Georgia is known as the country that invented wine. And, this notion has been obtained when archeologists excavated barrels of wines. And, the wine has been tested to denote that these barrels were stored with wine at least 8000 years ago. Hence, the pre-historic men that walked the earth in this region are believed to be the inventors of the wine that we relish today. With time, human beings started settling down and formed kingdoms and princely states in this region. This is the time of the classical era in Georgia and metallurgy flourished along with chivalry. Of the various states emerging at that time, the two prominent ones were Colchis (western part of present Georgia) and Iberia (eastern part of present Georgia). The latter state was more structured and ruled as an aristocratic form of government.
However, peace did not reign long; constant warfare for the establishment of power led the Roman Republic to conquer some of these states in 66 BC. Thereafter, the region saw a shift in the culture and beliefs as imposed by the rulers. From practicing Zoroastrianism and worshipping pagan deities, the citizens were compelled to accept Christianity as their state religion in 337 AD under the rule of Kind Mirion III. Gradually, people accepted the new faith and became more inclined towards literature and art holding the hands of Christianity. This golden period soon ended with turmoil breaking in. The region was bountiful and, thus, attracted invaders from all directions. The major blow came from the Byzantine Empire followed by the Arabs. This led to the kingdom being unified and broken down several times with an absolute destruction of law and order.
Tamerlane himself had attacked this region eight times and robbed current Georgia of its wealth and peace. Recovering the region as a whole from such devastation and death seemed next to impossible. Perhaps, the tripartite rule served as the savior at the end of the middle ages despite being an autocratic type of government. The region broke apart into four main kingdoms; Kartli and Kakheti emerged on the eastern side, Imereti established its power in the northwestern region, and Samtskhe was founded in the southwestern region. However, warfare continues and the western parts fell into the hands of the Turks while the eastern parts were conquered by the Persians.
Taking advantage of the turmoil in this region, Russia sent its troops in 1770 to free the western part, mainly, Imerati. The Turks soon receded and the Russian military took control of Imerati. With Imerati as their base, Russia went on to capture and unify the surrounding kingdoms and princely states. Under the rule of the Russian military, Georgia witnessed a period of truce and freedom. However, the happiness was short-lived with USSR gaining control in 1921 under the leadership of Stalin. The tyrannical rule at that time created devastation in the country. The people of Georgia lived in a state of dismay and craved independence. Though Stalin’s rule did not last for eternity and USSR was broken down, it took Georgia a few decades to recover its lost glory and declare independence in 1991 just before the disintegration of the USSR. Since then, development and beautification were carried on at full speed and Georgia is a spectacular country to visit today.