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GEORGIAN SOCIETY
Modern-type society had first appeared on the territory of Georgia at the beginning of the first millennium BC. In the 6th century BC the antique Georgian states of Kolkhida in Western Georgia were formed, and in the 4th - 3d centuries BC - Iberia was formed in Eastern Georgia. Up to the 3d century AD Georgia has experienced heavy Roman influence. But in the 3d century a powerful neighbor of Sasanid Iran appeared and that has made East Georgia seek protection from Byzantium. Georgia accepted Christianity in 337 AD, and that helped the unification of Georgia and the spread of Georgian written language.
From the 5th till the 9th - 10-th centuries Georgia fell under Sasanids, Byzantium and Arab Caliphate. It is considered that Georgian ethnos was formed approximately in this very period.
Economic and cultural golden age of Georgia dates back to the 12th and the beginning of 13th centuries during the rule of David IV - the Builder and Queen (Tsarina) Tamara.
From the 13th century Georgia was suffering from invasions of Mongol-Tatars, Tamerlan (Timur), and in finally during the 15th - 16th centuries it fell apart into separate kingdoms and principalities dependent from Turkish sultans and Iranian shahs. Georgia was not united up until the second part of the 18th century.
In 1762 Georgian principalities of Kartli and Kakheti were united into one East Georgian kingdom
Back in the fifteenth century ties between Georgia and Russia were established. In 1783 king George put Georgia under the Russian protection. In 1801 Georgia was made the part of Russian Empire.
Georgia managed to get its independence in 1917 after the October Socialist revolution in Russia and up until 1921 Georgia was an independent state. In 1921 Georgia became Soviet. From March, 1922 till December, 1936 Georgia was a member of Trans Caucasian Federation, later it became a separate part of the USSR as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Republic of Georgia is being an independent state since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
See also
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