Outside Influences in the Greek Civil Wars

Abstract

By Andrew Rivadeneira, Classic Civilization

Advisor: Joanna Simos

Abstract: The focus of this project is on the Greek Civil Wars of the 1940s. It focuses on what caused the outbreak of these wars, and how foreign countries influenced the course of Greek history. The project will provide information of the history before World War II, but will mostly focus on the events during the decade of 1940. Different countries would intervene for a variety of reasons: economic, political, and expansionism. In what would have been a domestic issue within Greece, became something that involved many countries around the world. The project will attempt to show how countries vying for power within Greece exacerbated the situation and crippled this Mediterranean country. In the name of democracy, countries would intervene and create a situation that was far from democratic. Instead they would create two polarizing groups within Greece. On one side there were the Leftist communist Greeks, and the other the rightist who tended to be ultra conservative and monarchial. These two polarized groups would lead to devastation within Greece worse than the impact of World War II or this country. The effects of the Civil Wars still plague Greece some seventy years after the conclusion of the Wars. This is still a period shrouded in mystery, and one rarely studied and written about. The project will shed some light on this dark period, and hopefully become a piece of the road to fully understanding the magnitude, the chaos and effects of the Greek Civil Wars brought with it.