History of Modern Greece

The Abbasid Caliphate had made it so far East that they came face to face with another superpower in the east. The Chinese Tang Dynasty was also expanding its borders West, and when the two superpowers met in the narrow valley of Talas... the epic battle between the Chinese and the Arabs happened in the year 751. The History of Modern Greece Podcast covers the events of the Greek People from the f...

Charles the Great, was the King of the Franks who conquered the Visigoths, and the Lombards, and after seizing as much power in Western Europe as possible, the Pope crowned him as the Emperor of the Romans in the West. He was the first Roman Emperor in the West in over 300 years. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek...

After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, a Germanic Tribe known as the Franks took over the entire province of Gaul. This new Kingdom, known as Frankia, was forced to defend itself against the Umayyad Dynasty when they stormed over the Pyrenees Mountains and invaded modern-day France. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to t...

With the Arab Conquests over, the Roman Empire was able to step back and take a deep breath. For over half a century, they watched an empire come out of nowhere, conquering their cities and provinces and neighbors and relatives. The Roman Empire was once the most dominant superpower in the world... but that was no longer the case. There was a new Empire... a bigger Empire, and they had their own r...

The mighty Arab Caliphate had grown to become one of the largest Empires the world had ever seen, and they seemed to have come out of nowhere. Half of the Roman Empire, all of the Persian Empire, and large swaths of land in Africa and Asia were all under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate. But their lust for conquest and ruthlessness, and Arab Supremacy, made the people of the new empire uneasy...

The invincible Arab army set its sights on Constantinople; once this city fell, the entire Roman Empire would crumble in the wake of the Rashidun Caliphate. Unfortunately for the Arabs, the Theodosian Walls were unlike anything they had ever encountered before. These walls were built at the height of the Roman Empire, and they would stand for over a thousand years. At this place, the Tsunami, whic...

The Arab Empire exploded out of the desert with speed and violence. Because the Romans and Persians had bled themselves dry during the Great Wars of the early 7th century, the Arabs conquered the entire Persian Empire, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa all within a single generation... making it as far as Spain in the West, and Pakistan in the East. The world had not seen a conquest like this since A...

While the Persians and Romans fought a war of attrition, the tribes of the Arabian Desert were uniting. A trader from the Qureshi Tribe prophesized to the people of Mecca until he was forced out of his home to a city now called Medin. This Prophet named Mohammad united all of the tribes of Arabia and started one of the world's largest and most influential religions... Islam. The History of Mo...

The Great Byzantine-Sassanid War saw both empires spend all of their money, burn all of their farmland, and kill all of their men, in the single most bloody conflict of the Roman Empire since Attila the Hun. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek War of Independence in 1821-1832, all the way through to the Greco-Turki...

A series of bad leaders on both sides of the geo-political world led the two Greatest Powers of the day... the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire, to grow further and further apart. The Neo-Persians, or Sassanids, were constantly invading the Roman Borders, as they had dreams of reuniting Cyrus the Great's old Imperial borders. Instead of securing their borders, the Romans busied themselves...

Before Justinian could fully reunite the Roman Empire, a Black Plague spread throughout the Empire and killed Millions of people. It crippled the Roman Empire and stagnated the economy. The Black Death was horrific and killed people without mercy. Millions of people were killed all across the known world. With the cripple economy, almost all hope of reuniting the Roman Empire ended. The History of...

Historians Call Justinian the Great the last Roman Emperor, while others call him the first Great Byzantine Emperor. No one can deny that Justinian the Great was one of the strongest Roman Emperors of all time. He came the closest to reuniting the entire Roman Empire after the fall of the west in 476 CE. He also commissioned great works that still stand today, specifically the Hagia Sophia. The Hi...

Gothic Invasions and Attila the Hun had laid waste to the Western provinces of the Roman Empire. The damage to the Western Roman Empire was too great. And the Germanic Tribes that settled inside the Roman Borders carved out their own little kingdoms. Even the Huns claimed their own homes north of the Roman Empire. The Ostrogothic King took the Purple Robes of the Western Roman Emperor and sent the...

Attila the Hun becomes the Leader of the Great Horde, and takes his army to the doorstep of the Western Roman Empire, completely overrunning the province of Gaul and Hispania. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek War of Independence in 1821-1832, all the way through to the Greco-Turkish War from 1919 to 1922. If you...

The Huns originated in the Eurasian steppe lands north of China. They invaded the Chinese dynasties several times before they were expelled from the region and forced to migrate West. After several centuries these nomads made it to the Borders of the Roman Empire, where they wreaked havoc for decades. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinopl...

The 3rd century was one of the most turbulent for the Roman Empire and saw wave after wave of German Barbarians, swarm the gates. This crisis showed the vulnerability of the city of Rome, and the Emperor was forced to move the Capital to the Greek world. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek War of Independence in 18...

After the Romans conquered Greece, they entered a time called Pax Romana... which was one of the most stable times in human history. A man traveling from the east passed through Athens and spoke to the people about a single all-powerful God. No this wasn't Zoroaster... this was Saint Paul. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 14...

Philp the V, King of Macedon, made a big mistake by challenging the authority of the Roman Empire. After receiving several chances from the Romans, Phillip betrays them for the last time. The Romans marched upon the Greek world, conquered it, and razed cities to the ground. Once captured, the Romans kept the Greek world for over a thousand years.  The History of Modern Greece covers the events of...

Alexander the Great's Mother, Olympia, had a cousin. Olympia's Cousin had a child named... Pyrrhus, and when this young man grew up, he took up the torch of his ancestors and began conquering his neighbors. He is known to history as Pyrrhus of Epirus and also the Last Diadochi. Only this young Macedonian took his army in a different direction. Instead of conquering other Greeks, he set h...

Alexander the Great's Generals quickly turned on each other and triggered a series of wars that ripped the Empire into pieces. These wars are called the Wars of the Diadochi. What came out of the ashes were several smaller empires and a few city-states. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek War of Independence i...

After conquering the largest empire in the known world, Alexander the Great fell victim to fever and died in his early 30s... either from poisoning or disease. Whatever the cause, it didn't matter; the King of Kings was dead. With the biggest empire now leaderless, the generals went to war with each other, trying to take as much of the empire for themselves as they could. The History of Moder...

After Philip of Macedon unified all of the Greeks, he died and passed his army on to his son, Alexander the 3rd. Alexander takes his father's army and marches East, conquering the entire Persian Empire. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek War of Independence in 1821-1832, all the way through to the Greco-Turki...

The Thebans sent spies to Sparta in order to learn how they built the strongest army Greece had ever seen. Once they learned the secret was to drill men all day and all night until they had a professional army, the Thebans created their own special unit of elite warriors, but they put an extra twist into their soldiers that guaranteed they would fight to the bitter end to protect those fighting be...

With Athens out of the picture, Sparta takes over as the ruler over the Greek Diaspora. However, the Spartans were cruel and tough people, and very soon, they found the Greek Polis rising against them. The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Greek War of Independence in 1821-1832, all the way through to the Greco-Turkish War...

In this episode we begin our remake of the Peloponnesian War by following the powerful narrative left to us by Thucydides, whose history of the conflict remains one of the most remarkable works ever written about war and politics. Using Thucydides as our primary guide—while incorporating additional ancient sources and modern research—we trace the escalating rivalry between Athens and Sparta, from...