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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring thousands of islands. It has a population of nearly 10.3 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras.
Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, theatre, and the Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states known as poleis (singular polis) that spanned the Mediterranean and Black seas. Philip II of Macedon united most of present-day Greece in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great rapidly conquering much of the known ancient world from the eastern Mediterranean to northwestern India. The subsequent Hellenistic period saw the height of Greek culture and influence in antiquity. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its continuation, the Byzantine Empire, which was predominately Greek in culture and language. Modern Greek identity began taking shape with the emergence of the Greek Orthodox Church in the first century AD, which transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox world. Following the gradual decline and fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire, Greece came under Ottoman rule in the mid-15th century.
Greece emerged as a modern nation state in 1830 following a protracted war of independence. The Kingdom of Greece embarked on an ambitious nationalist project that vastly expanded its territory over the next century. Persistent social division, civil strife, and political instability were exacerbated by the Balkan Wars, World War I, and the Greco-Turkish War. A short-lived republic was established in 1924 but fell to a royalist dictatorship in 1936, which collapsed after Italy and German invaded during World War II. The subsequent military occupation gave way to civil war and military dictatorship. Greece nonetheless achieved record economic growth from 1950 through the 1970s, and democracy was restored in 1975, leading to the current parliamentary republic.
Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, the second largest in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the tenth member to join what is today European Union and has been part of the eurozone since 2001. It is also a member of numerous other international institutions, including the Council of Europe, NATO, the OECD, the WTO, and the OSCE. Greece has a unique cultural heritage, large tourism industry, and prominent shipping sector. The country's rich historical legacy is reflected in part by its 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.