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Portal:Georgia (country)

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Welcome to the Georgia Portal

საქართველოს გერბი
საქართველოს გერბი

Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო, romanized: sakartvelo, IPA: [sakʰartʰʷelo] ⓘ) is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkey to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and Azerbaijan to the southeast. Georgia covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi). It has a population of 3.7 million, of which over a third live in the capital and largest city, Tbilisi. Georgians, who are native to the region, constitute a majority of the country's population and are its titular nation.

Georgia has been inhabited since prehistory, hosting the world's earliest known sites of winemaking, gold mining, and textiles. 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 fourth century, Georgians officially adopted Christianity, which contributed to the unification into the Kingdom of Georgia. Georgia reached its Golden Age during the High Middle Ages under the reigns of King David IV and Queen Tamar. Beginning in the 15th century, the kingdom declined and disintegrated under pressure from various regional powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia, before being gradually annexed into the Russian Empire starting in 1801.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia briefly emerged as an independent republic under German protection, but was invaded and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1922, becoming one of its constituent republics. 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 democratic and economic 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, greater economic freedom and transparency, and among the fastest rates of GDP growth. In 2018, Georgia became the second country in the world 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, Energy Community. As part of the Association Trio, Georgia is a candidate for membership in the European Union. (Full article...)

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The Kingdom of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს სამეფო, romanized: sakartvelos samepo), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in c. 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from the 11th to 13th centuries. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East, and its pan-Caucasian empire and network of tributaries stretched from Eastern Europe to Anatolia and northern frontiers of Iran, while Georgia also maintained religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and the Monastery of Iviron in Greece. It is the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.

Lasting for several centuries, the kingdom fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. The following decades were marked by the Black Death, as well as numerous invasions under the leadership of Timur, who devastated the country's economy, population, and urban centers. The Kingdom's geopolitical situation further worsened after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire and the Empire of Trebizond by the Ottoman Turks. As a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into a fractured entity. This whole series of events also led to the final collapse of the kingdom into anarchy by 1466 and the mutual recognition of its constituent kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti, and Imereti as independent states between 1490 and 1493—each led by a rival branch of the Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities—Odishi, Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Samtskhe. (Full article...)

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Selected biography

Niko Pirosmani
Niko Pirosmani

Niko Pirosmanashvili (known internationally as Niko Pirosmani; Georgian: ნიკო ფიროსმანაშვილი); b. May 5, 1862 - d. 1918) was a Georgian primitivist painter.

Pirosmani was born to a peasant family in the village of Mirzaani of the Kakheti province, then Russian Empire. His family owned a small vineyard. He was orphaned as a kid and put in the care of his two elder sisters. In search of a better life he moved with them to Tbilisi in 1870. In Tbilisi he was employed by a wealthy family as a servant, where he learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876 he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman for a few years.

Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly onto black oilcloth. In 1882 he opened a workshop in Tbilisi which was unsuccessful. In 1890 he worked as a railroad conductor, and in 1895 started drawing signboards. In 1893 he co-founded a dairy farm in Tbilisi which he left in 1901. Throughout his life, Pirosmani, who was always poor, was willing to take up random odd jobs, which often included housepainting and whitewashing buildings. Despite local popularity of his paintings, of which about 200 survive to date, his relationship with professional artists had remained uneasy; therefore, making a living had been always more important to him than abstract aesthetics. In April 1918 he died of malnutrition and liver failure. He was buried at the St. Nino cemetery; the exact location is unknown as it was not registered.

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Did you know...

Meri Shervashidze
Meri Shervashidze
  • ...Erekle II (1720-1798), king of Kartl-Kakheti, married three times and had thirteen sons and 10 daughters...
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Svaneti region, Western Georgia
Svaneti region, Western Georgia
Svaneti region, Western Georgia
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Religions in Georgia

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