The weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the development of a Greek middle-class and the influence of the Lights little by little made emerge the idea of the creation of a Greek State. In the network of the expatriated Greek communities, a revolutionary company, Filiki Eteria, prepares the revolt which leads to the Greek revolution (1821). This movement is concretized initially in Moldavie and Valachie before reaching the Peloponnese. Under the pressure of the philhellenism, France, Great Britain and Russia intervene in favor of the Greek cause. During the naval battle of Navarin (1827), their ships destroy the Othoman fleet.

The Door recognizes with the Greeks their autonomy (treated Turkey-red cotton, 1829), then their independence (1832). However Greece, set up in kingdom, does not cease therefore knowing a great political instability. The first governor, Jean Capo of Istria, is a former minister for the tsar. After his assassination in 1831, Otton I ^er, prince de Bavière, is chosen by the European powers to become king. Surrounded by Bavarian troops and advisers, it abolishes the forms of local government. Succeeding Nauplie, Athens, the new capital, centralizes all the powers. The Church of the kingdom is declared autocéphale, i.e. it becomes independent of Constantinople. In 1843, Otton Ier is constrained to grant a Constitution.

Until its fall, in 1862, the “Great Idea” of the catch of Constantinople reigns to make the capital of the Greek State of it. Great Britain chooses then prince Guillaume Georges Glycksbourg of Denmark (Georges Ier) like new king. During its reign, the economy experiences a spectacular development thanks to the policy of modernization carried out by Charilaos Tricoupis. It is also supported by the installation in the country of Greek capitalists of the diaspora driven out by the rise of nationalisms.

Greece increases its territory during second half of the XIX ^E century - Heptanèse (Ioniennes islands) is yielded by Great Britain in 1864, Thessalie is annexed in 1881, following the Russo-Turkish war -, but loses its monopoly of nation irredentist in Balkans. New States nations are constituted, whose contradictory territorial claims are encouraged by the powers. The problem Macedonian poisons already the relations between the Balkan people.

The Cretan question causes a war with Turkey in 1898, whose exit is unhappy. A military coup d'etat in 1909 carries to the Eleftherios Venizelos power. Political strong personality of modern, skilful Greece diplomatic, it reinforces the position of Greece in Balkans by a series of reforms. The country leaves the two Balkan wars (1912-1913) increased of Crete, of the majority of the Aegean Islands, most of Épire, of Macedonia and Thrace.

The First World War gives birth to from deep political divisions within the Greek people. The king Constantin I ^er - son of Georges Ier (who is assassinated in 1913 in Salonique) - is favorable to a policy of neutrality, while Venizélos is convinced that the interests of Greece are side of the Agreement. When Greek neutrality is violated at the same time by Germany and France, it forms a republican government in Salonique and enters the war to the sides of the Allies. Greece takes part in the conference of peace and obtains the annexation of Eastern Thrace and the administration of the area of Smyrna. But division between royalists and venizelists weakens the country. The Turkish army, organized by Mustafa Kemal, drives out into 1922 the Greek troops installed in Asia Mineure. The failure of the “Great Idea” traumatizes the Greeks.

Between the “catastrophe” of Minor Asia and the Second world war , the national effort crystallizes on three points: the installation of 1.5 million refugees, the development of the plains of the “Greece news”, cultural assimilation of the new populations.

The republic is proclaimed in 1924, but the political life is marked by a succession of coups d'etat. Venizélos, which controls of 1928 to 1932, starts a policy of reconciliation with Turkey kemalist and works with the Balkan bringing together. Monarchy is founded in 1935, and the royalist general Ioannis Metaxas imposes a dictatorship in 1936.

The strategic situation of Greece could not leave it apart from the second world war. Attacked by Mussolini in October 1940, she manages to push back the Italian troops on the Albanian face, but cannot resist the German troops arrived in 1941 by Yugoslavia. Supported by the British, the Greek troops fight a last battle in Crete, with the active support of the population. The country is divided into zones of German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation. Resistance is organized as from 1942.

In spite of the success of some of its actions, serious political antagonisms hatch within its organizations. Left/right cleavage gradually replaces division between “venizelists” and royalists. Following the German withdrawal opens one period of hostilities between the Communists and the Greek troops supported by the British. This civil war - during which the Americans take the changing (1947) of weakened Great Britain - is the first cold act of war. It leaves the bloodless country to its conclusion in 1949.

The Americans help with the rebuilding of Greece and install military bases there. Washington will play a determining role in the political life of the country during more than two decades. Under the government of Constantin Caramanlis, of 1955 to 1963, starts the period of the “economic miracle” Greek: creation of the energy road infrastructures and, development of industry, rise of tourism.

The military coup d'etat of 1967 met fine to political instability reappearing by founding an pro-American dictatorship (the “mode of the colonels”) which blocks the political evolution and isolates Greece from Europe. The king Constantin II, after having failed to reverse the colonels, must leave the country. In 1974, the mode intervenes militarily in Cyprus to reverse the government of president Makarios, which causes the invasion of the northern part of the island by the Turkish troops. Incompetents to regulate the Cypriot crisis, the colonels give up the government with the politicians, who point out Constantin Caramanlis, exiled in Paris.

Caramanlis dominated the Greek political scene during twenty years, after its return. Prime Minister of 1974 to 1980, it is elected president of the Republic in 1980 and is re-elected in 1990 (it will resign in 1995). Integration at the European Community in 1981, five years before Spain and Portugal, is regarded as its work. Often disputed by the left, and in particular by the socialist party of Andhréas Papandhréou (which will return to the power of 1993 to 1996), it contains the overflows for the critical period of the democratic transition, manages the catastrophic heritage of the dictatorship in Cyprus, ensures a certain continuity in the Greek political life and reorientates the foreign politics towards Europe by decreasing the dependence of the country with regard to the United States.

The PASOK of Andhréas Papandhréou, confirmed with the elections of June 1985, after being compromised in various accounting scandals, loses the elections of 1989 with the profit of the New Democracy, whose leader, Constantin Mitsotakis, forms a conservative government (1990). From 1991 to 1995, the Greek political life remains dominated by the exacerbation of the Hellenism (problems of minorities with Albania, objections against the Yugoslav ex-republic on the right to bear the name of Macedonia, renewal of Turkish influence in the Balkan surface). Basing its electoral campaign on these topics, the PASOK gains the legislative elections of 1993, and A. Papandhréou returns to the power; patient, it resigns in January 1996. Konstantinos Stéphanopoulos, elected president of the Republic in 1995 (re-elected in 2000), called upon a new Prime Minister, Konstantinos Simitis (1996). Convinced European, Simitis then endeavoured to stabilize the economy, thus allowing Greece to adhere to the economic and monetary Union and to anchor themselves definitively in the European Union. But in spite of notable economic successes, he did not manage to counter the strong desire of alternation of the population and, by gaining the legislative elections in March 2004, the New Democracy of Costas Caramanlis (nephew of Konstantinos Caramanlis) secured the majority at the Parliament and put an end to more than eleven years of being able of the PASOK. In 2005, Carolos Papoulias was named in charge of the State.

As often in the past, the geopolitical environment of the country is unstable. Of old problems put in sleep during the cold war, like the relationship with Albania and especially the Macedonian question, re-appeared with the civil war in ex-Yugoslavia. While the Turkish request for adhesion at the European Community becomes more pressing, Athens wishes to preserve its monopoly of Balkan and Eastern “window” of the European Community. To make a success of its entry in the monetary Union, the country made important economic progresses: inflation spectacularly dropped, passing by 20 % in 1990 to 2.7 % in 2000, even if the debt reaches 104.4 more % of the GDP. Greece is today at a turning point in its history.