Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the east coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West AsiaEncyclopedia Britannica", Caucasus , June 2021: "One widely accepted scheme draws the dividing line along the crest of the Greater Caucasus range, putting the portion of the region north of the line in Europe and the portion south of it in Asia. Another puts the western portion of the Caucasus region in Europe and the eastern part (the bulk of Azerbaijan and small portions of Armenia, Georgia, and Russia's Caspian Sea coast) in Asia..."Histories 4.38. Cf. James Rennell, The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained, Volume 1, Rivington 1830, p. 244 and is generally regarded as part of Europe.Encyclopedic World Atlas, George Philip & Son, Oxford University Press: 2002, p.104 It is bordered to the north and northeast by Russia; to the west by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. It has a population of 3.9 million, of which over a third live in Tbilisi, the capital and largest city. Georgians, who are native to the region and constitute the majority of the population, are ethno-linguistically distinct from their neighboring nations and primarily speak Georgian, a Kartvelian language that has no relation to any other language family in the world.
Georgia has been inhabited since prehistory and is known for hosting the world's earliest known sites of winemaking. The classical era saw the emergence of several kingdoms, such as Colchis and Iberia, that formed the nucleus of the modern Georgian state. In the early 4th century, Georgians officially adopted Christianity, which contributed to their unification under the Kingdom of Georgia. Georgia reached its Golden Age during the High Middle Ages under the reigns of King David IV and his great-granddaughter Tamar. Beginning in the 15th century, the kingdom declined and disintegrated under relentless attacks from hostile empires like the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia. Georgia requested support from the Russian Empire, which ended up gradually annexing the country starting in 1801.
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia briefly emerged as an independent republic under German protection. However, the country was invaded and annexed by the Red Army in 1921; it then became a republic of the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, an independence movement grew quickly, leading to Georgia's secession from the Soviet Union in April 1991. For much of the subsequent decade, the country endured economic crises, political instability, and secessionist wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Following the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003, Georgia strongly pursued a pro-Western foreign policy, introducing a series of reforms aimed at integration into the European Union and NATO. This Western orientation led to worsening relations with Russia, culminating in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and continued Russian occupation of parts of Georgia.
Georgia is a representative democracy governed as a unitary parliamentary republic. It is a developing country with a very high Human Development Index and an emerging market economy. Sweeping economic reforms since 2003 have resulted in one of the freest business climates in the world, as well as greater economic freedom and transparency. In 2018, Georgia became the second country to legalize cannabis, and the first former socialist state to do so. Georgia is a member of numerous international organizations, including the Council of Europe, Eurocontrol, BSEC, GUAM, and Energy Community. As part of the Association Trio, Georgia is an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Since October 2024, Georgia has been immersed in a deep political crisis.
Etymology
Names of Georgia
Ancient Greeks (Strabo, Herodotus, Plutarch, Homer, etc.) and Romans (Titus Livius, Tacitus, etc.) referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians (, in some Greek sources).
The first mention of the name Georgia is in Italian on the of Pietro Vesconte dated 1320.Rouben Galichian (2007) Countries South of the Caucasus in Medieval Maps: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. pp. 188–189 At the early stage of its appearance in the Latin world, the name was often spelled Jorgia.Boeder; et al. (2002). Philology, typology and language structure. Peter Lang. p. 65. Lore-based theories were given by traveller Jacques de Vitry, who explained the name's origin by the popularity of Saint George among Georgians,Peradze, Gregory. "The Pilgrims' derivation of the name Georgia". Georgica, Autumn, 1937, nos. 4 & 5, 208–209 while Jean Chardin thought that Georgia came from the Greek ('tiller of the land').
Modern scholarship generally derives the name from the Persian term Gurj (), a historical ethnonym for Georgians. The ultimate origin of this term is debated, though it may be connected to gurğān, a region name meaning "land of wolves." From Persian, the term was borrowed into Byzantine Greek, Slavic, and later Western European languages. Its incorporation into their languages was also because of its similarity to Saint George. The adoption of the term in Western Europe coincided with increased contact during the Crusades and trade through Black Sea ports controlled by Genoese merchants. The association with Saint George, a popular figure in medieval Christendom, may have reinforced the exonym's appeal in Latin Europe.
The native name is (; 'land of Kartvelians'), derived from the Kartli region, recorded from the 9th century and in extended usage referring to the entire medieval Kingdom of Georgia prior to the 13th century. The Georgian circumfix -X- is a standard geographic construction designating 'the area where X dwell', where X is an ethnonym.Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts, pp. 419–423. Peeters Publishers, The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is (, i.e. 'Kartvelians'), first attested in the Umm Leisun inscription found in the Old City of Jerusalem, dated to the 5th or 6th century.
The medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth whom medieval chroniclers believed to have been the root of the local name of their kingdom. However, scholars agree that the word Kartli is derived from the Karts, a proto-Kartvelian tribe that emerged as a dominant regional group in ancient times. The name () consists of two parts. Its root, (), specifies an inhabitant of Kartli, or Iberia as it is known in sources of the Eastern Roman Empire.
State name The official name is "Georgia" per the English-language version of the Georgian Constitution, adopted in 1995. In Georgia's two official languages (Georgian and Abkhaz), the country is named () and () respectively. Prior to the adoption of the constitution in 1995 and following the dissolution of the USSR, the country was officially called the "Republic of Georgia".
Several languages continue to use the Russian variant of the country's name, Gruzia, which the Georgian authorities have sought to replace through diplomatic campaigns. Since 2006, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Hungary officially changed their appellation of the country to variants of the English Georgia. In 2020, Lithuania became the first country in the world to adopt Sakartvelas in all official communications.
History
Prehistory
The oldest traces of archaic humans date from approximately 1.8 million years ago in the form of the Dmanisi hominins, a subspecies of Homo erectus representing the oldest-known fossils of hominins in Eurasia. Buffered by the Caucasus and benefiting from the Black Sea ecosystem, the region seems to have served as a refugium throughout the Pleistocene, while the first continuous primitive settlements date back to the Middle Paleolithic, close to 200,000 years ago. During the Upper Paleolithic, settlements developed mostly in western Georgia, in the valleys of the Rioni and Qvirila rivers.
Signs of agriculture date back to at least the 6th millennium BC, especially in western Georgia, while the Mtkvari basin became stably populated in the 5th millennium BC, as evidenced with the rise of various cultures closely associated with the Fertile Crescent, including the Trialetian Mesolithic, the Shulaveri–Shomu culture, and the Leyla-Tepe culture. Archaeological findings show that settlements in modern-day Georgia were responsible for the first use of fibers, possibly for clothing, more than 34,000 years ago. It also hosts the earliest known sites of winemaking (dating to ) and the first signs of gold mining (3rd millennium BC).
The Kura-Araxes, Trialeti-Vanadzor, and Colchian cultures coincided with the development of proto-Kartvelian tribes that may have come from Anatolia during the expansion of the Hittite Empire, including the Mushki, Laz, and Byzeres. Some historians have suggested that the collapse of the Hittite world in the Late Bronze Age led to an expansion of the influence of these tribes to the Mediterranean Sea, notably with the Kingdom of Tabal.
Antiquity
The classical period saw the rise of several Georgian states, including Colchis in western Georgia, where Greek mythology located the Golden Fleece sought after by the Argonauts. Archaeological evidence points to a wealthy kingdom in Colchis as early as the 14th century BC and an extensive trade network with Greek colonies on the eastern Black Sea shore (such as Dioscurias and Phasis). The region was annexed by the Kingdom of Pontus and then by the Roman Republic.
Eastern Georgia remained a decentralized mosaic of various clans (ruled by individual mamasakhlisi) until the 4th century BC when it was conquered by Alexander the Great, eventually leading to the creation of the Kingdom of Iberia under the protectorate of the Seleucid Empire, an early example of advanced state organization under one king and an aristocratic hierarchy. Various wars with the Roman Empire, Parthia, and Armenia made Iberia regularly change its allegiance, though it remained a Roman client state for most of its history.
In 337, King Mirian III adopted Christianity as the state religion of Iberia, beginning the Christianization of the Western Caucasus region and solidly anchoring it in Rome's sphere of influence by abandoning the ancient Georgian polytheistic religion heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism. However, the Peace of Acilisene in 384 formalized the Sasanian control over the entire Caucasus, though Christian rulers of Iberia sought to rebel at times, leading to devastating wars in the 5th–6th centuries, most famously under the rule of King Vakhtang I who expanded Iberia to its largest historical extent by capturing all of western Georgia and building his capital at Tbilisi.
Medieval unification
In 580, the Sasanian Empire abolished the Kingdom of Iberia, leading to the disintegration of its constituent territories into various feudal regions by the early Middle Ages. The Roman–Persian wars plunged the region into chaos, with both Persia and Constantinople supporting various warring factions in the Caucasus, however, the Byzantine Empire was able to establish control over Georgian territories by the end of the 6th century, ruling Iberia indirectly through a local Kouropalates.
In 645, the Arabs invaded southeastern Georgia, starting an extended period of Muslim domination in the region; this also led to the establishment of several feudal states seeking independence from each other, such as the Emirate of Tbilisi and the Principality of Kakheti. Western Georgia remained mostly a Byzantine protectorate, especially following the Lazic War.