History of Georgia

Kingdom of Georgia, 1008–1466 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Kingdom of Georgia 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. The kingdom fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. A series of invasions and other troubles led to the final collapse of the kingdom into anarchy by 1466.

Seat of power: Tbilisi

Rulers

• Tamar of Georgia, King of Georgia, 1178–1213
• Rusudan of Georgia, queen regnant, 1223–1245

Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, 1762–1801 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was created in 1762 by the unification of the two eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. In 1783 Heraclius signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russian Empire, which made the kingdom a Russian protectorate. In the 1790s Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar invaded the Georgian kingdom, capturing and sacking Tbilisi. In 1801 the kingdom was officially annexed into the Russian Empire.

Seat of power: Tbilisi

Rulers

• Heraclius II of Georgia, king, 1762–1798

Democratic Republic of Georgia, 1918–1921 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Democratic Republic of Georgia was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia, which existed from May 1918 to March 1921. It was governed by a moderate, multi-party political system led by the Georgian Social Democratic Party (Mensheviks). In February 1921 the Bolshevik Red Army invaded the country, leading to the republic's collapse by March of that year. The Georgian Government, led by Prime Minister Noe Zhordania, moved to France and continued to work in exile.

Seat of power: Tbilisi

Georgian SSR, 1921–1991 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1991. In 1921 the 11th Red Army invaded Georgia from the south, and on 25 February Tbilisi fell to the Bolsheviks. From 1922 to 1936 it was part of the Transcaucasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. In 1989 the Georgian SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws, and in 1990 the republic was renamed the Republic of Georgia.

Seat of power: Tbilisi

Georgia, 1991 to today Draft, not yet reviewed

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. Relations with Russia worsened, culminating in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008, and the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, negotiated a ceasefire agreement on 12 August 2008.

Seat of power: Tbilisi

Rulers

• Zviad Gamsakhurdia, President of Georgia, 1991–1992
• Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia, 1992–2003
• Nino Burjanadze, President of Georgia, 2003–2004
• Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, 2004–2013
• Nino Burjanadze, President of Georgia, 2007–2008
• Giorgi Marghvilashvili, President of Georgia, 2013–2018
• Salome Zourabichvili, President of Georgia, 2018–2024
• Mikheil Kavelashvili, President of Georgia, 2024 to today