List of historic 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:
*An ethnic Greek majority
*
*
*Greek language as an official language
*A Greek ruling class or dynasty

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:
*Iolcos
* Mides
*Mycenae
* Orchomenos
*Pylos
* Thebes
*Tiryns

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

City states

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

*Athens (1796–86 BC)
*Chalcis (? – 146 BC)
*Corinth (700 BC–146 BC)
*Eretria (? – 146 BC)
*Massalia (600–49 BC )
*Sparta (900s– 146 BC)
*Syracuse (734–212 BC)
*Taras (706-201 BC)
* Thebes (? – 146 BC)

Kingdoms, Empires and countries

*Kingdom of Epirus (330 BC – 167 BC)
*Kingdom of Macedon (808–146 BC)
**Alexandrian Empire (334–323 BC)
*Delian League (or Athenian Empire) (478-404 BC)
* Kingdom of Cyrene (632–30 BC)
*Thessalian League (?–170s BC): confederation of Greek city states
*Chrysaorian League (? – 203 BC): confederation of Greek city states
*Odrysian kingdom (480 BC–46 AD; under Greek rule since 340 BC until 46 AD)
*Aetolian League (370–189 BC): confederation of Greek city states
*Achaean League (256–146 BC): confederation of Greek city states
*Attalid dynasty (282 BC–133 BC)
*Antigonid dynasty (306 BC–168 BC)
* Argead dynasty (700 BC-300 BC)
*Antipatrid dynasty
*Kingdom of Pergamon (282 BC–133 BC)
*Seleucid Empire (312–63 BC)
* Ptolemaic Kingdom (305–30 BC)
*Bosporan Kingdom (438 BC– 370 AD)
*Kingdom of Pontus (302–64 BC): ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty of Persian origin, the kingdom was Hellenized in culture, and with Greek being the official language.
*Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250–125 BC)
*Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC – 10 AD)
* Dayuan Kingdom (329 – 160 BC)
*Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD): ruled by the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia, it was partly Hellenized in culture, and with Greek being one of its official languages.
*Kingdom of Cappadocia (320s BC – 17 AD): Hellenistic-era Iranian kingdom, with Greek the official language. The kingdom was founded by an Iranian dynasty, known as the Ariarathid dynasty (331–96 BC) and was succeeded by another one, the Ariobarzanid dynasty (96–36 BC). The last dynasty, that of Archelaus of Cappadocia (36 BC–17 AD), was of Greek origin.
* Byzantine Empire (610 AD – 1204 AD; 1261 - 1453): The Greek language had official status
**Epirus
**Achaea
** Macedonia
**Thracia
**Asia

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 significant 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

*Despotate of Epirus (1205–1479)
*Empire of Nicaea (1204–1261), which re-established the Byzantine Empire in 1261.
* Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461)
*Despotate of the Morea (1308/1348–1460)
* Principality of Theodoro (early 14th century–1475)

Crusader states

*County of Edessa (1098–1149): crusader state with a partly Greek population
:* 30px Lordship of Turbessel: vassal of the County of Edessa
* 30px Principality of Antioch (1098–1268): crusader state with a partly Greek population
* 30px Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291): crusader state with a partly Greek population
:*Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
* 30px County of Tripoli (1102–1289): crusader state with a partly Greek population
*County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos (1185–1479): as a vassal of the Kingdom of Sicily with an ethnic Greek majority
* 30px Kingdom of Cyprus (1192–1489): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority and partly Greek dynasty
* 30px Latin Empire (1204–1261): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority, established after the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade
* 30px Kingdom of Thessalonica (1202–1224): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* 30px Duchy of Neopatria (1204–1390): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
*Margraviate of Bodonitsa (1204–1414): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* 30px Principality of Achaea (1205–1432): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* 30px Duchy of Athens (1205–1458): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* 30px Lordship of Argos and Nauplia (1205–1388): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
*Lordship of Salona (1205–1410): crusader state, established after the Fourth Crusade
* 30px Duchy of the Archipelago (1207–1579): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
*Lordship of Chios (1304–1566): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes (1310–1522): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* (1309–1440): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
* Principality of Lesbos (1355–1462)
* Various possessions of the Republic of Venice in Greece:
:* Kingdom of Crete (1204–1669)
:*Kingdom of Cyprus (1489–1573)
:* Ionian Islands (acquired at various times, held until 1799)
:*Kingdom of the Morea (c. 1690–1715)
:*Lordship of Negroponte (1204–1470): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority

Other states

* Cretan Republic (1332–1371)

Modern era (after 1453)

Independent states

* Septinsular Republic (1800–1815), independent under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty.
*/ Greece (1822–present)
* Cyprus (1960–present)

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):
:*Peloponnesian Senate
:*Senate of Western Continental Greece
:* Areopagus of Eastern Continental Greece
:*Polity of Crete
:* Military-Political System of Samos
* Principality of Samos (1835–1912): incorporated into Greece.
* Eastern Rumelia (1878–1885): autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire with a Bulgarian demographic majority, unified with Bulgaria in 1885. Greek was one of three official languages and Greeks constituted a minority of 5.2%.
* (1898–1913): incorporated into Greece.
* Free State of Icaria (1912): short-lived independent state, incorporated into Greece.
* Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus (1914): short-lived autonomous Greek state in modern-day Southern Albania (Northern Epirus) under a provisional government. Autonomy recognised in the Protocol of Corfu.," In May 1914, the Great Powers signed the Protocol of Corfu, which recognised the area as Greek."
* State of Thessaloniki (1916–1917): short-lived Venizelist Provisional Government established in Macedonia amidst the National Schism. It controlled northern Greece and the island of Crete. The rest of Greece was controlled by the government in Athens (State of Athens). Greece was reunited in 1917.
* Republic of Pontus (1917–1922): Pontian Greek short-lived state.Republic of Pontus (Greece, 1917-1922), Flags of the World
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* Ionian autonomy (1922): short-lived Greek dependency in the region of Ionia, Asia Minor, during the final stages of the Asia Minor expedition.
*Imbros and Tenedos: Aegean islands inhabited historically mainly by ethnic Greeks. Under Greek administration from 1912. Following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos) became part of Turkey, but were exempted from the population exchange.
* Political Committee of National Liberation (1944), otherwise known as the "Mountain Government": a provisional government established in liberated areas by the National Liberation Front in the last stages of the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. It was integrated with the Greek government-in-exile in a national unity government at the Lebanon conference in May 1944, and existed until the full German withdrawal from the country in October.
* Provisional Democratic Government (1947-1949): a Communist Party-dominated provisional government established during the Greek Civil War in opposition to the royal government in Athens. It ceased to exist with the victory of the royalist forces in the civil war.

References

{{Greece topics

Geographic history of Greece
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Countries
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