Greece Profile – Overview – BBC News

Greece’s historical and cultural legacy continues to resonate throughout the modern Western world – in its literature, art, philosophy and politics.

Located on the southernmost tip of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece combines the mainland’s towering mountains with more than 1,400 islands, the largest of which is Crete.

After World War II, Greece experienced rapid economic and social changes, with tourism and shipping becoming major contributors to the economy.

The global financial crisis of the late 2000s hit Greece particularly hard, as the legacy of high public spending and widespread tax evasion, combined with the credit crunch and resulting recession, left the countries with a crushing debt burden.

In 2010-2011, faced with fears of imminent default and debt contagion to other countries, Greece’s neighboring countries in the Eurozone agreed to two bailouts totaling some 240 billion euros.

Six straight years of recession starting in 2008 shrank the economy to about a quarter of its previous size and pushed unemployment to record levels.

Recovery prospects improved in 2014 as the government felt confident enough to predict a return to growth and some reductions in austerity taxes.

A new anti-austerity coalition led by the left-wing Syriza party was elected in 2015 on the basis of its promise to renegotiate EU and IMF bailouts. Syriza argued that austerity had devastated the economy, making it even harder for Greece to reduce its debt.

Greece has long been at odds with its close neighbor Turkey over territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea and the divided island of Cyprus.

Relations warmed after the 1999 earthquakes and both countries offered each other practical assistance.

Greece has been in conflict since the early 1990s with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Greece argues that the neighboring country’s use of the name Macedonia implies a territorial claim to Greece’s own region of the same name. The UN is involved in ongoing mediation efforts.

Athens found itself thrust into the global spotlight when the Olympics came home in 2004. The Games were hailed as a success, despite widespread fears that infrastructure would not be completed on time.