Greece achieved its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and territories, most with Greek-speaking populations.
Following the defeat of Communist rebels in 1949, Greece joined NATO in 1952. A military dictatorship, which in 1967 suspended many political liberties and forced the king to flee the country, lasted seven years. The 1974 democratic elections and a referendum created a parliamentary republic and abolished the monarchy.
Greece joined the European Community or EC in 1981 (which became the EU in 1992).
The Greek language is distinguished by an extraordinarily rich vocabulary and has a documented history of around 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family. It is also one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages, with fragmentary records in Mycenaean dating back to the 15th or 14th century BC.
Today the Greek language is spoken by approximately 15 million people in Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Italy, Turkey and emigrant communities around the world.
The vast majority of modern Greek vocabulary is directly inherited from ancient Greek, although in certain cases words now have new meanings. One of the most notable features of the Greek language is its long association and use within the sciences, in particular physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine.
