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Early history

Finds from 1.8 million years ago show that ancestors of modern humans lived in the area of ​​Armenia. Hunters and gatherers became sedentary farmers and various cultures developed such as the Kura Araxes culture (from around 3400 BC).

In the 8th century BC The kingdom of Urartu came into being. It also comprised about half of what is now Armenia. Again and again the people of Urartu fought back against the Assyrians. In 547 BC But then Urartu was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus II. Urartu now became part of the Persian Empire.

Rule of the Persians

The region became a Persian province, a so-called satrapy. Sometime in the 6th century, the Armenian people also immigrated to this area. At that time Armenia was divided into two areas, with Eastern Armenia ruling over Western Armenia.

After the conquest of the Persian Empire by the Greek Alexander the Great, Persian rule in Armenia ended in 331 BC. But Alexander died soon afterwards and his empire was divided. 321 BC The Kingdom of Armenia (Greater Armenia) came into being. For a short time it later came under the rule of the Seleucids (215-190 BC). The Seleucids then had to surrender to Rome.

Kingdom of Armenia

In 188 BC Artaxias I appointed himself king of Armenia. He had previously been a governor of the Seleucids. He and his descendants consolidated Armenia as a kingdom. In the years 95 to 55 BC Tigranes the great ruled. He called himself “King of Kings”. This was the height of the power of Greater Armenia. 66 BC However, Tigranes had to submit to Rome.

In the 3rd century AD, the Sassanids (Persians) managed to control the area. But it remained a bone of contention between Rome and Persia. 301 declared King Trdat III. Christianity the state religion. In 387 western Armenia came under eastern Roman rule. In 428, Eastern Armenia became Persian. The Kingdom of Armenia ended.

Armenia under Arab and Byzantine rule

In the 7th century the Arabs also penetrated as far as Armenia. They put down revolts of the Armenian nobility and established their rule in the country. But the Bagratid family led the aristocracy of the Armenians and finally obtained the royal crown in Armenia in 885. So there was another kingdom of Armenia. It existed until 1045. The Byzantines now advanced again and conquered the area. The Ottoman Empire came into being in the 14th century, and Armenia came under its rule.

Armenia in the 19th century

In the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire and Persia lost power while Russia became increasingly powerful. The north-east of what was then Armenia, which roughly corresponds to today’s territory, came under Russian rule from Persia in 1828. In 1878 the Ottoman Empire ceded further areas to Russia, including two provinces that are now in northeastern Turkey. Georgia to the north was also part of the Russian Empire.

History of Armenia – 20th and 21st centuries

Genocide of the Armenians in 1915

Many Armenians lived in the east of the Ottoman Empire. Their main settlement area was there. When the nationalistic Young Turks came to power there, the Armenians were expelled and murdered in 1915. Turkey denies that it was genocide, which continues to strain relations between Turkey and Armenia and other western states.

Democratic Republic of Armenia (1918-1920)

As a result of the First World War, new states emerged. Armenia was one of them. It had first merged with Georgia and Azerbaijan in February 1918, but this union quickly disintegrated. On May 28, 1918, Armenia declared itself independent. Conflicts with the neighbors persisted, especially with countries where the majority of Armenians lived, such as Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian Soviet Republic (1920-1922)

In November 1920 coup to Bolsheviks to power and proclaimed the Armenian Soviet Republic. Russians invaded the country to support them. Armenia still remained an independent state.

The border between Turkey and Soviet Russia was re-regulated in 1921. This is how Turkey got its northeastern provinces back.

Part of the Soviet Union (1922-1991)

With the establishment of the Soviet Union in December 1922, Armenia’s independence finally ended. Armenia became one of the Union Republics, initially as part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Republic (with Georgia and Azerbaijan), then from 1936 as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Armenian SSR).

As a country located in Asia according to thesciencetutor, Armenia developed into an important industrial location and travel destination within the Soviet Union. The church was suppressed and a Russification, i.e. the expansion of the Russian language and cultural area, took place. In 1988 there was a major earthquake in which 25,000 people were killed. In the same year, an armed conflict broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area inhabited by the majority of Armenians but which was part of the Azerbaijani SSR.

Independence in 1991 and conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh

Levon Ter-Petrosyan became the first president of the new Republic of Armenia. He stayed in office until 1998. Robert Kocharyan followed him until 2008. His successor was again Serzh Sargsyan. In 2013 he was re-elected. In 2018, Armen Zarkissjan took office.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continued. Nagorno-Karabakh declared itself independent from Azerbaijan on September 2, 1991. This separation is not recognized internationally, but the region is in fact independent. Armenia occupied the area. Many Azerbaijanis fled.