Georgia (country)

Georgia is a nation in Eastern Europe that borders Western Asia. It is the nexus of the two continents. In the Caucasus area, it is bordered on the west by the Black Sea, on its north and east by Russia, on its south and southeast by Turkey and Armenia, on its west by Azerbaijan, and on its southeast by Turkey. It has a population of about 4 million people and spans an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 square miles). Georgia is a representative democracy that is administered as a unitary parliamentary republic under the United Nations Charter. Tbilisi is the country's capital and biggest city, and it is home to about a quarter of the country's population.

At the beginning of the classical period, many separate kingdoms were founded in what is now Georgia, including Colchis and Iberia, which are still active today. When Georgians formally converted to Christianity in the early fourth century, they made a significant contribution to the spiritual and political unity of the early Georgian kingdoms. It was under the reign of King David the Builder and Queen Tamar the Great in the early 12th century that the united Kingdom of Georgia formed and achieved its Golden Age, which is known as the Golden Age of Georgian history. Following that, the kingdom began to deteriorate and ultimately dissolve under the control of different regional forces, notably the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and succeeding Persian dynasties. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, one of the Georgian kingdoms formed a strategic alliance with the Russian Empire, which proceeded to acquire the area that is now Georgia in a piecemeal manner for the rest of the century.

In terms of the Human Development Index, Georgia is considered a developing nation with a "very high" ranking. Increased levels of economic freedom and ease of doing business, as well as decreases in corruption indices, poverty, and unemployment, have resulted from economic reforms implemented after independence. Heavily influenced by the Soviet Union, it is one of the world's first nations to legalise cannabis, becoming the first former communist state to do so. A number of international organisations, both in Europe and Asia, including the Council of Europe, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (OSCE), Eurocontrol, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the Global Union of Agriculture Markets (GUAM).