Located in the Caucasus Mountains on the isthmus between the Black and Caspian Seas, Georgia has been significant throughout history as a region that conquering powers have tried to control. Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire sought a presence there more than two thousand years ago. Its location today is still important as the bridge between Russia and Turkey, and as a bordering country to Armenia, oil-rich Azerbaijan, and the unstable Russian regions of Chechnia, North Ossetia and Dagestan.

Georgians were the second people group to accept Christianity as state religion in 330 AD. Georgian territory came under Islamic influence as control passed at various junctures to Arab, Persian and Turkish invaders, and remnants of those occupations are present today among Georgia’s indigenous Muslim groups. Nevertheless, Georgians enjoyed a degree of freedom from the 10th century, when a number of Georgian feudal states were united to form one kingdom, to the 19th century, when most of Georgia was absorbed into the Russian Empire. Georgians grew disheartened during the ensuing period of Russification, and socialist ideals began to radicalize a new generation of intellectuals, among whom was a Bolshevik by the name of Josef Djugashvili – later known as Stalin.

Georgia was internationally recognized as an independent state between 1918 and 1920. By 1921, the Bolsheviks had eliminated the major elements of resistance within Russia, and the Soviet Army turned south to reincorporate lands formerly controlled by the Russian Empire. The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was formed in 1936 with three interior autonomous regions: Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Adjaria. Georgian nationalism remained strong during the Soviet period, and many local leaders suppressed the rights of the republic’s ethnic minorities. Corruption became a major problem within Georgia, and Eduard Shevardnadze, a rising local Communist Party official, gained favor both in Moscow and throughout Georgia as a competent and incorruptible leader. Gorbachev appointed Shevardnadze to the post of Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1985.

On April 9, 1991, Georgia, led by newly elected President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, declared independence from the Soviet Union. A period of chaos followed, and Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia in 1992 to take power. He successfully mediated secession attempts by Abkhazia and South Ossetia and survived an attempted coup. Shevardnadze was officially elected president in 1995 and re-elected in 2000. His tenure has proven less principled than during Soviet times, and criminal groups and corruption have flourished. Nonetheless, Georgia has also developed a thriving third sector, marked by a panoply of independent media outlets and grassroots political activism.

Relations with Georgia’s northern neighbor have been rocky. Georgia reluctantly joined the Russia-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 1993, and peacekeepers from both the CIS and the United Nations patrol areas of potential conflict within Georgia. Much to the chagrin of the Georgian government, Russia still maintains a Soviet-era military base on Georgian territory and has provided tacit support to separatist Abkhazia. Russia has threatened to bomb parts of Georgia as a result of Georgia’s lack of control over its mountainous regions bordering the break-away Republic of Chechnia – namely the Pankisi Gorge – and has accused Georgia on numerous occasions of harboring Chechen fugitives. Russia has also been irritated by Georgian overtures to the West. Georgia joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace and has been receiving military training and assistance from the United States.

Georgia is in dire need of capital investment to restore its crumbling energy, transportation, and communication infrastructure. Though an impressive privatization campaign has been completed, insufficient legal reforms, combined with pervasive corruption, have deterred many potential investors. Georgia has benefited in the past two years from the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Shah Deniz gas pipeline that will carry hydrocarbons from Azerbaijan’s Caspian fields to a Turkish port on the Mediterranean. Both pipelines, financed by a large international consortium and managed by BP, are expected to come on-line in 2005.

Much anticipated parliamentary elections on November 2, 2003, showed signs of vote-rigging in favor of parties loyal to Shevardnadze. Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili claimed victory for his party and encouraged Georgians to protest and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience. Tens of thousands of supporters took to the streets in what became known as the Rose Revolution. Three weeks later Shevardnadze resigned, and new parliamentary elections were held in December. Mikhail Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia in January 2004 with 96 percent of the vote. Saakashvili has pursued ambitious reform and anti-corruption programs, and has sought to rein in regions, such as Adjaria, that have been resistant to Tbilisi’s authority.