List of historical Greek countries and regions

This is a list of Greek countries and regions throughout history. It includes empires, countries, states, regions and territories that have or had in the past one of the following characteristics:

Antiquity (to 330 AD)

Bronze Age

During the Bronze Age a number of entities were formed in Mycenean Greece (1600-1100 BC), each of them was ruled by a Wanax, including:

Knossos, a Minoan palace centre, was later occupied by the Mycenaeans [1]

City states

During the history of Ancient Greece a total of 1,500 to 2,000[2] city-states were established. These included:

Kingdoms, Empires and countries

Middle Ages (330–1453)

The Greek Middle Ages are coterminous with the duration of the Byzantine Empire (330–1453).

After 395 the Roman Empire split in two. In the East, Greeks were the predominant national group and their language was the lingua franca of the region. Christianity was the official religion of this new Empire, spread through the region by the Greek language, the language in which the first gospels were written. The language of the aristocracy however remained Latin, until gradually replaced by Greek by 7th century. The East Roman Empire retained its status as the power at least in the Mediterranean world until the 12th century. Amongst its impacts was the spread of Christianity to Eastern Europe and the Slavs, the halting of the Persian, Slavic and Arab expansions towards Europe and the preservation of a signifficant body of the cultural heritage of Greek-Roman Antiquity. In 1204, after a civil struggleover the succession of throne among the members of ruling Angelid(Angeloi), the Fourth Crusade conquered the capital, Constantinople. The Empire was subject to partitions and crises from which it never recovered.

Byzantine Greek successor states

Crusader states

Other states

Modern era (after 1453)

Independent states

Autonomous, secessionist or unrecognised entities

  • Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain: autonomous region of Greece since 1913. Autonomy dated at least to 943.
  • Himara (15th century - 1912): autonomous region located in modern-day southern Albania. Himariotes provided light cavalry to the Venetians in exchange for supplies.
  • Aegean islands (1516/1770-1821): most of the islands in the Aegean Sea retained their distinct local governments and charters, flourishing into maritime states. Some would provide sailors to the Ottoman fleet in exchange for advantageous trade agreements.
  • Koinon of the Zagorisians (1431/1670–1868): autonomous region of Epirus. It was a league of important villages in Epirus governed by a council of elders, located in the modern-day Zagori municipality of Greece.
  • Phanariote period in Wallachia & Moldavia (1560/1711–1822): autonomous principalities ruled by the Phanariotes.
  • Mani (1460 – 1831): sovereign region in the Peloponnese, sometimes ruled by its own native Christian bey. The Maniots recognised old Byzantine families as their nominal kings, however power was divided by each clan. By the late 1700s the Maniots controlled the entire southern Peloponnese.
  • United States of the Ionian Islands (1815–1864): amical protectorate of the United Kingdom.
  • Regional administrations during the Greek War of Independence (March 1821 – c. 1825):

References

  1. Bury and Meiggs 1975, p. 19
  2. Rural Greece Under the Democracy, Victor Davis Hanson, Times Literary Supplement, 2004
  3. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, by B. C. McGing, page 11
  4. Children of Achilles: The Greeks in Asia Minor Since the Days of Troy, by John Freely, page 69-70
  5. Strabo of Amasia: A Greek Man of Letters in Augustan Rome, by Daniela Dueck, page 3
  6. Children of Achilles: The Greeks in Asia Minor Since the Days of Troy, by John Freely, page 69-70
  7. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, by B. C. McGing, page 11
  8. Weiskopf, Michael (1990). "CAPPADOCIA". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 7-8. pp. 780–786. (...) Hellenistic-era Iranian kingdom (...) But all in all, Cappadocia remained an Iranian kingdom, one which developed from an Achaemenid satrapy.
  9. McGing, Brian (1986). "Eupator in Asia before the first war with Rome". The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus. BRILL. p. 72. ISBN 978-9004075917. As in Pontus the ruling family was of Iranian descent.
  10. Anna Krateva, Communities and identities in Bulgaria, 1998, p.164
  11. Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2008-02-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)," In May 1914, the Great Powers signed the Protocol of Corfu, which recognised the area as Greek."
  13. Republic of Pontus (Greece, 1917-1922), Flags of the World
  14. Gross, Andreas. "Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos): preserving the bicultural character of the two Turkish islands as a model for co-operation between Turkey and Greece in the interest of the people concerned". Council of Europe. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
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