1973 Greek republic referendum in the context of "1974 Greek republic referendum"

The Kingdom of Greece (Greek: Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος, romanized: Vasíleion tis Elládos, pronounced [vaˈsili.on tis eˈlaðos]) was the Greek nation-state established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where Greece also secured its full independence from the Ottoman Empire after nearly four centuries. It remained a Kingdom until 1924, when the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed, and from the Republic's collapse in 1935 to its dissolution by the Regime of the Colonels in 1973. A referendum following the regime's collapse in 1974 confirmed the effective dissolution of the monarchy and the creation of the Third Hellenic Republic. For much of its existence, the Kingdom's main ideological goal was the Megali Idea (Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα, romanized: Megáli Idéa, lit. 'Great Idea'), which sought to annex lands with predominately Greek populations.

King Otto of the House of Wittelsbach ruled as an absolute monarch from 1835 until the 3 September 1843 Revolution, which transformed Greece into a constitutional monarchy, with the creation of the Prime Minister as head of government, universal male suffrage and a constitution. A popular insurrection deposed Otto in 1862, precipitating the gradual collapse of the early Greek parties (English, French, Russian), which had dominated Greek politics.

Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, Prince of Denmark (Greek: Παύλος Ντε Γκρες, romanized: Pavlos de Grèce; born 20 May 1967), is a Greek financier who is the former heir apparent to the defunct throne of Greece, becoming the Head of the Royal House of Greece upon his father's death on 10 January 2023. Pavlos was Crown Prince of Greece and heir apparent to the Greek throne from birth until the monarchy's abolition.

Pavlos was born in Athens as the second child and eldest son of the last King of Greece, Constantine II, and his wife Queen Anne-Marie. Pavlos was born into an unstable era for Greek politics, just shy of turning eight months old when he and his family were sent into exile, after Constantine II staged a failed counter-coup against the military junta. They first lived in Rome, before eventually settling in Copenhagen, where his family lived with Pavlos's maternal grandparents, King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark. Although they were in exile since December 1967, his parents continued to officially reign as King and Queen of the Hellenes from 1967 until 1973, when the military junta abolished the Greek monarchy and established the Third Hellenic Republic as its successor state. Following the abolition of the monarchy, Pavlos and his siblings grew up in London.

Frederica of Hanover (German: Friederike Luise; Greek: Φρειδερίκη Λουΐζα, romanized: Phreideríkē Louḯza; 18 April 1917 – 6 February 1981) was Queen of Greece from 1 April 1947 until 6 March 1964 as the wife of King Paul and the Queen Mother of Greece from 6 March 1964, when her son Constantine II became King, until 8 December 1974, when the monarchy was officially abolished after a referendum.

Granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II and daughter of Duke Ernest Augustus of Brunswick, Frederica was born a few months before the fall of the German Empire. Her family overthrown, she grew up between Austria and Weimar Germany, where her father owned large properties. As a teenager, she joined the Hitler Youth in 1933, before leaving to complete her studies for the next two years in the United Kingdom and then Italy. In Florence, she was received by Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark, at whose house she met the Crown Prince of Greece, Paul. The two fell in love and married two years after the restoration of the monarchy in Greece. In the years that followed, she gave birth to three children, Sophia in 1938, Constantine in 1940 and Irene in 1942.

Georgios Papadopoulos (/ˌpæpəˈdɒpələs/ PAP-ə-DOP-əl-əs; Greek: Γεώργιος Παπαδόπουλος [ʝeˈorʝi.os papaˈðopulos]; 5 May 1919 – 27 June 1999) was a Greek military officer and dictator who led a coup d'etat in Greece in 1967 and became the country's Prime Minister from 1967 to 1973. He also was the President of Greece under the junta in 1973, following a referendum. However, after causing a massacre by deploying military riflemen and a tank brigade to attack non-violent protestors to suppress the Athens Polytechnic uprising, he was, in turn, overthrown by hardliner Dimitrios Ioannidis, in a string of events that would culminate in the fall of the regime in 1974. His and the dictatorship's legacy, as well as its methods he constructed and effects on Greek economy and society as a whole, are still fiercely debated.

He joined the Hellenic Army during the Second World War and initially helped resist the Italian invasion of Greece in the Greco-Italian War. He is widely believed to have later collaborated as a member of the Axis-aligned Security Battalions. After the war, he rose to the rank of colonel in the army.