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, the most important were:

• Mycenae
• Thebes
• Pylos
• Knossos
• Tiryns

City states[]

During the history of Ancient Greece a total of 1,500 to 2,000^[1] city-states were established. The most important were the following.

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

Kingdoms, Empires and countries[]

• Kingdom of Mycenae (c 1600 – c. 1100 BC)
• 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): Persian origin,^[2][3][4] partially Greek dynasty, Hellenized in culture,^[5] and with Greek being the official language.^[6]
• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250–125 BC)
• Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC – 10 AD)
• Dayuan Kingdom (329 – 160 BC)
• Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) (Hellenized in culture, and with Greek being the official language)
• Kingdom of Cappadocia (320s BC – 17 AD) (Hellenized in culture, with a partially Greek Dynasty and with Greek being the official language)

• Roman 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 splits in two. In the East, Greeks are the predominant national group and their language is the lingua franca of the region. Christianity is the official religion of this new Empire, spread to the region by the Greek language, the language in which the first gospels were written. The language of the aristocracy however remains 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 achievements is the spread of Christianity to Eastern Europe and the Slavs, halting the Persian, Slavic and Arab expansions towards Europe and preserving a vast amount of the cultural heritage of Greek-Roman Antiquity. But finally In 1204, after a civil struggle as to succession of throne among the members of ruling Angelid(Angeloi), the Fourth Crusade conquered the capital, Constantinople, and fell the Empire 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

• Lordship of Turbessel: vassal of the County of Edessa

• Principality of Antioch (1098–1268): crusader state with a partly Greek population
• Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291): crusader state with a partly Greek population

• Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

• 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
• Kingdom of Cyprus (1192–1489): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority and partly Greek dynasty
• Latin Empire (1204–1261): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority, established after the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade
• Kingdom of Thessalonica (1202–1224): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
• Duchy of Neopatria (1204–1390): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
• Margraviate of Bodonitsa (1204–1414): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
• Principality of Achaea (1205–1432): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
• Duchy of Athens (1205–1458): crusader state with an ethnic Greek majority
• 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
• 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
•  Knights of St. John of Kastellorizo (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)

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 southern Albania. It provided many troops to the Venetians in their Ottoman campaigns in exchange for supplies.
• Aegean islands (1516/1770-1821): most islands in the Aegean remained independent as maritime states. They would provide sailors to the Ottoman fleet in exchange for advantageous trade agreements.
• Koinon of the Zagorisians (1670–1868): autonomous region of Epirus, 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 bey.
• 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^[7] and Greeks constituted a minority of 5.2%.^[8]
•  Cretan State (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 the Provisional Government of Northern Epirus. Autonomy recognised in the Protocol of Corfu.^[9]
• 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.^[10]
• 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.^[11]
• 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[]