Ancient Greece is seen as the cradle of European and Western culture. Although the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations were already mentioned in earlier centuries, the culture that emerged from the 8th century BC is the starting point. This is where democracy as a form of government flourished, important scientific principles were devised and discovered, and Western philosophy and the Western literary canon, Western theatre, architecture and the Olympic Games developed. The ancient Greeks inhabited city-states such as Athens, Sparta and Thebes. From the time of Alexander the Great (4th century BC), the Ancient Greek language and Hellenistic culture, and later the Greek Orthodox Church, spread over a widespread area. Greek culture was also omnipresent under Roman and Byzantine rule. It only came to a state of its own in 1830, when the Greeks broke away from the Ottoman Empire, which had succeeded the Byzantine rule, after a War of Independence. In the decades that followed, Greece grew to its current size. Greece has been a democracy and a republic since 1974, after being an intermittent monarchy from 1832 onwards. In 1981, the country became the tenth country to join the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union. The means of payment is the euro. Although the Greek sovereign debt crisis had major consequences for the economy and society, Greece is considered to be economically highly developed and relatively prosperous.

The first traces of Greek civilization are 6000 years old. This makes it likely that Greek civilization started around 4000 BC. Until 1000 BC. ruled in the area that is now Greece several leaders of various origins. The area grew during these centuries into a mixture of independent city-states, many of which established colonies in the Mediterranean. Classical Greek culture, centered around Athens, reached its peak in the fifth century BC before the Greek city-states were founded in 338 BC. were united with the Macedonian territories by Philip II of Macedon.

Greece is bordered in the north (from west to east) by Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. Otherwise, mainland Greece is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea (to the south), the Ionian Sea (to the west) and the Aegean Sea (to the east). The islands together make up about 20% of the land area. The largest islands are Crete, Euboea (Evia), Lesbos and Rhodes.