Journey through the people, cities and ideas that shaped Georgia, from the first hominins at Dmanisi to the republic of today.
Follow Colchis and Iberia, Tbilisi, the Georgian alphabet and church, David the Builder and Queen Tamar, Russian rule, the 1918 republic and the Rose Revolution.
Explore 14 historical periods, rulers and heads of government, and 88 chapters of territorial change.
Kings and monarchs, foreign overlords, Russian viceroys, heads of state, Soviet party leaders and prime ministers of the Georgian lands.
A Journey Through the Ages
Georgia lies between the Greater Caucasus and the Black Sea, linking Europe and Asia. Explore Colchis and Iberia, Christian Georgia, the golden age of David and Tamar, the Mongol and Ottoman centuries, Russian rule, the 1918 republic, Soviet Georgia and the modern republic.
1,800,000 BCE – 1,201 BCE
Dmanisi preserves hominin fossils about 1.8 million years old, and the Shulaveri-Shomu culture and Kura-Araxes farmers later shaped the South Caucasus. Bronze Age Trialeti kurgans and early metalworking in the highlands preceded the first written records of the region's peoples.
1,200 BCE – 303 BCE
Assyrian texts name Diauehi from 1118 BCE, while Colchis on the Black Sea coast grew rich through trade and Greek colonies such as Phasis. Urartu absorbed Diauehi in the eighth century BCE, and Colchis later passed under Pontic and then Roman influence.
302 BCE – 299
Pharnavaz I founded the Kingdom of Iberia around 302 BCE, with Mtskheta and Armazi as its heartland. Later Artaxiad kings, Roman campaigns under Pompey and Persian rivalry made Iberia a contested buffer state before Christianity arrived around 319.
300 – 644
Iberia and western Lazica adopted Christianity, and Vakhtang I Gorgasali moved the Iberian capital to Tbilisi. Persian and Byzantine powers fought over both kingdoms, notably in the Lazic War of 541-562, and the Iberian monarchy was abolished in 580.
645 – 1007
Arab forces held Tbilisi from the eighth century as an emirate, while the Kingdom of Abkhazia rose in the west and Bagratid princes ruled Tao-Klarjeti. Bagrat III inherited both thrones in 1008, a union that laid the base of a unified Georgia.
1008 – 1235
David IV defeated the Seljuks at Didgori in 1121 and took Tbilisi in 1122, and Queen Tamar presided over the peak of Georgian power around 1220. Monastic and literary flowering, including Rustaveli's epic, accompanied the kingdom's reach across the Caucasus.
1236 – 1465
Mongol conquest by 1243 reduced Georgia to vassalage, and the realm was divided into eastern and western lines between 1247 and 1329. George V briefly reunited it, but Timur's campaigns and the Black Death left it exhausted and ready to fracture.
1466 – 1800
The old kingdom split into Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti and Samtskhe, caught between Ottoman and Safavid empires by the Amasya settlement of 1555. Erekle II united the east in 1762, but Georgievsk in 1783 and the 1795 sack of Tbilisi paved the way for Russia.
1801 – 1917
Russia annexed Kartli-Kakheti in 1801, then Imereti in 1810, and later absorbed the Black Sea principalities and Abkhazia in 1864. Tiflis became the viceroyalty's capital, and the 1897 census counted 1,051,032 in the Tiflis Governorate and 1,058,241 in Kutaisi.
1918 – 1920
The Democratic Republic of Georgia declared independence on 26 May 1918 under a Menshevik-led government and was recognised by Soviet Russia in the Moscow treaty of May 1920. Red Army forces overran it in February and March 1921.
1921 – 1990
Georgia entered the USSR in 1922 via the Transcaucasian federation and became a union republic in 1936, with Abkhaz and Adjar autonomous republics and a South Ossetian oblast. Mass Soviet-era growth lifted the population to 5.4 million by 1989.
1991 – 2002
Georgia declared independence on 9 April 1991, then suffered a coup against Zviad Gamsakhurdia and wars in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The loss of Sukhumi in September 1993 displaced roughly 250,000 Georgians, and the 2002 census counted 4,371,535.
2003 – 2012
The Rose Revolution of November 2003 brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power and launched sweeping reforms. In August 2008 a short war with Russia ended with Moscow recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Georgia losing the Kodori Gorge and Akhalgori.
2013 – present
Georgian Dream governments pursued an EU association agreement and received candidate status in December 2023, then faced a political crisis after the disputed October 2024 election and the freeze of EU accession talks. The 2024 census counted 3,929,581 in government-controlled territory.
Colchis, Iberia and the Georgian kingdoms, 1118 BCE – 2026
From Diauehi and Colchis to the kingdoms of Iberia and Lazica, the Kingdom of Abkhazia, the united Kingdom of Georgia of David the Builder and Queen Tamar, the successor kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti, Russian Georgia, the Democratic Republic, Soviet Georgia and independent Georgia. Watch the Georgian realms change year by year, with the empires around them; Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region / South Ossetia are shown as areas outside central government control.
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Dmanisi, Colchis on the Black Sea and the Kingdom of Iberia connect the region with the earliest hominins, Greek colonies and Rome and Persia. Christianity, arriving in the fourth century, became a lasting part of Georgian identity.
The united kingdom of David IV and Queen Tamar, with Rustaveli’s epic and a monastic and literary flowering, was followed by Mongol, Timurid, Ottoman and Safavid pressure. Fragmented kingdoms preserved language, church and statehood until Russian annexation.
The Democratic Republic of 1918, Soviet Georgia, independence in 1991, civil wars, the Rose Revolution, the 2008 war and the European question of the 2020s frame a modern history of statehood and contested territory.
Events and ruler profiles retain the references supplied with the dataset. Structural and display checks do not establish historical accuracy. The research report records unverified links, single-source events and conflicting dates; recent events remain subject to revision.
The supplied map retains its credits, references and territorial caveats. Historical states, context layers and approximate zones distinguish regional authority from modern borders, and disputed territories such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia are identified in the map.
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