see ottoman empire and 400 years of slavery.
Seriously, did you know the first draft if the post revolution 1821 greek constitution was drafted by a greek schollar and THOMAS JEFFERSON in paris? The european monarchs got scared about the spread of americanism and imposed a constitutional monarchy on the flegling nation.
Greece currently has gasoline refinery, pipeline industries which make them a way point for shipping. They ports in Pireas and Thessaloniki have cargo shipps comming and going every day.
They also only have 11 million people and all the stuck on stupid problems of the EU.
The Greek problem is they have stopped trying to be Greek and have become bad Europeans.
Footnotes: During WW II Greeks in the USA sold the most war bonds. In one survey in the 1970's (ok its old) Greek voters trended close to 70% conservative. Greeks did not vote for Dukakis in overwhelming numbers.
http://www.the11thday.com
If anybody wants to see why Winston Churchil said "Greek don't fight like Heroes, Heros fight like Greeks."