The shores of the Aegean Sea witnessed the emergence of the first civilizations in Europe; the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. A Dark Age followed, until around 800 BC a new Hellenic Greece emerged. It was this Greece of city-states that established colonies along the Mediterranean, resisted Persian invasions, and whose culture would be the basis of Hellenistic civilization that followed the empire of Alexander the Great.
Around 1700 BC, a large disturbance, probably an earthquake, (or possibly an invasion from Turkey) devastated the society. But the population rose again, and the palaces were rebuilt even larger than before. Around 1650 BC, the eruption of the volcanic island Thera caused tsunami which destroyed installations near the coasts.
Around 1400 AD the Turks (Ottoman Empire) savagely invaded and then occupied Greece for a period of about 400 years. But the island's rough and mountainous - yet beautiful - terrain kept many places inaccessible to the Turks. Even when the Venetians invaded Greece, Crete was spared by its topography.
In 1981, Greece became the 10th member of the European Community (now the European Union). In parliamentary elections held on October 18, 1981, Greece elected its first socialist government.
