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Πόλεις -- Επιλέξτε προορισμό -- Άγιος Νικόλαος Ηράκλειο Ρέθυμνο Χανιά

Ιστορία

Between 5700 and 2800 BC, Neolithic Cretans lived in caves or basic houses. These people were hunter-gatherers who also farmed and raised livestock. The Minoans arrived in Crete in about 3000 BC from North Africa or the Middle East, bringing with them the skills necessary for making bronze. The Minoans thrived, as their use of bronze allowed them to build better boats and thereby expand their trade opportunities. Around 2000 BC, they built their first palaces and improvements in technology allowed them to produce fine pottery and excellent jewellery. The Minoans became the first advanced civilisation to emerge in Europe.

The 'golden age' of the Minoans was from 1700 BC to 1450 BC. Palaces destroyed by a cataclysm in 1700 BC were rebuilt to a more complex design with multiple storeys, sumptuous royal apartments and reception halls, and with advanced drainage systems. Some fabulous frescoes and other expressions of the fine arts were created during this period. Another cataclysm in 1450 BC brought Minoan civilisation to an abrupt halt.

Crete then underwent over three millennia of occupation by various forces. First were the Mycaeans from the mainland (1400-1100 BC), then came the Dorians, also from the mainland (1100-67 BC), although this period saw almost constant warfare between Crete's city states. The Romans took over in 67 BC; in 27 BC Gortyn (present-day Gortyna) became the capital of (and most powerful) city of Crete. When Rome's power declined at the end of the 4th century AD, Crete became part of the Byzantine Empire and was ruled from Constantinople (Istanbul). The Arabs conquered Crete in around 824; the Byzantines reclaimed it in 960 and sold it to the Venetians in 1204; it fell to the Turks in 1669 and became part of the Ottoman empire; it was given to Egypt in 1830; and returned to the Ottomans in 1840.

In 1898 the Turks were removed from Crete, which was then ruled by an international administration. Greece and, in particular, the world powers of the time resisted Crete's desire to be unified with Greece until 1913. By 1935 a rigged plebiscite put King George II on the Greek throne. He promptly named Metaxis prime minister, and then turned a blind eye as Metaxis went down the autocratic road in the guise of protecting the nation from communist forces. Metaxis had a grandiose vision of a Third Greek Civilisation rising from the ashes of its Byzantine past, but what he created was more Hitlerian than Hellenic: opponents were exiled or imprisoned, trade unions were banned, the Greek Communist Party was gagged and fascist youth gangs were encouraged. His one act of moral fortitude was to say 'No' to Mussolini's request to use Greece as a thoroughfare for Italian troops.

In the final washout of WWII, Greece was overrun by the Germans and, after the bloody, gritty Battle of Crete in 1941 (waged on the Cretan side by peasants with pitchforks ), the Third Reich occupied the island until defeat in 1945. Post-WWII, Cretans tended to favour all things British so there was little of the communist-versus-colonial tug-of-war that plagued the rest of Greece. However, the island did get caught up in the subsequent Colonel Coups of 1964 - a military junta, popularly thought to be supported by the CIA and US interests, determined to stop the country going anywhere near the centre or left of the political spectrum.

Postwar politics in Greece resembled nothing more than a fast-moving car with a drunk driver at the wheel: left, right, left, down the middle. By the '80s, Greeks and Cretans were fed up with right-wing governments, and Papandreou's left-wing socialist party (PASOK) hit the jackpot with promises of reform and a decrease in US military numbers. Unfortunately the only thing Papandreou could deliver was financial imbroglios and sexual scandals so, by 1990, the old-style New Democracy had regained control and swung the nation back to the right.

Two years later, the New Democrats had corruption scandals of their own to answer, and an older and ailing Papandreou was dragged out of bed to run a socialist-style country again. This time, though, Papandreou had almost to fax his performance in due to ill-health.

After Papandreou's death in 1996, PASOK was taken over by Kostas Simitis, re-elected in 2000, who promptly Blair-ised the party, vowing he would modernise and moderate it, even if he had to drag it kicking and screaming into the pragmatic centre. Many PASOK hardliners complain that it's too hard these days to tell a New Democratic party policy from a PASOK policy. Elections will be held this year (2004).