Felipe Arraño’s Reviews > Athens: A History, From Ancient Ideal to Modern City > Status Update

The first president, Kapodistrias, was assassinated in 1831 (p. 308). The European powers, therefore, dropped the Treaty of London’s terms and agreed that Greece was to be a fully independent country under a monarch, later by a constitutional monarchy (p. 308). In 1974, Greeks voted to get rid of the monarchy, becoming a full republic (p. 309). Greek political processes have frequently been marred by corruption, vote rigging, manipulation of the electoral system, etc. (p. 310). Greece was declared bankrupt in 1893 (p. 311). With the removal of most of the Greek population of Turkey, Greece no longer had any claim to Turkish territory (p. 312). During WWII, Greeks suffered from starvation, only 10% of Greece’s 80,000 Jews survived the war—the smallest percentage of any country (p. 314). Greece was radicalized and politicized, Germans supported all groups that were fighting communism; and after the liberation of Greece, the British supported the same groups (p. 315). Churchill wrote Stalin so the British could control Greece while Russia Romania, and both Yugoslavia (p. 316). Proliferation of civil service jobs (bureaucracy), too many (p. 319). New constructions and works regarding the 2004 Olympics in Athens are preceded by intense archeological exploration and mapping (p. 322).