prosper in the area.

They reappear in History thanks to the revolt of the Ionian cities: tyrannies are set up from the ^7th century BC to ensure the hegemony in the Eastern Aegean Sea, both on the surrounding islands and on the Ionian continent. It is the case in Samos, where the tyrant Polycrates (535-522 BC) finances arts and sciences, as testify the tunnel of Eupalinos or the Heraion. Soon these islands and cities are confronted with the expansion of the Persian Empire whose domination they reject: it is the beginning of the Medieval wars. Faced with the successive victories of the Greek cities which emerged during the archaic period, these islands are finally integrated into the League of Delos, lending allegiance to Athens. However, and except the Sporades which remain immutably faithful to Athens, the islands of the north Aegean change allegiance and alternate between Athens and Sparta in the murderous war of the Peloponnese which will follow shortly afterwards.it is during this period known as traditional that the cities of the north Aegean are equipped with important places of worship and knowledge, as in Hephaista on the island of Lemnos.

Since the end of the Peloponnesian war, conflicts between Thebes, Athens and Sparta weaken the cities. That profits with the kingdom of Macedonia, located at the north of Greece. From 359 BC, Philip II of Macedonia subjected the neighboring peoples (Illyrians, Thracians...) and seized the Sporades and the islands of the North-Egean. Controlling all Greece except Sparta, he proposes a sacred union in order to release the cities of Asia Minor under Persian control. At that time, the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, in Samothrace, becomes a place of particular veneration for the Macedonian dynasty. But Philip II dies assassinated in 336 BC: the unification of the Greek lands finally takes place under the military impulse of his son, Alexander the Great. This one is not satisfied to finish conquering the Aegean islands, but founds one of the greatest empires of the history. This unit will not survive the emperor: at his death, the Greek world enters a period of decadence. It is with the pretext of "to release the Greeks" that Rome starts the wars of Macedonia (215-148 BC) and will launch out in the conquest of the Aegean cities and islands.

Alexander the Great, whose tutor was Aristotle, succeeded his father Philip II at the age of 20. After defeating the revolting peoples of Greece, he conquered Egypt where he founded Alexandria, and seized Babylon and Persepolis, which he burned. He crossed the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, subdued the Persians, and then undertook the astonishing expedition that took him beyond the Indus River in northern India. Undermined by disease (some historians say he was assassinated), Alexander the Great died in Babylon, which he dreamed of making the capital of his empire.

In 146 BC, Greece was officially attached to Rome. The islands of the North Aegean are successively integrated into the Roman provinces of Macedonia (Sporades), Thrace (Thassos and Samothrace) and Asia Minor (North-East Aegean) while the very last king of Macedonia, Perseus, takes refuge in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods of Samothrace, fleeing the Romans. The transformation of the Republic into an Empire coincides with the longest period of peace ever known by the Greeks: the Pax Romana (27 BC - 180 AD). The islands benefit from a favorable economic environment, having access to a huge pacified maritime empire. It is a prosperous period for the islands of the North Aegean. In the meantime, the apostle Paul introduced Christianity in the Greek lands, and the Gospels, written in Greek, gradually dethroned the Olympian pantheon.

Founder of Constantinople in 330, the emperor Constantine set up the foundations of the great Byzantine Empire, which included all the Aegean islands and which, during some eleven centuries of existence, had to face many enemies. Spearhead of this empire, the Byzantine Church - its rupture with Rome dates from 1054 - is very powerful and its monasteries prosper, of which the splendid monastery of Nea Moni, founded in Chios in 1042. It is necessary to fight against the barbarian incursions and pirates at sea: fortresses are built in height, most often on the remainders of ancient acropolises, as with the kastro of Skyros, but, vis-a-vis the permanent insecurity, the Sporades and the islands of the North Aegean are emptied during this rather dull period for these islands.

In 1204, the crusaders took Constantinople and founded a Latin Empire which announced the fall of the Byzantine Empire. The islands of the North Aegean were disputed by this weakened empire and the powerful Latin cities of Genoa and Venice. Great Genoese and Venetian families take position in the islands, especially interested by the economic profit which they can draw from these islands rather than by the political domination of the populations. They reinforced pre-existing Byzantine fortresses or built new defense structures to fight against pirate, Byzantine and Ottoman attacks and imported their know-how in this field. This presence is visible everywhere in the islands, and more particularly in Chios, in the villages of Kampos in particular. In 1453, Constantinople fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire which gradually conquered all Greek territories.

After the fall of the North Aegean under the attacks of Soliman the Magnificent, the Aegean whole is integrated into the Ottoman Empire. Masters for nearly four centuries, the Ottomans mark durably the islands of the North Aegean: one finds the trace of the Ottoman centuries in the district of the kastro, in the town of Chios, or in the streets of Mytilene, in Lesbos. Since 1821, some Greek islands of the North Aegean participate in the movement of national liberation, strong of their historical fleets. It is in particular the case of Chios and Psara which are destroyed in reprisal (1822-24). While the Greek War of Independence was in full swing, the destiny of the North Aegean as a whole took two distinct paths: the Treaty of Andrinople signed between the Ottoman Empire on the one hand and the United Kingdom, Russia and France on the other guaranteed the independence of a new Greek state, to which the Sporades were incorporated (1830), while the other islands of the North Aegean were kept outside of Greece and within the Ottoman Empire.

When the war of independence was launched against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, the island of Chios was one of the most prosperous and its wealth was coveted by all. To prevent an insurrection from taking place on the island, the Ottoman rulers spread terror among the populations taken hostage. Alerted by the situation of the Chiotes, Lykourgos Logothetis, captain of Samos, disembarked on the island to come to its aid and temporarily defeated the Ottoman forces. But the reaction was not long in coming and in April 1822 the troops of Nasuhzade Ali Pacha massacred the Greek population of Chios. The survivors were sold into slavery and some managed to flee to the neighboring islands, helped by the fleets of Psara, Samos, Hydra and Spetses, the richest fleets of Greece, strongly invested in the insurrection. This particularly violent massacre awakened European consciences: it was the beginning of the Philhellenes' movement which was to push to help the Greek insurgents. Eugène Delacroix's painting, Scenes from the Massacres of Scio, is part of this moment. In retaliation, the psariote captain Konstantinos Kanaris sinks the Ottoman flagship and continues the counter-attacks at sea, in particular by burning. Here again, the Ottoman reaction was particularly harsh: in June-July 1824, the Ottoman fleet landed in Psara and destroyed the whole island by gunning it, massacring its population or selling it into slavery. It was uninhabited for decades, the free survivors settling in Evia. Considered since then as a hero-island and martyr-island, Psara maintains this history with pride.

The islands of Thrace and the north-eastern Aegean remained under Ottoman rule for more than 80 years after the creation of the young Greek monarchy. It is a period of prosperity for all the islands: the pirates leave these seas, the maritime trade fructifies as well as the agriculture in the most fertile islands. Wealthy shipowners and merchants of the region opened international trading posts and their ships dominated the seas. Everywhere, rich houses in neoclassical style were erected, to illustrate the growing wealth of certain populations. The Greek state gradually recovered Hellenic lands: the Ionian Islands, under British rule, were returned to Greece in 1862; in 1878, Thessaly and part of Epirus joined the country. During the Balkan War (1912-1913), the Greek army commanded by E. Venizelos regained Macedonia, the whole of Epirus and Crete. It is on this occasion that all the islands of the North Aegean are finally attached to Greece. Only the archipelago of Dodecanese still remains out of the Greek state.

Eleftherios Vénizelos, a Cretan by birth, is the founder of the Greek Liberal Party. Attached to the idea of a strengthened and enlarged Hellenic nation, he worked for Greece's commitment to the Entente during the First World War, which led to the signing of the Treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne. He is one of the most prominent Prime Ministers of modern Greece, and is revered by many supporters. He will, among other things, work to ease relations with the young Turkish Republic. He died in exile in Paris in 1936.

The inter-war period was, as everywhere in Europe, a period of chronic political instability for Greece. It received Thrace and Smyrna but the Greek-Turkish war continued in Asia Minor. In 1922, the Greek forces were defeated by the Turkish army which expelled streams of refugees from the country, massacring the Greeks of Smyrna. This was the Great Catastrophe, which gave rise to an exchange of populations between Muslim Turks and Christian Greeks and to a massive arrival of refugees on the coasts of the North Aegean. In Athens, the 1935 coup d'état saw General Metaxas take over full powers: this was the beginning of a dictatorship inspired by Fascist Italy. While the Second World War set Europe ablaze, the Greek dictator refused to let the Italian troops advance into the region of Epirus: the "no" pronounced on October 28, 1940 marked the tipping of Greece into the Allied nations.

In 1943, the Axis troops held the Aegean Sea: the North Aegean, because of its strategic position, became the scene of violent bombings, especially in Samos. At the end of the war, the Treaty of Paris attached the Dodecanese archipelago to Greece: the country was finally unified within its current borders in March 1948. But it was not at the end of its suffering, since the civil war between the new Greek army and the ELAS communist resistance began immediately. This war with tragic consequences lasted two years (1947-1949) and left after-effects that still influence the political life of the country today. With the help of the British, who refused to see Greece fall into a communist regime, the national army defeated the communist army, whose partisans, although victors over the Nazis, were executed, exiled or imprisoned, notably in Aghios Efstratios and Lemnos, in terrible conditions.

At the end of the civil war, the country was politically unstable and had to face a tragic economic situation, marked by the massive emigration of the island populations to Athens. It was in this context of instability and sociological changes that a military coup d'état occurred in April 1967. The colonels proceeded with targeted arrests and deportations: the leap forward towards progress had to pass through the elimination of all parliamentary tendencies. The junta kept power for seven long years, forcing many intellectuals and opponents into exile. On November 17, 1973, the students of the Polytechnic School launched an armed revolt, allowing a gradual return to democracy. The dictatorship of the colonels fell in 1974, following the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey. A referendum is immediately organized to decide on the political system of the country: it will be a republic! Constantin Caramanlis was elected the first president of the Republic: respected by all and fiercely pro-European, he was the architect of Greece's entry into the EEC (1981).

November 17, 1973 is a great date in modern Greek history, commemorated every year with fervour. The student uprising denouncing the dictatorship of the colonels and their American supporters took a tragic turn that day: the junta sent an armoured tank to evacuate the occupied Polytechnic School, killing several people and injuring thousands. The revolt awakens consciences and quickly spreads throughout the country: it is the beginning of the end of the dictatorship in Greece.

The 1980s were marked by the historic victory of the Socialist Party (PASOK) of Andreas Papandreou, whose government was eventually implicated in political and economic scandals. These continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s, affecting the two major political families that share power in alternation, Papandreou's PASOK and K. Mitsotakis' neo-liberal New Democracy party. The 1990s and 2000s were a good time for Greece, which seemed to be flooded with "free" money from Brussels. Corruption and nepotism were in full swing as the country joined the European Monetary Union by fudging its economic results.

From 2009 to 2019, the country is facing one of the most serious crises in its history. This decade was marked by a massive economic crisis, the accumulation of austerity plans from which the population emerged exsanguinated, and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis linked to the massive arrival of refugees on Greek shores. 2019 marked the return of the major political families partly responsible for the crisis, with the conservative Nea Demokratia Party, after the years of the radical Left Party, Syriza. In 2020-2021, the health crisis deprived the country of vital tourism revenues and slowed economic recovery. In 2023, new elections hope to ride the wave of recovery: although the horizon seems to be brightening, the social and political malaise runs deep, against a backdrop of energy crisis and general price inflation. A real recovery is still some years away.