Greece’s existence as an independent state gained formal recognition in the treaty of 1832 between Bavaria and the great powers, but the Greeks themselves were not involved in the making of the treaty. Greece formally became a sovereign state, and the Greeks became the first of the subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire to gain full independence. However, the state contained within its borders less than one-third of the Greek population of the Middle East, and the struggle to expand the country’s borders came to dominate the first century of independent statehood. In 1947, with the incorporation of the Dodecanese (Dodekánisa)—a group of islands off the southwestern coast of Turkey that were under Italian rule—Greece’s present borders were established.

Link to the full Encyclopedia Britannica article on Economic and Social Developments in Greece since the Roman Times