1821: The Founding of Modern Greece

When the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, they had already come a very long way. They were an ancient people who had suffered great trials and tribulations over the centuries and had repeatedly found themselves on the brink of extinction, but who had proved nevertheless that they possessed not only remarkable powers of resistance, resilience, adaptability, and endurance but also the genius to combine with superior forces and produce something new. Greek has been their language from pre-Mycenaean times in the 14th century BC and has continued throughout the Classical Greek era, the Hellenistic period, the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire, and the centuries under Frankish, Venetian, or Turkish domination. [...]