History of Greece in the 20th Century

Volume 2 of History of Greece in the 20th Century by Heinz A. Richter is also a short comprehensive version of several long studies that have appeared over the years as Peleus volumes. It contains chapters on the most important historical events that occurred in Greece between 1939 and the present time, beginning with World War II. The chapters on the resistance movement describes how Greece had a chance to get rid of its clientelistic system and Europeanize the country. But Winston Churchill wanted to keep Greece a British protectorate under a viceroy controlled by Britain. This intervention led to the December events in 1944 (Dekemvriana) and subsequently to the Civil War which lasted until 1949. The subsequent years did not stabilize the Greek system but only reinstalled its clientelistic character This pseudodemocracy lasted until 1967 when it was replaced by the dictatorship of the colonels. Their rule ended in 1974 when they organized a coup d’etat in Cyprus and thus provoked the Turkish military intervention by which Cyprus was divided. In 1974 democracy returned to Greece but not the European type but the Ottoman heritage clientelism. From then on clientelistic governments of the Right and the Left followed. The book ends with the outbreak of the economic crisis during the first decade of the new century. But even this did not change the clientelism by which Greece has continously been ruled until now.