Key Facts
- Duration
- 25 March 1924 – 10 October 1935
- Total area
- 130,199 km²
- Population (1928 census)
- 6.2 million
- Borders
- Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey
- Abolition confirmed by
- Referendum of 3 November 1935
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
The Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924 when parliament formally abolished the monarchy, transitioning Greece from a kingdom to a republic. It inherited the territory of modern Greece, excluding the Dodecanese, following the upheavals of the Greco-Turkish War and the mass population exchange with Turkey. The new republic sought political stabilisation after years of conflict but immediately faced deep divisions between republican and royalist factions.
Phase II: Zenith
At its height the republic pursued early industrialisation and oversaw the resettlement of over a million Greek refugees from Anatolia, reshaping the demographic and economic character of the country. Greco-Turkish relations were normalised through diplomacy, laying a foundation for regional stability. The period also produced the first experiments with parliamentary governance in a modernising Greek state, alongside cultural and infrastructural development in Athens and other urban centres.
Phase III: Decline
The republic was chronically destabilised by military coups, factional strife, and the Great Depression's economic pressures. A coup in 1935 by royalist officers under Georgios Kondylis led to the formal abolition of the republic on 10 October 1935. A subsequent referendum, widely regarded as fraudulent, confirmed the restoration of King George II. This paved the way for Ioannis Metaxas to establish the authoritarian 4th of August Regime in 1936, ending Greece's republican experiment entirely.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory