 Family tomb of George Coronio ofSyros,Pere-Lachaise Cemetery | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 35,000[1] – 50.000 (2015)[2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paris,Grenoble,Marseille,Corsica andsouthern France | |
| Languages | |
| French,Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Greek Orthodoxy,Catholicism,Atheism,Judaism |
| Part ofa series on |
| Greeks |
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Groups by region Modern Greece: Constantinople and Asia Minor: Other regions: Other groups: |
| History of Greece (Ancient ·Byzantine ·Ottoman) |
TheGreek community inFrance numbers around between 35,000–50,000 people (in 2015). They are located all around the country but the main communities are located inParis,Marseille,Corsica andGrenoble.[3]
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Marseille, known as Massalia in Greek, was founded by Greeks from Ionia in 600 BC. The Massaliot Greeks are believed to have introducedviticulture to France. Notable ancient Greeks from Massalia included the great explorer and scientistPytheas.
Historically the Greek community was composed of merchants, ship-owners, intellectuals and international traders. They participated in the city’s political life or became patrons of its cultural life and the philanthropic activity of some of them was crowned by theLégion d’Honneur.
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Corsican Maniots are descendants ofManiots, who migrated to Corsica during the 400 yearOttoman rule over most ofGreece. To this day theCargèse region of Corsica is referred to asCargèse la Grecque (Cargèse, the Greek). The origins of the Greek Maniots community inCorsica dates back to the end of the 17th century, whenGreece was then underOttoman Turk rule and there was a flow of Greek refugees from theOttoman Empire. Those who settled on Corsica had sided withVenice in the Ottoman-VenetianMorean War of the 1660s, while rival clans fromMani and the Peloponnese fought for the victoriousOttomans and in many cases 'turned Turk', ie converted to Islam, so as to benefit from lower taxes or join the Ottoman ruling elite (seeGreek Muslims on conversion to Ottoman Islam in the Peloponnese and the list of Ottoman commanders of Greek and Albanian origin from the Peloponnese, indicated by the nickname 'Moralı', ie from theMorea, such as MoralıDamat Hasan Pasha).[6]
The Maniot Greeks were settled on Corsica and given lands for farming and animal grazing by the then ruling power, Genoa, as part of a Genoese policy to limit the spread and impact of an emergent Corsican nationalism violently opposed to foreign rule. The Maniot Greek settlers also had to provide men to serve in the localGendarmerie, as a result of which the Greek settler community was seen by many indigenous Corsicans as contributing to the Genoese occupation.
The Maniots founded their four new villages in Paomia with their own church and culture. As a consequence, the pro-Genoese Greeks in Corsica became the targets of sustained attacks by Corsican nationalists and resentful farmers, and so had to be re-settled several times before finally being given territory around Cargese. Attempts at integrating Greeks into Corsican society involved the establishment of a mixed Greek-Corsican gendarmerie. Many Corsican Greeks subsequently left the island for French-ruled Algeria, in a wave of south European settlement of the North African colony sponsored by the French government, but returned to Corsica and elsewhere in France following Algerian independence. They have now become fully assimilated into Corsican and French society, through both intermarriage and education. In general this has resulted in Corsican Greeks losing their separate ethnic-religious identity and knowledge of the Greek language, with even older Cargese inhabitants of Greek ancestry having little if any ability to read or speak Greek, while some inhabitants still possess Corsicanized Greek names (like Garidacci etc.) and attend services in the Greek-Catholic church of Cargèse.
Napoleon's ambassador to Prussia, a rather solemn and self-important little Corsican of Greek origin, comte Vincente Benedetti.
European diasporas in France  | ||
|---|---|---|
| Central Europe |  | |
| Eastern Europe | ||
| Northern Europe | ||
| Southeast Europe | ||
| Southern Europe | ||
| Western Europe | ||
| Old Greek Diaspora | |
|---|---|
| New Greek Diaspora | |
| Traditional areas of Greek settlement | |
| Europe | |
| Caucasus | |
| Central Asia | |
| Middle East | |
| Africa | |
| Latin America | |
| Asia-Pacific | |
