History History

Inhabited since the Neolithic period, it is around 1400 B.C. that Athens asserts itself as a relatively important Mycenaean center. Some humble architectural traces belonging to a kind of palace, discovered on the Acropolis, as well as a part of the ramparts dating from the Mycenaean period give the image of a fortified citadel.

In its distant past, Athens formed with other small primitive cities nearby an agglomeration. The unification of these cities, known under the very particular foundation of synœcism, is attributed to Theseus and it is estimated that it took place between, perhaps, the tenth and the eighth century B.C. It is thanks to this union that Attica will form a State, and that Athens will emerge as its indisputable capital.

Even if Athens became a polis towards the end of the 8th century B.C., it is not for as much that the quarrels in the region of Attica end. A warlike aristocracy controls the grounds, the political life, the principal sacerdoces, justice and the law. The greatest mass of the population is thus a kind of clientele constituted by dependent peasants. The small number of the free peasants is sufficiently well-to-do to be able to afford a "panoply" (weapons), to serve in the phalanx of the "hoplites", and to constitute in this way the military force of Athens.

Athens enters by force in the history properly speaking towards 630 BC when a certain Cylon, winner in the Olympic Games, seizes the Acropolis helped by the tyrant of Megara, Theagene, his father-in-law. Megacles, an archon (political leader) of Athens, launches the call to the people who take up arms, besiege the Acropolis and finally free it from its usurpers. Here is thus an episode which, for the first time, puts forward a body which starts to weigh heavily in the history of Athens and which will mark its evolution forever : the people, the demos. The way to democracy has just been traced !

At the dawn of the sixth century BC, Solon marks the beginning of the long period towards the conquest of democracy. This one begins in 594 BC by the proclamation of siesactheia, the "lifting of the burden", in other words the abolition of the debts which burdened the Athenian peasants. The aristocracy is then stripped of its privileges and is limited to return justice according to the new code instituted by Solon. The long way, not without violent disorders, towards the establishment of the democracy is traced.

Around 561 BC, Pisistrate seized power. Similar to a demagogue tyrant of the archaic period, he will however respect the legislation of Solon and exercises the power with moderation. This kind of "enlightened" tyranny will be followed by the two sons of Pisistrates, Hipparchus and Hippias, until 510 BC. During this period, the arts and the letters with the service of the policy with broad views will develop with decisive steps. TheAcropolis is going to be arranged, the sculpture and painting flourish, the public works make Athens a great city, the Panathenes and the dramatic contests are established

The adventure towards the conquest of democracy accelerates at the end of the VIth century BC. Indeed, Clisthenes, the "father of democracy", proclaims theisonomy, according to which all the citizens became equal before the law. Moreover, the Clisthenian reforms seriously undermine the foundations of the aristocratic classes and succeed in welding the majority of the Athenians. It is thanks to this unit of the new "city-nation", single in its kind in the Greek world, that Athens will leave victorious of the Median wars

Athens turns out to be the great winner of the Median wars (490-478 BC). Thus, the city leaves the restricted space of Attica and becomes a formidable thalassocratic force. It is in this context that arrives the "century of Pericles", the period during which the democracy reaches its apogee. During fifty years, Athens maintains its power. The philosophical, artistic and cultural evolution makes of this city-state "the School of Greece", according to Thucydides

While Athens was enjoying its prosperity, its sworn and long-standing enemy, oligarchic Sparta, sought to put an end to the emergence of the city and its hold on the Aegean world. The Peloponnesian war will thus be the field of a fierce opposition between two rival cities, two opposed political and economic models, two powers with conflicting interests. At the end of this war, Athens is weakened and, in spite of its efforts, it will not be able to face the attack of Philip, the king of Macedonia, the new power which seizes the Aegean.

It is usual to consider that the battle at Chéronée (338 BC), where the coalition of the Greek cities and Philip II confronted each other, puts an end to the city of Athens. However, what died at this date, it is not the city but Athens as a great power. Aristotle, Demosthenes and Menander lived at that time. Even if Athens does not radiate any more as during the^5th century BC, it remains a great city whose intellectual and cultural influence continues to extend on the Mediterranean world.

In 146 BC, Athens submitted to the Romans. It once again capitalized on its cultural heritage and the Roman emperors' policy of promoting the development of Greek cities, and resumed the road to prosperity, this time reserved for a restricted elite. Under the Roman Empire, the city was endowed with monuments, public buildings, sanctuaries and entertainment venues. And so it was that two and a half centuries passed before Athens was literally covered in ashes, following the devastating Herulian invasion of 267.

The year 395 AD marks the concession of Athens to Byzantium. The philosophical schools were closed, the temples were transformed into Christian churches. During the Byzantine period, Athens went through various stages of development. Between the twelfth and twelfth centuries, it is described as a beautiful populated city, surrounded by fertile fields. At the end of the XIIth century, plundered by the Saracens, it becomes an easy prey for the Franks, in 1204. Then it passed under the domination of the Catalans, the Neapolitans and the Venetians. The Ottomans finally conquered Athens in 1456.

During the Ottoman Empire, Athens was a city with a population of over 10,000. The city is limited to the current square of the Constitution (Syntagma), Plaka, Monastiraki and Gazi. During the Venetian-Ottoman wars, Athens received two devastating blows. In 1466, it was sacked by the forces of the Venetian admiral Vincenzo Capello. In 1687, the Venetians, led by Morosini, besieged Athens: a powder magazine exploded and seriously damaged the Parthenon. Athens will be definitively liberated from the Ottomans in 1833.

In the aftermath of the proclamation of its independence, nothing suggested that Athens would be the capital of the new Greek state. Being away from the political stakes of the time, the city emerged as the best solution. One could apply there the "neoclassical" ideal, so much wanted by king Othon, one could call upon its ancient past to plead the interrupted continuity of the Greek nation. In 1834, the Greek king Otto of Bavaria visited Athens for the first time. A few months later, Athens became the capital of the country, the theater of operations of modern and contemporary Greek history.

Makriyiannis, born Ioannis Triantaphyllou, was among the most fervent inspirers of the Greek war of independence of 1821. After having participated in several decisive battles against the Ottoman army, on January¹, 1823 he was appointed responsible for the public order of liberated Athens. During the counter-attack and landing of the Ottoman and Egyptian army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha in Pylos, in the south-east of the Peloponnese, in 1825, he contributed to the defense of the region. In 1826, he took the lead in the defense of the Acropolis, besieged by the forces of Rachid and Omer Pasha. After the liberation of Greece, in 1829, Makriyiannis was appointed by the first Greek governor, Ioannis Kapodistrias, commander-in-chief of the executive force of the Peloponnese. It was then that he began to write his Memoirs (1829-1850), the work that has made him famous to this day. Although completely illiterate, Makriyiannis bequeathed by his texts a historical and literary treasure of a great breath and a seizing authenticity and it is thus that he figures among the precursors of the modern Greek literature. A politician and military man of integrity, uncompromising and sound judgment, he is forever associated with the revolt of September 3, 1843, after which King Otto was forced to grant the Greek people the right to draw up a constitution. Accused in 1852 of having participated in a plot to assassinate the king, he was judged guilty and sentenced to death in 1853. He was pardoned and released a year later, but he left prison broken and retired from public life. He did not return until 1862, during the insurrection of October 10, which ended with the fall of Otto. Among the insurgents, the sons of Makriyiannis, including Othon, godson of the king, who broke into the palace, seized the royal crown and offered it to his father as war booty. The enthusiastic crowd of the end of the royalty, carries Makriyiannis in triumph through the streets of Athens. Elected deputy, he dies betrayed by his physical state almost two years later.

Greece's first and only king, Otto of Bavaria, pursued an authoritarian and austere policy. Discontent grew, leading to the king's impeachment in 1862. Meanwhile, on September 3, 1843, following a movement uniting the majority of the people, the king was forced to give in to the insurgents' demands and to the constitution. From that date onwards, the square in front of the current Greek Assembly, the royal palace at the time, was known as Constitution Square. From then on, Syntagma Square would be the venue for rallies and demonstrations.

Politician, born in Crete, he is among the most prominent Prime Ministers of modern Greece. His first elective mandate was in Crete (1899), one year after the declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire. E. Venizélos, at the head of the liberal party and Prime Minister since 1910, leads a policy of modernization of the country. A passionate supporter of the union of the island with Greece (1913), a gifted diplomat and a politician of great renown, he advocated the "Great Idea", on the eve of the Balkan wars and the First World War. This "Idea" consisted in extending the Greek territory to the Hellenistic world of yesteryear: the Bosphorus strait, Constantinople and a part of Asia Minor populated by Greeks. Ambitious project or trap, Venizélos counted without the games between the Allies. However, as a fervent ally of the Entente, he saw part of his project come to fruition with the signing of the treaties of Sevres and Lausanne. He ended his days in exile in France, sentenced to death in absentia by his monarchist and extreme right-wing enemies.

At the end of the Balkan wars, Greece sees its surface and its population double. Macedonia and Epirus, the Aegean islands except the Dodecanese are now part of the country and the independence of Crete is recognized by the Greek state. Athens is not any more the center of the political decisions of a small kingdom closed on itself. The victorious policies of Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos raised hopes in Greece for a modern and powerful country

Officially, Greece's entry into the First World War dates from 1918 and was not without its problems. Indeed, the Greek king of Germanic origin, Constantine I, who was sensitive to an alliance with the Triplice, advocated the neutrality of Greece. The Prime Minister, E. Venizélos, opposed the designs of the philogermanic Greek king. Dismissed by the king, Venizélos formed a provisional government in Salonika. The Allies forced the king to abdicate, and so Greece returned to the camp of the victors and gained access to new territories, notably Smyrna, now Izmir, in Asia Minor.

In 1919, the Allies declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Greece participated alongside them and led the "Asia Minor Expedition". Venizelos, encouraged and supported by France and England, the victors of the First World War, landed the Greek army in Smyrna (Izmir). The desire of the Greek Prime Minister was to see the Ottomans capitulate with the "Big Idea" in mind: Greek territorial expansion beyond the Aegean Sea. However, in 1922, the Greek army suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Turkish army under Kemal Atatürk. Greek nationalism took the biggest blow in its history, but this did not mean that it had disappeared

Following the disastrous defeat of the Greek army in Asia Minor (1922) and the treaty of Lausanne (1923) instituting the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey, the demographic map of the country changed dramatically. The population in Athens increased by 192,080 immigrants and 129,380 refugees, while locals did not exceed 28% of the total population, according to the 1928 census. The Greek capital began to industrialize and the first labour force came from the refugees, who at first settled in the barracks of the capital's suburbs

Greece emerged victorious from the war against the Italian army (1940-1941), which it pushed back beyond Northern Epirus, and the Axis forces received their first blow. This victory accelerated the intervention of German troops in Greece. The Greek army was defeated in 1941 and the country was occupied. A fierce period begins. As a result of the looting of resources and foodstuffs, in the winter of 1941 Athens had about 64,000 dead as a result of the "Great Famine". The Greek capital was liberated by the ELAS maquis, the largest armed resistance group, on October 12, 1944.

The great influence that the Greek Communist Party had acquired within the Resistance went against British interests in Greece. On December 3, 1944, clashes took place in the streets of the capital between, on the one hand, the British forces, the Greek gendarmerie, a militia made up of Nazi collaborators, and, on the other, the resistance fighters of the EAM (FLN). Athens, spared from German bombing during the war, was ravaged by the raids of the British air force. Until 1945, a bloody guerrilla war shook Athens. The Cold War is here, the Greek civil war (1946-1949) is looming.

Aris Velouchiotis, born Thanassis Klaras, a communist activist, organized the first armed resistance groups against the German occupiers at the beginning of 1942, in the mountains of central Greece. From these groups will be born the ELAS (Greek Army for the Liberation), the armed body of the EAM (FLN), which counts at the end of the war more than 100 000 members. Velouchiotis became an uncontested kapetanios (general-in-chief) approved by the majority of his companions but also by the Greek people who, thanks to ELAS, were liberated and then self-administered, city after city, from the German yoke. After the Liberation, he opposed the decision of the FLN leaders to sign the Varkiza agreement (1945) which demanded the disarmament of the resistance fighters in exchange for amnesty and purge. Disavowed by the Greek Communist Party, he took the road back to the maquis while in Athens the repressions and massacres against the former resistance fighters had already begun. Trapped by a paramilitary corps, he committed suicide with a grenade on June 16, 1945. His death marked the beginning of one of the darkest and bloodiest periods of contemporary Greek history: the civil war (1946-1949). This war left 150,000 dead, a heavy toll that Greece paid to the Cold War. This tearing apart of the country will leave after-effects that will considerably influence the political life of the country until a recent period

During the civil war, a migratory movement towards the big cities of Greece begins. The largest number of migrants settled in the outskirts of Athens. Over the course of two decades, the population of the Greek capital, including refugees from Asia Minor, doubles. Athens became the essential pole of economic development, national interests and issues. The heavy industry concentrates around Eleusis in the west, whereas the east, with the detriment of Hymette and the littoral towards Sounion, is reserved for the dwellings of the rising well-off classes. Attica is divided into two.

It was in a climate of political instability that the coup d'état of Papadopoulos, Pattakos and Makarézos took place on April 21, 1967. Relying on the army, the three soldiers established a police state for seven years. The opposition was neutralized, party leaders were arrested or forced into exile, while torture became the means to prevent any resistance. The deportations, especially of intellectuals, to the islands of Yaros and Leros went in the same direction. The slogan of the military junta meant everything: "Greece of the Christian Greeks".

A symbol of the obscurantism and coercive power imposed in Greece during the "dictatorship of the colonels" (1967-1974), G. Papadopoulos, a military man, took part in the coup d'état of 1967 and formed, together with the two other leaders of the conspiracy, N. Makarezos and S. Pattakos, a government that established authoritarianism, oppression and torture as a routine for seven years. Pattakos, a government that sets up authoritarianism, oppression and torture as a routine for seven years. He became successively Prime Minister, Regent of Greece and, after the abolition of the monarchy in 1973, Head of State. Arrested in October 1974, after the restitution of the republic, he was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death by firing squad, a sentence that was transformed into life imprisonment. He served his sentence until his death.

In November 1973, students, high school students, workers and citizens barricaded themselves in the grounds of the Polytechnic School of Athens and demonstrated against the dictatorship for several days. The military tanks take place in front of the parliament and the other strategic points of the city. The dictators intervened, leaving behind, officially, 34 dead. This organized revolt, whose struggle quickly spread throughout the country, contributed to the awakening of consciences and marked the beginning of the end of the dictatorship.

The fall of the dictatorship in 1974 occurred following the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey. The referendum that was immediately organized settled the political system of the country, which returned to democracy: it would be a Republic! Constantin Caramanlis is the Prime Minister: respected by all and fiercely pro-European, he will be the architect of Greece's entry into the EEC (1981).

The 1980s were marked by the historic victory of the socialist party (PASOK). In 1981, Andreas Papandreou won the elections and remained in power for seven years. His government was eventually implicated in political and economic scandals that continued into the 1990s and 2000s. Two major political families shared power in alternation, Papandreou's PASOK and the neo-liberal New Democracy party of Constantin Mitsotakis, the father of the current Greek Prime Minister. The 1990s and 2000s were a good time for Greece, which seemed to be flush 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.

In 2009, the country was faced with one of the most serious economic crises in its history, leading to a political and social crisis whose most worrying expression was the entry of the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, into parliament. However, the radical left-wing Syriza party came to power in 2015. The Greek population emerged from this period bloodless, marked, moreover, by the international humanitarian crisis linked to the massive arrival of refugees from the Middle East on Greek shores. Following the 2019 parliamentary elections, Constantin Mitsotakis' son Kyriakos Mitsotakis, of the neoliberal ND party, was appointed Prime Minister, and in 2023 he renewed his mandate. Political life has once again become the affair of the big political families, largely responsible for the crisis.

Moreover, the two phases of confinement imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, have left their mark on Greek society, further highlighting the deficiencies of the national system. The social and political malaise in Greece is certain to persist, and it will be several years before a real way out of the crisis can be envisaged.