Greece

Greece occupies the southern tip of the Balkans, between the Ionian and Aegean seas, with Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey as neighbors. Athens is the capital, and Greek is the first or only language of most people. Of its 1,200 or more islands, 227 are inhabited, Crete being the largest.

Cycladic island culture began around 3200 BC, and the first recorded Olympic Games took place at Olympia in 776 BC. Athens beat the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, and the Greek fleet won again at Salamis ten years later. Philip II of Macedon united most of the city-states, and his son Alexander conquered the Persian Empire before his death in 323 BC. Rome took Greece in the 2nd century BC, and its eastern successor, the Byzantine Empire, spoke Greek until Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453.

A revolt that began in 1821 won independence, recognized in London in 1830, and a Bavarian prince, Otto, became king. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 doubled the territory with Crete, Epirus and Macedonia, but defeat by Turkey in 1922 drove the Greeks out of Asia Minor. The constitution of 1975 made Greece a parliamentary republic, with a 300-seat parliament, a prime minister who holds most power and a president elected by parliament. Membership of the European Community came in 1981 and the euro in 2001.

Services make up most of the economy, led by tourism and by a merchant fleet that carries 18% of world shipping capacity. Refined petroleum and food are the main exports, and olives, cotton and pistachios are leading crops. Mount Olympus reaches 2,918 m (9,573 ft), and the monasteries of Meteora sit on rock pillars. Athens held the first modern Olympics in 1896 and again in 2004, the year the national team won the European football championship. George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis won the Nobel Prize in Literature.