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=== Creation of the Modern Greek State ===
The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early [[19th century]]. In [[1821]], the Greeks [[Greek War of Independence|rebelled and declared their independence]], but did not succeed in winning it until [[1829]]. The elites of powerful European nations saw the war of Greek independence, with its accounts of Turkish [[atrocity|atrocities]], in a romantic light (see, for example, the [[1824]] painting ''Massacre of [[Chios]]'' by [[Eugène Delacroix]]). Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause--including people like [[Lord Byron]]. TheAt Greekstimes werethe hardOttomans pressedseemed aton somethe pointsverge duringof entirely suppressing the war,Greek revolution but withwere theeventually warforced continuingto forgive almostin a decade,by the Turksdirect becamemilitary exhaustedintervention until finallyof [[France]], [[United Kingdom | Great Britain]] and [[Russia]] stepped in to ensure peace to the weakened Turkish state. This was the prelude of the so called "Eastern Question", the gradual dismemberment of the decaying empire by the western powers. The Russian minister of foreign affairs, [[Ioannis Kapodistrias]], himself a Greek, actually a noble from the Ionian Islands, a British protectorate in the Ionian Sea, was chosen as President of the new Republic following Greek independence. That republic disappeared when a few years later Western powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy, the first king coming from [[Bavaria]] and the second from [[Denmark]]. During the 19th and especially the early [[20th century|20th]] centuries, in a series of wars with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire (the Ionian State however was donated by Britain upon the arrival of the new king from Denmark in 1863, and Thessaly was aqcuired by the Ottomans without a fight). Greece slowly grew in territory and population until it reached its present configuration in [[1947]]. In [[World War I]], Greece sided with the [[entente]] powers against [[Ottoman Empire|Turkey]] and the other [[Central Powers]]. In the war's aftermath, the Great Powers awarded parts of [[Asia Minor]] to Greece, including the city of [[Smyrna]] (known as [[Izmir]] today) which had a large Greek population. At that time, however, the Turkish nationalists, led by [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]], denounced the Sultan's government in Istanbul, organised a new one in Ankara, and eventually defeated the Greek army and regained control of Asia Minor. Soon afterwards the Losanne treaty was signed, fixing the borders to this date. A population exchange was included in the agreement and immediately afterwards, hundreds of thousands of Turks then living in mainland Greek territory left for Turkey in [[Population exchange#Turkey and Greece: population exchange.2C 1922|exchange]] for the hundreds of thousands of Greeks living in Turkey. The Refugees from Asia Minor revived the population, provided cheap labour and hellenised the now depopulated regions.
In 1936, general Ioannis Metaxas established a fascist regime in Greece. [[Greek fascism]] had many similarities with its German and Italian counterparts, yet retained specific features which made it slightly different.
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