 | Georgia country: Encyclopedia II - Georgia country - History
Georgia country - History
Main articles: History of Georgia (country), and [[]], and [[]], and [[]], and [[]]
Two Georgian Kingdoms of late antiquity, Iberia in the east of the country and Colchis in the west, were among the first nations in the region to adopt Christianity (317 AD and 523 AD, respectively). Egrisi often saw battles between rivals Persia and the Byzantine Empire, both of which managed to conquer Western Georgia from time to time. As a result, those Kingdoms were disintegrated into various feudal regions in the early Middle Ages. This made it easy for Arabs to conquer Georgia in the 7th century. The rebellious regions were liberated and united into the Georgian Kingdom at the beginning of the 11th century. Starting in the 12th century the rule of Georgia extended over the significant part of Southern Caucasus, including northeastern parts and almost entire northern coast of what is now Turkey.
This Georgian Kingdom, which was tolerant towards its Muslim and Jewish subjects, was subordinated by the Mongols in the 13th century. Thereafter, different local rulers fought for their independence from the central Georgian rule, until the total disintegration of the Kingdom in the 15th century. Neighbouring kingdoms exploited the situation and from the 16th century the Persian Empire and the Ottoman Empire subordinated the eastern and western regions of Georgia, respectively.
The rulers of regions, which remained partly autonomous, organised rebellions on various occasions. Subsequent Persian and Turkish invasions further weakened local kingdoms and regions.
As a result of wars against the Islamic countries the population of Georgia was reduced to 250 000 inhabitants.
In 1783 Russia and the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which Kartl-Kakheti received protection by Russia. This, however, did not prevent Tbilisi to be sacked by the Persians in 1795.
On December 22, 1800 Russian Czar Paul I, by achieving the request of the Georgian king George XII, has signed the Proclamation on the incorporation of Georgia (Kartl-Kakheti) within the Russian Empire. The Proclamation was announced on January 18, 1801.
Only a minor part of the Georgian nobility submitted, while others organized anti-Russian rebellions on several occasions[citation needed].
In the summer 1805 small Russian troups on the river Askerani and near Zagam defeated the Persian army and protected Tbilisi.
In 1810, after a brief war[citation needed], the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti was annexed by the Russian tsar Alexander I. The last Imeretian king and the last Georgian Bagratid ruler Solomon II died in exile in 1815. From 1803 to 1878, as a result of numerous Russian wars against Turkey and Iran, several territories were annexed to Georgia. These areas (Batumi, Artvin, Akhaltsikhe, Poti, and Abkhazia) now represent the majority of the territory of Georgia.
The principality of Guria was abolished in 1828, and that of Samegrelo (Mingrelia) in 1857. The region of Svaneti was gradually annexed in 1857–1859.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Georgia declared independence on May 26, 1918 in the midst of the Russian Civil War. The parliamentary election was won by the Georgian Social-Democratic Party and its leader, Noe Zhordania, became the prime minister. The country's independence did not last long, however. In February 1921 Georgia was attacked by the Red Army. Georgian troops lost the battle and the Social-Democrat government fled the country. On February 25, 1921 the Red Army entered the capital Tbilisi and installed a puppet communist government led by Georgian Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze. Georgia was incorporated into a Transcaucasian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic uniting Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The TFSSR was disaggregated into its component elements in 1936 and Georgia became the Georgian SSR.
The Georgian-born radical Ioseb Jughashvili was prominent among the Russian Bolsheviks, who came to power in the Russian Empire after the October Revolution in 1917. Jughashvili was better known by his nom de guerre Stalin (from the Russian word for steel: сталь). Stalin was to rise to the highest position of the Soviet state and to rule ruthlessly.
From 1941 to 1945, during the Second World War, almost 700,000 Georgians fought as Red Army soldiers against Nazi Germany. About 350,000 of them died in the battlefields of the eastern front. Also during this period the Chechen, Ingush, Karachay and the Balkarian peoples from the Northern Caucasus, were deported to Siberia for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. With their respective autonomous republics abolished, the Georgian SSR was briefly granted some of their territory, until 1957.
Georgian Eduard Shevardnadze, the USSR's Georgian minister for foreign affairs, was one of the main architects of the Perestroika reforms of the late 1980s. During this period, Georgia developed a vigorous multiparty system that strongly favoured independence. The country staged the first democratic, multiparty parliamentary elections in the Soviet Union on October 28, 1990. From November 1990 to March 1991, one of the leaders of the National Liberation movement, Dr. Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1939-1993), was the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia (the Georgian parliament).
On April 9, 1991, shortly before the collapse of the USSR, Georgia declared independence. On May 26, 1991 Zviad Gamsakhurdia was elected as a first President of independent Georgia. However, Gamsakhurdia was deposed in a bloody coup d'etat, from December 22, 1991 to January 6, 1992. The coup was instigated by part of the National Guards and a paramilitary organization called "Mkhedrioni" which allegedly was supported by Russian military units stationed in Tbilisi. The country became embroiled in a bitter civil war which lasted almost until 1995. Shevardnadze returned to Georgia in 1992 and joined the leaders of the coup — Kitovani and Ioseliani — to head a triumvirate called the “State Council”.
In 1995 Shevardnadze was officially elected as a president of Georgia. At the same time, two regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, quickly became embroiled in disputes with local separatists that led to widespread inter-ethnic violence and wars. Supported by Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia have achieved and maintained de facto independence from Georgia. More than 250,000 Georgians have been ethnically cleansed from Abkhazia by Abkhaz separatists and North Caucasians volunteers, mostly Chechens in 1992-1993. More than 25,000 Georgians were expelled from Tskhinvali as well, and many Ossetian families were forced to abandon their homes in the Borjomi region and move to Russia.
In 2003 Shevardnadze himself was deposed in a bloodless coup, known as “Rose Revolution”, led by Mikheil Saakashvili, Zurab Zhvania and Nino Burjanadze, the former members and leaders of his ruling party. Saakashvili was elected as a president of Georgia in 2004. Restoring Georgia's territorial integrity, reversing the effects of ethnic cleansing and returning refugees to their home places were the main pre-election promises of Saakashvili's government.
Following the Rose Revolution, the series of reforms were launched to strengthen the country's military and economic capabilities. The new government's efforts to reassert the Georgian authority in the southwestern autonomous republic of Ajaria led to a major crisis early in 2004. Success in Ajaria encouraged Saakashvili to intensify his efforts, but without complete success, in the breakaway South Ossetia.
Recently the current government has become the object of criticism of several national and international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, British Helsinki Human Right Group (BHHRG) and etc. Those organizations have become increasingly concerned about the pressure on the judiciary by the procuracy and other government authorities. There also have been some concerns about the freedom of the media. Despite the obvious impropriety involved in all this, Western commentators lauded the new government for taking bold measures in the fight against corruption, and Saakashvili still enjoys significant support within the country.
Other related archives11th century, 12th century, 13th century, 15th century, 16th century, 1783, 1795, 1803, 1805, 1810, 1815, 1828, 1857, 1859, 1878, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1936, 1941, 1945, 1957, 1980s, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 317, 523, 7th century, Abasha, Abkhazia, Abkhazians, Ajaria, Ajarian, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Akhmeta, Ambrolauri, Amnesty International, Andorra, April 9, Arabic, Arabs, Armazi, Armenia, Armenian Apostolic, Armenians, Aslan Abashidze, Assyrians, Azerbaijan, Azerbaijanis, Baghdati, Bagratid, Balkarian, Batumi, Black Sea, Bolnisi, Bolsheviks, Borjomi, Byzantine Empire, Catholics, Caucasian, Caucasus, Caucasus Range, Chechen, Chechnya, Chiatura, Choloki River, Christianity, Colchis, Communications in Georgia, Culture of Georgia, Dagestan, December 22, Demographics of Georgia, Districts, Dmanisi, Dusheti, Economy of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, February 25, February 3, Filipp Makharadze, Flag of Georgia (country), Foreign relations of Georgia, GDP, Gagra, Gali, Geography of Georgia, Georgia, Georgia national football team, Georgia national rugby league team, Georgia national rugby union team, Georgian, Georgian Academy of Sciences, Georgian Catholic Church, Georgian National Section of EUROSCIENCE, Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, Georgian SSR, Georgian alphabet, Georgian language, Georgian people, Georgians, Gibraltar, Gori, Greek, Greeks, Gudauta, Guria, History of Georgia (country), IMF, ISO 3166-2 codes for regions and autonomous republics of Georgia, Iberia, Iberian Peninsula, Igor Ivanov, Imereti, Ingush, Ingushetia, Ioseb Jughashvili, Iran, Islam, Janga, January 25, January 4, January 6, Java, Jewish, Jews, Jvari, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kakheti, Karachay, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kartl-Kakheti, Kartli, Kartlos, Kartvelian, Kazbegi, Kazbek, Khevsureti, Khobi, Khoni, Kobuleti, Krasnodar Krai, Kurds, Kutaisi, Kvemo Kartli, Lagodekhi, Lanchkhuti, Laz, Lentekhi, Lesser Caucasus Mountains, Likhi, Likhi Range, List of Georgian writers, List of Georgians, List of traditional Greek place names, March, March 28, Martvili, May 1, May 26, May 5, Meskheti, Meskheti Range, Mestia, Middle Ages, Mikhail Saakashvili, Mikheil Saakashvili, Military of Georgia, Mingrelians, Mkhedrioni, Monastery, Mongols, Moon, Mtkvari, Mtskheta, Music of Georgia, Muslim, National Movement - Democrats, Nazi Germany, Nazis, Nino Burjanadze, Noe Zhordania, North Caucasian, North Caucasus, North Ossetia, North Ossetia-Alania, Northern Caucasus, November, November 23, October 28, October Revolution, Oni, Orthodox Christianity, Ossetes, Ottoman Empire, Ozurgeti, P'ot'i, Perestroika, Persia, Persian, Persian Empire, Politics of Georgia, Portugal, Poti, Public holidays in Georgia, Q'vareli, Raul Usupov, Red Army, Religion and religious freedom in Georgia, Rightist Opposition, Rioni, Rose Revolution, Russia, Russian, Russian Civil War, Russian Federation, Russian Revolution of 1917, Russians, Rustavi, Sachkhere, Sak'art'velos Skauturi Modzraobis Organizatsia, Samachablo, Samegrelo, Samtredia, Second World War, Shkhara, Shuakhevi, Siberia, Sokhumi, Solomon II, South, South Ossetia, Soviet, Soviet Union, Spain, St. George, Stalin, Subdivisions of Georgia, Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia, Svan, Svaneti, Tatars, Tbilisi, Tbilisi State University, Telavi, Tetritsq'aro, Transcaucasian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic, Transportation in Georgia, Treaty of Georgievsk, Tsalka, Tskhinvali, Turkey, Turks, Tusheti, USSR, Ukrainians, Ushba, Vani, World Bank, Zestaponi, Zugdidi, Zurab Nogaideli, Zurab Zhvania, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, alpine, antiquity, ash, aspen, autonomous, battles, beech, birch, box, carbon monoxide, chestnut, citation needed, citrus fruits, cognate, copper, corruption, coup d'etat, crisis, distribution, eastern front, elm, fir, gas, glacier, god, grapes, hazelnut, hornbeam, hydropower, idol, kingdom of Imereti, manganese, maple, minorities, nom de guerre, oak, oil, paganism, pantheon, pine, rainforest, spruce, state religion, tax evasion, tea, temperate rain forests, tourism, volcanic, wine, wolf, yew
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
