Georgia (country)

Georgia, locally known as Sakartvelo, is a country in the South Caucasus region on the coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia, and is today generally regarded as part of Europe. It is bordered to the north and northeast by Russia; to the west by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. Georgia covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi). It has a population of 3.9 million, of which over a third live in Tbilisi, the capital and largest city. Georgians, who are native to the region and constitute the majority of the population, are ethno-linguistically distinct from all of their neighboring nations and primarily speak Georgian, a Kartvelian language that has no relation to any other language family in the world.

Georgia has been inhabited since prehistory, and is known for hosting the world's earliest known sites of winemaking. The classical era saw the emergence of several kingdoms, such as Colchis and Iberia, that formed the nucleus of the modern Georgian state. In the early fourth century, Georgians officially adopted Christianity, which contributed to their unification under the Kingdom of Georgia. Georgia reached its Golden Age during the High Middle Ages under the reigns of King David IV and Queen Tamar. Beginning in the 15th century, the kingdom declined and disintegrated under relentless attacks from hostile empires, like the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia. Georgia requested support from the Russian Empire, which ended up gradually annexing the country starting in 1801.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia briefly emerged as an independent republic under German protection. However, the country was invaded and annexed by the Red Army in 1921; it then became one of the republics of the Soviet Union. 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. This Western orientation led to worsening relations with Russia, culminating in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and continued Russian occupation of parts of Georgia.

Georgia is a representative democracy governed as a unitary parliamentary republic. It is a developing country with a very high Human Development Index and an emerging market economy. Sweeping economic reforms since 2003 have resulted in one of the freest business climates in the world, greater economic freedom and transparency, and among the fastest rates of GDP growth. In 2018, Georgia became the second country to legalize cannabis, and the first former socialist state to do so. Georgia is a member of numerous international organizations, including the Council of Europe, Eurocontrol, BSEC, GUAM, and Energy Community. As part of the Association Trio, Georgia is an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Since October 2024, Georgia has been immersed in a deep political crisis.

Etymology

Names of Georgia

Ancient Greeks (Strabo, Herodotus, Plutarch, Homer, etc.) and Romans (Titus Livius, Tacitus, etc.) referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians (Iberoi, Ἰβηροι in some Greek sources).

The first mention of the name Georgia is in Italian on the mappa mundi of Pietro Vesconte dated 1320. At the early stage of its appearance in the Latin world, the name was often spelled Jorgia. Lore-based theories were given by traveller Jacques de Vitry, who explained the name's origin by the popularity of St. George among Georgians, while Jean Chardin thought that Georgia came from the Greek γεωργός ('tiller of the land').

Modern scholarship generally derives the name Georgia from the Persian term Gurj (گرج), a historical ethnonym for Georgians. The ultimate origin of this term is debated, though it may be connected to gurğān, a region name meaning "land of wolves." From Persian, the term was borrowed into Byzantine Greek, Slavic, and later Western European languages. The adoption of the term Georgia in Western Europe coincided with increased contact during the Crusades and trade through Black Sea ports controlled by Genoese merchants. The association with St. George, a popular figure in medieval Christendom, may have reinforced the exonym's appeal in Latin Europe.

The native name is Sakartvelo (საქართველო; 'land of Kartvelians'), derived from the core central Georgian region of Kartli, recorded from the 9th century, and in extended usage referring to the entire medieval Kingdom of Georgia prior to the 13th century. The Georgian circumfix sa-X-o is a standard geographic construction designating 'the area where X dwell', where X is an ethnonym. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi (ქართველები, i.e. 'Kartvelians'), first attested in the Umm Leisun inscription found in the Old City of Jerusalem, dated to the 5th or 6th century.

The medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth who medieval chroniclers believed to have been the root of the local name of their kingdom. However, scholars agree that the word Kartli is derived from the Karts, a proto-Kartvelian tribe that emerged as a dominant regional group in ancient times. The name Sakartvelo (საქართველო) consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i (ქართველ-ი), specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, or Iberia as it is known in sources of the Eastern Roman Empire.

State name

The official English-language name of the country is "Georgia" per Article 2 of the English-language version of the Georgian Constitution, adopted in 1995 (although, at that time, the name was specified in Article 1 instead). In Georgia's two official languages (Georgian and Abkhaz), the country is named საქართველო (Sakartvelo) and Қырҭтәыла (Kərttʷʼəla) respectively. Prior to the adoption of the Constitution in 1995 and following the dissolution of the USSR, the country was officially called the "Republic of Georgia".

Several languages continue to use the Russian variant of the country's name, Gruzia, which the Georgian authorities have sought to replace through diplomatic campaigns. Since 2006, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Hungary officially changed their appellation of the country to variants of the English Georgia. In 2020, Lithuania became the first country in the world to adopt Sakartvelas in all official communications.

History

Prehistory

The oldest traces of archaic humans in what is now Georgia date from approximately 1.8 million years ago in the form of the Dmanisi hominins, a subspecies of Homo erectus representing the oldest-known fossils of hominins in Eurasia. Buffered by the Caucasus and benefiting from the Black Sea ecosystem, the region seems to have served as a refugium throughout the Pleistocene, while the first continuous primitive settlements date back to the Middle Paleolithic, close to 200,000 years ago. During the Upper Paleolithic, settlements developed mostly in Western Georgia, in the valleys of the Rioni and Qvirila rivers.

Signs of agriculture date back to at least the 6th millennium BC, especially in Western Georgia, while the Mtkvari basin became stably populated in the 5th millennium BC, as evidenced with the rise of various cultures closely associated with the Fertile Crescent, including the Trialetian Mesolithic, the Shulaveri–Shomu culture, and the Leyla-Tepe culture. Archaeological findings show that settlements in modern-day Georgia were responsible for the first use of fibers, possibly for clothing, more than 34,000 years ago, the first cases of viticulture (dating to c. 6000 BCE), and the first signs of gold mining (3rd millennium BC).