The History of Greece extends back to the arrival of the Greeks in Europe some time before 1500 BC, even though there has only been an independent state called Greece since 1821. Follow the links in this table to articles on the various periods of Greek history.
The history of the Greeks, however, extends far beyond the current borders of Greece. As early as the 7th century BC the Greeks were colonising parts of what are now Turkey, Cyprus, Italy and Libya. The conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC established Greek rule over Anatolia, Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia. As parts of the Byzantine Empire, these areas and others were part of the Greek world for many centuries. By the 15th century, however, nearly all the Greeks were living under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
These articles therefore cover both the history of Greece and the history of the Greeks. It was only in the 19th and 20th century, with the establishment of a Greek state and the expulsion of the Greeks from Turkey in the 1920s, that these two histories have been reunited within one territory.
See also