The impact of ancient Greece on the Western world can't be overstated. The rediscovery of Greek classics of philosophy, science and literature in the 14th and 15th centuries had a profound influence on the development of Western thought, leading Europe into the Renaissance. The effects of those revelations are still with us today. The notion of democracy, the concept of the atom, the image of the Earth as round, the scientific method itself - all these and more had their birth in the writings of ancient Greece.Though its recorded history goes back thousands of years, modern-day Greece was largely shaped by the past several centuries.
The Ottoman Empire took control of Greece in the 15th century and governed until 1821, when the War of Independence began. A monarchy, installed in 1832 under Prince Otto of Bavaria, was abolished and reinstated twice during the 20th century. A military junta took power in 1967, but was booted out in 1974. That year, the nation finally returned to democracy, a concept that was born there two and a half millennia earlier.