Greek Civil War

(noun)

A war fought in Greece from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek government army (backed by the United Kingdom and the United States), and the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE, the military branch of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), backed by Yugoslavia and Albania as well as by Bulgaria).

Related Terms

Examples of Greek Civil War in the following topics:

  • Introduction to Ancient Greece

    • Ancient Greek culture spans over a thousand years, from the earliest civilizations to the cultures that became the Ancient Greeks.
    • Ancient Greek culture covers over a thousand years of history, from the earliest civilizations in the area to the cultures that became the Ancient Greeks.
    • Greeks considered themselves civilized and considered outsiders as barbaric.
    • These wars continued on and off until 400 BCE.
    • While marred by war, the Classical period saw the height of Greek culture and the creation of some of Greece's most famous art and architecture.

  • The Persian Wars

    • The Persian Wars led to the rise of Athens as the head of the Delian League.
    • The Persian Wars (499-449 BCE) were fought between the Achaemenid Empire and the Hellenic world during the Greek classical period.
    • Greeks of the classical period believed, and historians generally agree, that in the aftermath of the fall of Mycenaean civilization, many Greek tribes emigrated and settled in Asia Minor.
    • The Battle of Marathon was a watershed moment in the Persian Wars, in that it demonstrated to the Greeks that the Persians could be defeated.
    • The Spartans believed that the war’s purpose had already been reached through the liberation of mainland Greece and the Greek cities of Asia Minor.

  • Classical Greek Poetry and History

    • Set during the Trojan War (the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states), it tells of the battles and events surrounding a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.
    • Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege.
    • Additionally, linguistic studies into oral epic traditions in nearby civilizations, and the deciphering of Linear B in the 1950s, provided further evidence that the Homeric poems could have been derived from oral transmissions of long-form tales about a war that actually took place.
    • His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BCE war between Athens and Sparta.
    • More generally, Thucydides’ texts show concern with understanding why individuals react the way they do during such crises as plague, massacres, and civil war.

  • The Legacy of Alexander the Great

    • Greek individuals lived under Greek law, received a Greek education, were tried in Greek courts, and were citizens of Greek cities, rather than Egyptian cities.
    • Existing Greek populations within the empire were supplemented with Greek immigrants.
    • When Attalus III (r. 138-133 BCE) died without an heir, he bequeathed his entire kingdom to Rome to prevent civil war.
    • Following Cassander’s death in 297 BCE, Macedon slid into a long period of civil strife.
    • During the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, Macedon fought a series of wars against Rome.

  • The Russian Civil War

  • The Chinese Civil War

  • The Guatemalan Civil War

  • The Syrian Civil War

  • Alexander's Empire

    • Alexander the Great's legacy was the dissemination of Greek culture throughout Asia.
    • His campaigns greatly increased contacts and trade between the East and West, and vast areas to the east were exposed to Greek civilization and influence.
    • Many of the areas he conquered remained in Macedonian hands or under Greek influence for the next 200 to 300 years.
    • Following Alexander's death, many Greeks who had settled there tried to return to Greece.
    • After the assassination of Perdiccas in 321 BCE, Macedonian unity collapsed, and 40 years of war between "The Successors" (Diadochi) ensued, before the Hellenistic world settled into four stable power blocks: the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, the Seleucid Empire in the east, the Kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor, and Macedon.

  • The Theme System

    • The Byzantine-Arab wars wrought havoc on the Byzantine Dynasty but led to the creation of the highly efficient military theme system.
    • The themes (themata in Greek)  were the main administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire.
    • The successors of Heraclius had to fight a desperate war against the Arabs to keep them from conquering the entire Byzantine Empire, known as the Byzantine-Arab wars.
    • He united the civil and military jurisdictions in the territorial area in question.
    • Greek fire was a closely guarded state secret, a secret that has since been lost.