Greece
Country located in the South-East of Europe. It is also used as a
collective term for the civilizations of that geographic
area. It is now a developed country
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and certainly, Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman
Emperor moved his capital to Constantinople in the Greek East.
Most of the great Church Fathers were either Greek or primarily active in
the Greek-speaking areas of the Empire [1]
The Byzantine Empire, as it was late called, was a continuation of the (Eastern) Roman Empire, but it was gradually identified with the Greek national conscience and the Greek-Orthodox Church. [2] The Byzantine State was dissolved after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Greeks, along with the other Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire, were represented by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch was responsible for the obedience of the Orthodox subjects to the Sultan.
The modern Greek state was established in 1830 after the Greek War of Independence (1821-1830). Though still holding on to the Greek Orthodox traditions that defined Greek culture for centuries, Greece has since its independence rapidly developing economically and integrating into the Western institutions. It took part in both World Wars on the side of the USA and the other allies and it successfully resisted a Communist take-over during the Greek Civil War (1945-1949). Greece is now an EU and NATO member and its currency is the Euro [3]
References
- ↑ The Teachings of the Church Fathers, by John Randolph Willis, Ignatius Press (2002)
- ↑ History of the Byzantine State, by G. Ostrogorski, Rutgers University Press (1986)
- ↑ https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gr.html