From A Storehouse of Knowledge

Greece is a country in south-eastern Europe and a member of the European Union. Its official language is Greek and its capital city is Athens.

History

Greece has a rich history. In ancient times it was home to writers and thinkers whose work formed the basis of Western philosophy, science and literature. Greek art, especially sculpture, is also much admired, with ancient Roman artisans creating copies of Greek masterpieces. Renaissance art was created at least partly as a conscious effort to emulate the ancient Greek (and Roman) tradition. Five of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world were of Greek origin: The statue of Zeus at Olympia, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the colossus of Rhodes, the lighthouse at Alexandria in Egypt, a Greek colony, and the tomb of Mausolos at Harlicarnassos in Turkey, also a Greek colony.

Ancient Greece was not a single country as Greece is today, but a collection of city states with widely varying cultures. The most powerful city states included Athens, Sparta and Corinth. The ancient Greeks created colonies along the shores of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the most successful of which was Syracuse in Sicily. While the city states cooperated against external threats such as the Persian Empire, they also fought against each other, most significantly in the Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 BC). In the fourth century BC Alexander of Macedon created a short-lived Greek empire that conquered Persia and stretched eastwards as far as India, but the empire broke apart after Alexander's death and was divided among his generals. Most of the parts, including Egypt, modern Turkey and Macedonia itself, eventually became subsumed into the Roman Empire and were to form the core of its successor, the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its capital. Constantinople still holds great significance for modern Greeks, even though it is currently part of Turkey.

After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Greece came under Ottoman rule until it rebelled in the War of Greek Independence (1821-1830). Greece aggressively aided the other nations on the Balkans in their struggles against the Ottomans and took part in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, gaining territory in the north. Greece again tried to capitalize on Turkish weakness in the wake of World War I, but a Greek expeditionary army was defeated in 1922.

Religion

As recounted in the Book of Acts, Greece was an important area for the development of the early Christian church. St Paul's letters to the Ephesians, Corinthians and Philippians are all addressed to nascent Greek churches.

Today, the main religion in Greece is the Greek Orthodox Church, which claims 95% of the country's population as members; proselytism for any religion except Greek Orthodoxy is banned, and any non-Orthodox religious bodies, including Catholic and Protestant churches, have to be licensed by the Orthodox bishops.