The current Georgia roughly corresponds to the regions that the ancients called Colchis and Iberia. The Georgians formed their first nation state upon the fall of the Macedonian Empire. In the 4th century. their conversion to Christianity began. They had their own script, with two different alphabets related to the Armenian alphabet. The economy was mainly based on agriculture in the valleys, pastoralism and forestry in the mountainous areas. The traditional costumes were rich, especially for women; the armament kept for a long time, next to the firearms, the bow, the ax, the saber, the knut, the mace. The social order was based on the division into tribes made up of consanguineous groups often inhabiting distinct villages; these local communities were run by an elder and an old woman. A feudal regime with a dominant aristocracy and differentiated social classes had been replaced among the Georgians of the plain; there was also slavery. Exogamy was practiced, and cases of polygamy were not rare, even among Christians.

According to localcollegeexplorer, the Arab conquest, towards the middle of the 7th century, left direct power to the local aristocracy and the weakening of the caliphate allowed the gradual formation of a national monarchy. This reached its apogee with King David II (1089-1125) and with Queen Tamara (1184-1213). The Mongol and Timurid invasions produced an epoch of decline, which the restored national monarchy (Alexander I, 1412-42) tried in vain to repair. The rise of the Ottoman power and its wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. with Persia, then the appearance of the Russian Empire to the North compromised the independent development of Georgia, which since the 16th century. he sought the protection of the tsars. The country’s formal annexation to Russia was initiated in 1801.

Under Russian rule, in the 19th century. there was a notable civil and industrial development (abolition of serfdom, 1863-67; large railway constructions, maximum commercial increase, etc.). Thus, the favorable conditions were also created for the revolutionary movement, which in 1905 and then starting from 1917 gained an ever stronger position in the country. In 1918-21 a Democratic Republic led by the Mensheviks was born in Georgia, but a Communist uprising then led to the proclamation of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. Georgia entered the USSR in 1922 as part of the Transcaucasian Federation, and then from 1936 as a federated republic.

Having become an independent Republic in 1991, Georgia experienced a prolonged phase of internal instability, determined both by political conflicts and by ethnic clashes which re-exploded with violence after the detachment from the USSR. With the collapse of the composite nationalist front that had led the country to independence, the opposition to President Z. Gamsakhurdia escalated into civil war. After the election as head of the country of EA Ševardnadze, former Soviet foreign minister and leading figure in perestroika (1992), the followers of Gamsakhurdia were overwhelmed also thanks to the Russian intervention, made possible by the approach to Moscow promoted by Ševardnadze, which also led to the entry of Georgia Commonwealth of Independent States (1993). In South Ossetia, the spread of a separatist movement, which since 1989 had claimed independence and integration in the Russian Federation, resulted in civil war; The situation in Abhazija also remained critical, in turn in conflict with the central government to achieve independence, and both regions, supported in their aspirations by Russia, became de facto independent. Mainly Christian, Georgia was also affected by the growing conflict with the Republic autonomous of Adžarija, of Muslim religion. This complex situation thwarted efforts to consolidate new political structures and economic reconstruction, while creating dramatic social problems, such as the displacement of tens of thousands of refugees, aggravated by the struggle between private militias, responsible for repeated acts of terrorism..

At the end of 1994 the relative improvement of the economic condition favored the re-establishment of central authority and the strengthening of presidential powers, sanctioned by the Constitution approved in 1995. In the elections for the new Parliament, the majority of the votes went to the party of Ševardnadze, who in 1995 he was elected president of the Republic and reconfirmed in the presidential elections of 2000. In 2003 the fraud reported after the legislative elections by the opposition led by M. Saakašvili and the consequent street movements (Revolution of the Roses) forced Ševardnadze to resign; he was succeeded by Saakašili himself, elected with an overwhelming majority of votes (over 95%) in 2004. The new president’s program of integration into the Western bloc and the growing Western influence (the process of rapprochement with the EU and the US has translated into a policy of economic and military collaboration) have raised concerns in Russia. The opening in 2006 of the BTC oil pipeline that transports Caspian oil to Turkey from Baku, passing through Georgian territory, has further fueled the tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow, which dramatically exploded in the summer of 2008, when Georgia reestablish its control over South Ossetia, in support of which Russia has sent its troops. After the brief conflict, which ended with the mediation of the European Union, Russia formally recognized the independence of Abhazija and South Ossetia.

On the domestic front, the legislative elections held in October 2012, in which there was a turnout of 61%, saw the defeat of Saakašvili on which the opposition Georgian Dream party led by B. Ivanišvili prevailed., the country’s new premier, who was succeeded by I. Garibašvili in 2013. The presidential consultations held in October 2013 saw the victory of Georgia Margvelašvili, who obtained 67% of the votes. In December 2015, due to the worsening of the economic crisis, Prime Minister Garibašvili resigned, taking over from him Georgia Kvirikašvili of the Georgian Dream party; reconfirmed at the helm of the country after the legislative consultations held in October 2016, to which Georgian Dream won the victory in 48 out of 50 constituencies, Kvirikašvili resigned in June 2018 following a series of popular protests against the government and for incurable differences with the party leader B. Ivanišvili, taking over from him in office M. Bakhtadze, replaced in September 2019 by Georgia Gakharia of the Georgian Dream party, who confirmed himself as the winner in the November 2020 legislative elections, in which he obtained 48% of the votes. In the first round of the presidential consultations held in October 2018, it was successful S. Zurabišvili, independent candidate supported by the Georgian Dream party (38.7%), followed by the opposition candidate Georgia Vasadze (37.7%), who defeated in the ballot obtaining over 55% of the preferences and taking over the post to outgoing president Margvelašvili. In February 2021, Prime Minister Gakharia resigned, replaced on the same date by I. Garibašvili.