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The Greek constitution, amended most recently in 2001, establishes Greece as a parliamentary democracy led by a strong prime minister, usually the head of the party with a majority in the 300-seat parliament. The members of parliament are elected to a 4-year term through universal, mandatory voting by secret ballot. The results are based on a reinforced...
The government succeeded in 2000 in reducing budget deficits and inflation, allowing Greece to join the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on January 1, 2001. Greece, along with 11 out of its 14 European Union (EU) partners, adopted the euro as its new common currency in January 2002. The euro was expected to boost trade, help dismantle the last remaining...
The important sites of Greek antiquity that attracted European noblemen to the Greek lands in the 18th century, and which were such a potent influence on architectural styles in the West, continue to attract tourists from all over the world. Newly excavated sites such as the supposed tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Verghina and the Pompei-like remains...
The Greek War of Independence began in 1821 and concluded in 1830 when England, France, and Russia forced the Ottoman Empire to grant Greece its independence under a European monarch, Bavarian prince Otto. He was deposed 30 years later, and the Great Powers chose a prince of the Danish House of Glucksberg as his successor. He became George I, King of...
Greece is located in southeastern Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula. The Greek mainland is bounded on the north by Bulgaria, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania; on the east by the Aegean Sea and Turkey; and on the west and south by the Ionian and Mediterranean Seas. The country consists of a large mainland; the Peloponnesus...
Greece was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic period and by 3000 BC had become home, in the Cycladic Islands, to a culture whose art remains among the most evocative in world history. In the second millennium BC, the island of Crete nurtured the maritime empire of the Minoans, whose trade reached from Egypt to Sicily. The Minoans were supplanted...
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