Over the last 3000 years Greeks have always perceived themselves as an elect people. Their history of two thousand years under foreign dominion portrays the sufferings of a nation, which attained the highest degree of civilisation in antiquity. Yet, all those years have not eradicated their national character and culture, including their language, nor reduced their national ambitions.

During classical antiquity the Greek identity was established through language, culture and superiority in science, technology and letters. Soon after, via Alexander the Great and the unified Greek army, they established the first real empire of the world spreading Hellenism across three continents and leading the genesis of the Eastern Hellenic world. Later, Greeks appeared as Byzantines in a Christian Empire (330–1453 AD), which alone guarded and disseminated the true faith, the Orthodoxy. Yet in historical and political terms, it was only in 1830 that the Greek people achieved an exclusive sovereign identity through the establishment of a modern Greek state. This was made possible only with the active support of the European Powers, the influence of the utilitarian western tradition and institutional life, and the active moral and financial contribution of the Greek communities scattered throughout Europe since the middle of the fifteenth century. Prior to the foundation of the Greek state, Greeks lived for almost five hundred years as a subject millet (people) in the Ottoman Empire distinguished only by their religious affiliation.