HISTORY
THE MODERN GREEK NATION
1863–
The British engineer
the ascension to the
Greek throne of Danish
Prince William, later
crowned King George I.
His 50-year reign
begins with a new
constitution in 1864.1883
Greece completes
construction of the
Corinth Canal that
cuts through the
Isthmus of Corinth.
The engineering feat
opens a link between
the Aegean and Ionian
Seas.1883
Greece’s most
famous writer, Nikos
Kazantzakis, is born
in Iraklio. He becomes
famous for works like
Zorba the Greek and
The Last Temptation of
Christ in the mid-20th
century.1896
The staging of the
fi rst modern Olympic
Games in Athens marks
Greece’s coming of age.
Winners receive a silver
medal and olive crown,
and second and third
places receive a bronze
medal and a laurel
branch, respectively.political crisis deepened and Constantine abdicated (again) after the fall
of Smyrna. He was replaced by his fi rst son, George II, who was no match
for the group of army offi cers who seized power after the war. A republic
was proclaimed in March 1924 amid a series of coups and counter-coups.
A measure of stability was attained withVenizelos’ return to power
in 1928. He pursued a policy of economic and educational reform, but
progress was inhibited by the Great Depression. His antiroyalist Liberal
Party began to face a growing challenge from the monarchist Popular
Party, culminating in defeat at the polls in March 1933. The new govern-
ment was preparing for the restoration of the monarchy when Venizelos
and his supporters staged an unsuccessful coup in March 1935. Venizelos
was exiled to Paris, where he died a year later. In November 1935 King
George II reassumed the throne (by a likely gerrymander of a plebiscite)
and he installed the right-wing GeneralIoannis Metaxas as prime min-
ister. Nine months later, Metaxas assumed dictatorial powers with the
king’s consent, under what many believed to be the pretext of preventing
a communist-inspired republican coup.WWII
Metaxas’ grandiosevision was to create a utopian Third Greek Civilisa-
tion, based on its glorious ancient and Byzantine past, but what he actu-
ally created was more like a Greek version of the Third Reich. He exiled or
imprisoned opponents, banned trade unions and the recently established
Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (KKE, the Greek Communist Party), im-
posed press censorship, and created a secret police force and fascist-style
youth movement. But Metaxas is best known for his reply of ohii (no) to
Mussolini’s ultimatum to allow Italians passage through Greece at the be-
ginning of WWII, thus maintaining Greece’s policy of strict neutrality. The
Italians invaded Greece, but the Greeks drove them back into Albania.
A prerequisite of Hitler’s plan to invade the Soviet Union was a secure
southern fl ank in the Balkans. The British, realising this, asked Metaxas
if they could land troops in Greece. He gave the same reply as he had
given the Italians, but then died suddenly in January 1941. The king re-
placed him with the more timid Alexandros Koryzis, who agreed to Brit-
ish forces landing in Greece. Koryzis committed suicide when German
troops invaded Greece on 6 April 1941. The Nazis vastly outnumbered the
defending Greek, British, Australian and New Zealand troops, and the
whole country was under Nazi occupation within a few weeks. The civil-
ian population suff ered appallingly during the occupation, many dying
of starvation. The Nazis rounded up more than half the Jewish popula-
tion and transported them to death camps.
Numerous resistance movements sprang up. The dominant three
were Ellinikos Laïkos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS), Ethnikon Ape-Inside Hitler’s
Greece: The
Experience of
Occupation,
1941-44, by Mark
Mazower, is an
intimate and
comprehensive
account of
Greece under
Nazi occupation
and the rise of
the resistance
movement.