History of Greece

Second Hellenic Republic
General Nikolaos Plastiras, leader of the 1922 Revolution, gives the power to the politicians (1924) ©Image Attribution forthcoming. Image belongs to the respective owner(s).
1924 Jan 1 - 1935

Second Hellenic Republic

Greece

The Second Hellenic Republic is a modern historiographical term used to refer to the Greek state during a period of republican governance between 1924 and 1935. It occupied virtually the coterminous territory of modern Greece (with the exception of the Dodecanese) and bordered Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey and the Italian Aegean Islands. The term Second Republic is used to differentiate it from the First and Third republics.


The fall of the monarchy was proclaimed by the country's parliament on 25 March 1924. A relatively small country with a population of 6.2 million in 1928, it covered a total area of 130,199 km2 (50,270 sq mi). Over its eleven-year history, the Second Republic saw some of the most important historical events in modern Greek history emerge; from Greece's first military dictatorship, to the short-lived democratic form of governance that followed, the normalisation of Greco-Turkish relations which lasted until the 1950s, and to the first successful efforts to significantly industrialise the nation.


The Second Hellenic Republic was abolished on 10 October 1935, and its abolition was confirmed by referendum on 3 November of the same year which is widely accepted as having been mired with electoral fraud. The fall of the Republic eventually paved the way for Greece to become a totalitarian single-party state, when Ioannis Metaxas established the 4th of August Regime in 1936, lasting until the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941.

Last Updated: Sat Apr 27 2024

HistoryMaps Shop

Shop Now

There are several ways to support the HistoryMaps Project.
Shop Now
Donate
Support Page

What's New

New Features

Timelines
Articles

Fixed/Updated

Herodotus
Today

New HistoryMaps

History of Afghanistan
History of Georgia
History of Azerbaijan
History of Albania