History of Georgia (country)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
See also: Timeline of Georgian history and Military history of Georgia

History of Georgia

show

Prehistoric Georgia

show

Ancient history

show

Middle Ages

show

Early modern history

show

Modern history

show
 History by topic

 History of Georgia

 v
 t
 e

The nation of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო sakartvelo) was first unified as a

kingdom under the Bagrationi dynasty by the King Bagrat III of Georgia in the early 11th
century, arising from a number of predecessor states of the ancient kingdoms
of Colchis and Iberia. The Kingdom of Georgia flourished during the 10th to 12th
centuries under King David IV the Builder and Queen Tamar the Great, and fell to
the Mongol invasion by 1243, and after a brief reunion under George V the Brilliant to
the Timurid Empire. By 1490, Georgia was fragmented into a number of petty
kingdoms and principalities, which throughout the Early Modern period struggled to
maintain their autonomy against Ottoman and Iranian (Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar)
domination until Georgia was finally annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
After a brief bid for independence with the Democratic Republic of Georgia of 1918–
1921, Georgia was part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet
Republic from 1922 to 1936, and then formed the Georgian Soviet Socialist
Republic until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The current republic of Georgia has been independent since 1991. The first
president Zviad Gamsakhurdia stoked Georgian nationalism and vowed to assert
Tbilisi's authority over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Gamsakhurdia was deposed in a
bloody coup d'état within the same year and the country became embroiled in a
bitter civil war, which lasted until 1995. Supported by Russia, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia achieved de facto independence from Georgia. The Rose
Revolution forced Eduard Shevardnadze to resign in 2003. The new government
under Mikheil Saakashvili prevented the secession of a third breakaway republic in
the Adjara crisis of 2004, but the conflict with Abkhazia and South Ossetia led to
the 2008 Russo–Georgian War and tensions with Russia remain unresolved.
The history of Georgia is inextricably linked with the history of the Georgian people.[1][2]

Contents

 1Prehistoric period
 2Antiquity
o 2.1Early Georgian kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia
o 2.2The Roman–Iranian rivalry and the Roman conquest of Colchis
o 2.3Adoption of Christianity as state religion
 3Medieval Georgia
 o 3.1Unification of the Georgian state
o 3.2Between Seljuqs and Byzantines
 3.2.1Great Seljuk invasion
o 3.3King David IV the Builder and Georgian Reconquista
o 3.4Queen Tamar the Great and the Golden Age (1184–1213)
o 3.5Mongol invasion and decline of the Georgian Kingdom
 4Early modern period
o 4.1Ottoman and Iranian domination
o 4.2The 18th and 19th century
 5Modern history
o 5.1Russian Empire
 5.1.1Growth of the national movement
o 5.2Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–1921)
 5.2.1Georgian–Armenian War (1918)
 5.2.2Red Army invasion (1921)
o 5.3Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1921–1990)
o 5.4Independent Georgia
 5.4.1Gamsakhurdia presidency (1991–1992)
 5.4.2Shevardnadze presidency (1992–2003)
 5.4.3Saakashvili presidency (2004–2013)
 5.4.4Margvelashvili presidency (2013–2018)
 5.4.5Zurabishvili presidency (2018-)
 6See also
 7References
o 7.1Citations
o 7.2Sources
 8Further reading
 9External links

Prehistoric period[edit]
Main article: Prehistoric Georgia
Evidence for the earliest occupation of the territory of present-day Georgia goes back to
c. 1.8 million years ago, as evident from the excavations of Dmanisi in the south-eastern
part of the country. This is the oldest evidence of humans anywhere in the world outside
Africa. Later prehistoric remains (Acheulian, Mousterian and the Upper Palaeolithic) are
known from numerous cave and open-air sites in Georgia. The earliest
agricultural Neolithic occupation is dated sometime between 6000 and 5000 BC.[3][4]
[5]
 known as the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, where people used local obsidian for tools,
raised animals such as cattle and pigs, and grew crops, including grapes. [6]
Numerous excavations in tell settlements of the Shulaveri-Shomu type have been
conducted since the 1960s.[3]
Early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, associated with
the Shulaveri-Shomu culture. From the beginning of the 4th millennium, metals became
used to larger extend in East Georgia and in the whole Transcaucasian region. [7]
In the 1970s, archaeological excavations revealed a number of ancient settlements that
included houses with galleries, carbon-dated to the 5th millennium BC in the Imiris-
gora region of Eastern Georgia. These dwellings were circular or oval in plan, a
characteristic feature being the central pier and chimney. These features were used and
further developed in building Georgian dwellings and houses of the 'Darbazi' type. In
the Chalcolithic period of the fourth and third millennia BC, Georgia and eastern Asia
Minor were home to the Kura-Araxes culture, giving way in the second millennium BC.
to the Trialeti culture. Archaeological excavations have brought to light the remains of
settlements at Beshtasheni and Ozni (4th–3rd millennium BC), and barrow burials
(carbon dated to the 2nd millennium BC) in the province of Trialeti, at Tsalka (Eastern
Georgia). Together, they testify to an advanced and well-developed culture of building
and architecture.

Kingdom of Diauehi.

Diauehi, a tribal union of early-Georgians, first appear in written history in the 12th
century BC.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Archaeological finds and references in ancient sources reveal
elements of early political and state formations characterized by advanced metallurgy
and goldsmith techniques that date back to the 7th century BC and beyond. [15] Between
2100 and 750 BC, the area survived the invasions by the Hittites, Urartians, Medes,
Proto-Persians and Cimmerians. At the same period, the ethnic unity of Proto-
Kartvelians broke up into several branches, among them Svans, Zans/Chans and East-
Kartvelians. That finally led to the formation of modern Kartvelian languages: Georgian
(originating from East Kartvelian vernaculars), Svan, Megrelian and Laz (the latter two
originating from Zan dialects). By that time Svans were dominant in
modern Svaneti and Abkhazia, Zans inhabited modern Georgian province of
Samegrelo, while East-Kartvelians formed the majority in modern eastern Georgia. As a
result of cultural and geographic delimitation, two core areas of future Georgian culture
and statehood formed in western and eastern Georgia by the end of the 8th century BC.
The first two Georgian states emerged in the west known as the Kingdom
of Colchis and in the east as the Kingdom of Iberia.

Antiquity[edit]
Early Georgian kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia[edit]
Early Georgian States of Colchis and Iberia.

A second Georgian tribal union emerged in the 13th century BC on the Black Sea coast
under the Kingdom of Colchis in western Georgia.[16][17] The kingdom of Colchis, which
existed from the 6th to the 1st centuries BC is regarded as the first early Georgian state
formation and the term Colchians was used as the collective term for early Georgian-
Kartvelian tribes such as Mingrelians, Lazs and Chans who populated the eastern coast
of the Black Sea.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
According to the scholar of the Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff:
Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the
newcomer, Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian
(West Georgian) kingdom....It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian
social history in Colchis, the earliest Georgian formation. [25]
The ancient Greeks knew of Colchis, and it featured in the Greek legend of Jason and
the Argonauts, who travelled there in search of the Golden Fleece. Starting around
2000 BC, northwestern Colchis was inhabited by the Svan and Zan peoples of the
Kartvelian tribes. Another important ethnic element of ancient Colchis were Greeks who
between 1000 and 550 BC established many trading colonies in the coastal area,
among them Naessus, Pityus, Dioscurias (modern Sukhumi), Guenos, Phasis (modern
Poti), Apsaros, and Rhizos (modern Rize in Turkey). In the eastern part of Georgia
there was a struggle for the leadership among the various Georgian confederations
during the 6th–4th centuries BC, which was finally won by the Kartlian tribes from the
region of Mtskheta. According to the Georgian tradition, the Kingdom of Kartli (known
as Iberia in the Greek-Roman literature) was founded around 300 BC by Parnavaz I, the
first ruler of the Parnavazid dynasty.[26]
Patera depicting Marcus Aurelius uncovered in central Georgia, 2nd century AD

Between 653 and 333 BC, both Colchis and Iberia survived successive invasions by the
Iranian Median Empire. The case is different for the Achaemenid Persians however.
[27]
 According to Herodotus (3.97), Achaemenid power extended as far as the Caucasus
mountains, but the Colchians are not included in his list of the twenty Persian satrapies.
Nor are they referred to in the lists of Achaemenid lands (dahyāva) given in the Old
Persian inscriptions of Darius and his successors.[27] In Xenophon's Anabasis (7.8.25;
probably an interpolation) the tribes of Colchis and East Pontus are referred to as
independent (autónomoi). On the other hand, Herodotus mentioned both the Colchians
and various Pontic tribes in his catalogue (7.78-79) of approximately fifty-seven peoples
who participated in Xerxes’ expedition against Greece in 481-80 BC.[27] As
the Encyclopaedia Iranica states, it is thus probable that the Achaemenids never
succeeded in asserting effective rule over Colchis, though local tribal leaders seem to
have acknowledged some kind of Persian suzerainty. [27] The Encyclopaedia
Iranica further states, whereas the adjoining Pontic tribes of the nineteenth satrapy and
the Armenians of the thirteenth are mentioned as having paid tribute to Persia, the
Colchians and their Caucasian neighbors are not; they had, however, undertaken to
send gifts (100 boys and 100 girls) every five years (Herodotus 3.97). [27]
At the end of the 4th century BC southern Iberia witnessed the invading armies
of Alexander the Great, who established a vast Greco-Macedonian empire to the south
of the Caucasus. Neither Iberia nor Colchis was incorporated into the empire of
Alexander or any of the successor Hellenistic states of the Middle East. [27] However, the
culture of ancient Greece still had a considerable influence on the region, and Greek
was widely spoken in the cities of Colchis. In Iberia Greek influence was less noticeable
and Aramaic was widely spoken.[27]
Between the early 2nd century BC and the late 2nd century AD both Colchis and Iberia,
together with the neighboring countries, became an arena of long and devastating
conflicts between major and local powers such as Rome, Armenia and the short-
lived Kingdom of Pontus. Pompey's campaign in 66-65 BC annexed Armenia and then
he headed north along the Kura river and then west down the Rioni river to the Black
Sea.[28] In 189 BC, the rapidly growing Kingdom of Armenia took over more than half of
Iberia, conquering the southern and southeastern provinces
of Gogarene, Taokhia and Genyokhia, as well as some other territories. Between 120
and 63 BC, Armenia's ally Mithridate VI Eupator of Pontus conquered all of Colchis and
incorporated it into his kingdom, embracing almost all of Asia Minor as well as the
eastern and northern Black Sea coastal areas.
The Roman–Iranian rivalry and the Roman conquest of Colchis[edit]
Main articles: Roman Georgia, Pompey's Georgian campaign, Iberian War, and Lazic
War

Kingdom of Lazica

This close association with Armenia brought upon the country an invasion (65 BC) by
the Roman general Pompey, who was then at war with Mithradates VI of Pontus, and
Armenia; but Rome did not establish her power permanently over Iberia. Nineteen years
later (36 BC), the Romans again marched on Iberia forcing King Pharnavaz II to join
their campaign against Caucasian Albania.[29]
During this time Armenia and Pontus were actively expanding at the expense of Rome,
taking over its Eastern Mediterranean possessions. However, the success of the anti-
Roman alliance did not last long. As a result of the Roman campaigns of Pompey
and Lucullus from the west, and the Parthian invasion from the south, Armenia lost a
significant part of its conquests by 65 BC, devolving into a Roman-Parthian
dependency. At the same time, the Kingdom of Pontus was completely destroyed by the
Romans and all its territory including Colchis were incorporated into the Roman
Empire as her provinces.
The former Kingdom of Colchis became the Roman province of Lazicum ruled by
Roman legati. The following 600 years of Georgian history were marked by struggle
between Rome and neighboring Persia (Iran) ruled subsequently by
the Parthians and Sassanids who were fighting long wars against each other for the
domination in Western Asia including Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Albania, and Iberia.
While the Georgian kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman
province, Caucasian Iberia freely accepted the Roman Imperial protection. A stone
inscription discovered at Mtskheta speaks of the 1st-century ruler Mihdrat I (AD 58–106)
as "the friend of the Caesars" and the king "of the Roman-loving Iberians."
Emperor Vespasian fortified the ancient Mtskheta site of Armazi for the Iberian kings in
75 AD.
In the 2nd century AD, Iberia strengthened her position in the area, especially during the
reign of King Pharsman II who achieved full independence from Rome and reconquered
some of the previously lost territories from declining Armenia. In the early 3rd century,
Rome had to give up Albania and most of Armenia to Sassanid Persia. The province of
Lazicum was given a degree of autonomy that by the end of the century developed into
full independence with the formation of a new Kingdom of Lazica-Egrisi on the territories
of smaller principalities of the Zans, Svans, Apsyls, and Sanyghs. This new Western
Georgian state survived more than 250 years until 562 when it was absorbed by
the Byzantine Empire.
In the 3rd century AD, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the
kingdom of Lazica, locally known as Egrisi. Colchis was a scene of the protracted rivalry
between the Eastern Roman/Byzantine and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic
War from 542 to 562.[30]
Iberia became a tributary of the Sasanian state during the reign of Shapur I (241–272).
Relations between the two countries seem to have been friendly at first, as Iberia
cooperated in Persian campaigns against Rome, and the Iberian king Amazasp
III (260–265) was listed as a high dignitary of the Sasanian realm, not a vassal who had
been subdued by force of arms. But the aggressive tendencies of the Sasanians were
evident in their propagation of Zoroastrianism, which was probably established in Iberia
between the 260s and 290s.
However, in the Peace of Nisibis (298) while the Roman empire obtained control of
Caucasian Iberia again as a vassal state and acknowledged the reign over all the
Caucasian area, it recognized Mirian III, the first of the Chosroid dynasty, as king of
Iberia.
Adoption of Christianity as state religion[edit]
Main article: Christianization of Iberia

King Mirian III established Christianity in Georgia as the official state religion in 324.

Before Christianization, the cult of Mithras and Zoroastrianism were commonly practiced
in Iberia from the 1st century. The cult of Mithras, distinguished by its syncretic
character and thus complementary to local cults, especially the cult of the Sun,
gradually came to merge with ancient Georgian beliefs. [31] The eastern Georgian
Kingdom of Iberia became one of the first states in the world to convert to Christianity in
327,[32][33][34] when the King of Iberia Mirian III established it as the official state religion.
However, the date varies based on numerous accounts and historical documents, which
indicate Iberia adopting Christianity as a state religion in 317, [35] 319,[36][37][38][39] 324,[40] 330[41]
[42]
 etc. According to The Georgian Chronicles, St. Nino of Cappadocia converted
Georgia to Christianity in 330 during the time of Constantine the Great. By the middle of
the 4th century though, both Lazica (formerly the Kingdom of Colchis) and Iberia
adopted Christianity as their official religion. This adoption of Christianity tied the
kingdom to the Byzantine Empire, which exerted strong cultural influence over it.[43]
Ashot Kurapalates, first Bagrationi presiding prince, 829 AD

David III of Tao, a Georgian prince of the Bagrationi dynasty, 10th century.

However, after the emperor Julian was slain during his failed campaign in Persia in 363,
Rome ceded control of Iberia to Persia, and King Varaz-Bakur I (Asphagur) (363-365)
became a Persian vassal, an outcome confirmed by the Peace of Acilisene in 387.
[44]
 However, a later ruler of Kartli, Pharsman IV (406-409), preserved his country's
autonomy and ceased to pay tribute to Persia. Persia prevailed, and Sassanian kings
began to appoint a viceroy (pitiaxae/bidaxae) to keep watch on their vassal. They
eventually made the office hereditary in the ruling house of Lower Kartli, thus
inaugurating the Kartli pitiaxate, which brought an extensive territory under its control [citation
needed]
. Although it remained a part of the kingdom of Kartli, its viceroys turned their domain
into a center of Persian influence. Sasanian rulers put the Christianity of the Georgians
to a severe test. They promoted the teachings of Zoroaster, and by the middle of the 5th
century Zoroastrianism had become a second official religion in eastern Georgia
alongside Christianity.[45]
During the 4th and most of the 5th centuries, Iberia (known also as the Kingdom of
Kartli) was under Persian control. At the end of the 5th century though, Prince Vakhtang
I Gorgasali orchestrated an anti-Persian uprising and restored Iberian statehood,
proclaiming himself the King. After this, the armies of Vakhtang launched several
campaigns against both Persia and the Byzantine Empire. However, his struggle for the
independence and unity of the Georgian state did not have lasting success. After
Vakhtang's death in 502, and the short reign of his son Dachi (502–514), Iberia was
reincorporated into Persia as a province once again. The Kingdom of Iberia however
was abolished in 580 AD by the Persian authorities at that time ruled by Hormizd
IV (578-590), most precisely after the death of King Bakur III, and Iberia became now a
Persian province ruled by a marzpan (governor). However this time the Iberian nobility
were granted the privilege of electing the governors, who in Georgian were
called erismtavari. Georgian nobles urged the Byzantine emperor Maurice to revive the
kingdom of Iberia in 582, but in 591 Byzantium and Persia decisively agreed to divide
Iberia between them, with Tbilisi to be in Persian hands and Mtskheta to be under
Byzantine control. By the late 7th century, the Byzantine-Persian rivalry for the Middle
East had given way to Arab conquest of the region and subsequent invasions to
ensure Arab hegemony in the Caucasus.

Medieval Georgia[edit]
Main article: Unification of the Georgian realm
Unification of the Georgian state[edit]

King Bagrat III was the first monarch of the unified Georgian realm.

Bedia Cup of King Bagrat III of Georgia, 999 AD

In struggle against the Arab occupation, Bagrationi dynasty came to rule over Tao-

Klarjeti and established Kouropalatate of Iberia as a nominal dependency under
the Byzantine Empire. The restoration of the Georgian kingship begins in AD 888,
when Adarnase IV took the title of "King of Iberians". However, the Bagrationi dynasty
failed to maintain the integrity of their kingdom which was actually divided between the
three branches of the family with the main branch retaining Tao and another
controlling Klarjeti. At the end of the 10th century Curopalate David of Tao invaded
the Earldom of Iberia (Kartli) and gave it to his foster-son Bagrat III and
installed Gurgen as his regent, who was later crowned as "King of Kings of the Iberians"
on the death of Bagrat the Simple (994). Through his fortunate bloodlines Bagrat was
destined to sit upon two thrones. Furthermore, through his mother Gurandukht, sister of
the childless Abkhazian king Theodosius III, Bagrat was a potential heir to the realm of
Abkhazia. Three years later, after the death of Theodosius III, Bagrat III inherited
the Abkhazian throne. In 1008, Gurgen died, and Bagrat succeeded him as "King of the
Iberians", becoming thus the first King of a unified realm of Abkhazia and Iberia. After
he had secured his patrimony, Bagrat proceeded to press a claim to the easternmost
Georgian kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti and annexed it in or around 1010, after two years
of fighting and aggressive diplomacy. Bagrat's reign, a period of uttermost importance in
the history of Georgia, brought about the final victory of the Georgian Bagratids in the
centuries-long power struggles. Anxious to create more stable and centralized
monarchy, Bagrat eliminated or at least diminished the autonomy of the dynastic
princes. In his eyes, the most possible internal danger came from the Klarjeti line of the
Bagrationi. Although seem to have acknowledged Bagrat's authority, they continued to
be styled as Kings, and Sovereigns of Klarjeti. To secure the succession to his
son, George I, Bagrat lured his cousins, on pretext of a reconciliatory meeting, to the
Panaskerti Castle, and threw them in prison in 1010. Bagrat's foreign policy was
generally peaceful and the king successfully manoeuvred to avoid the conflicts with both
the Byzantine and Muslim neighbours even though David's domains of Tao remained in
the Byzantine and Tbilisi in the Arab hands.
Between Seljuqs and Byzantines[edit]
The construction of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was initiated in
the 1020s by George I.

The major political and military event during George I’s reign, a war against
the Byzantine Empire, had its roots back to the 990s, when the Georgian
prince Curopalate David of Tao, following his abortive rebellion against Emperor Basil II,
had to agree to cede his extensive possessions in Tao and the neighbouring lands to
the emperor on his death. All the efforts by David’s stepson and George’s father, Bagrat
III, to prevent these territories from being annexed to the empire went in vain. Young
and ambitious, George launched a campaign to restore the Kuropalates’ succession to
Georgia and occupied Tao in 1015–1016. Byzantines were at that time involved in a
relentless war with the Bulgarian Empire, limiting their actions to the west. But as soon
as Bulgaria was conquered, Basil II led his army against Georgia (1021). An exhausting
war lasted for two years, and ended in a decisive Byzantine victory, forcing George to
agree to a peace treaty, in which he had not only to abandon his claims to Tao, but to
surrender several of his southwestern possessions to Basil, and to give his three-year-
old son, Bagrat IV, as hostage.

Georgia during the Roman Empire, 1045 AD

The young child Bagrat IV spent the next three years in the imperial capital
of Constantinople and was released in 1025. After George I's death in 1027, Bagrat,
aged eight, succeeded to the throne. By the time Bagrat IV became king, the Bagratids’
drive to complete the unification of all Georgian lands had gained irreversible
momentum. The kings of Georgia sat at Kutaisi in western Georgia from which they ran
all of what had been the Kingdom of Abkhazia and a greater portion of Iberia; Tao had
been lost to the Byzantines while a Muslim emir remained in Tbilisi and
the kings of Kakheti-Hereti obstinately defended their autonomy in easternmost
Georgia. Furthermore, the loyalty of great nobles to the Georgian crown was far from
stable. During Bagrat's minority, the regency had advanced the positions of the high
nobility whose influence he subsequently tried to limit when he assumed full ruling
powers. Simultaneously, the Georgian crown was confronted with two formidable
external foes: the Byzantine Empire and the resurgent Seljuq Turks.
The Seljuk threat prompted the Georgian and Byzantine governments to seek a closer
cooperation. To secure the alliance, Bagrat's daughter Mart’a (Maria) married, at some
point between 1066 and 1071, the Byzantine co-emperor Michael VII Ducas.
Great Seljuk invasion[edit]
The second half of the 11th century was marked by the strategically significant invasion
of the Seljuq Turks, who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast
empire including most of Central Asia and Persia. The Seljuqs made their first
appearances in Georgia in the 1060s, when the sultan Alp Arslan laid waste to the
south-western provinces of the Georgian kingdom and reduced Kakheti. These
intruders were part of the same wave of the Turkish movement which inflicted a
crushing defeat on the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071. Although the Georgians
were able to recover from Alp Arslan's invasion by securing the Tao (Theme of Iberia), a
frontier region which had been a bone of contention between Georgia and the Byzantine
Empire, the Byzantine withdrawal from Anatolia brought them in more direct contact
with the Seljuqs. Following the 1073 devastation of Kartli by the Seljuk sultan Alp
Arslan, George II successfully repelled an invasion. In 1076, the Seljuk sultan Malik
Shah I surged into Georgia and reduced many settlements to ruins. Harassed by the
massive Turkic influx, known in Georgian history as the Great Turkish Invasion, from
1079/80 onward, George was pressured into submitting to Malik-Shah to ensure a
precious degree of peace at the price of an annual tribute.