The period 1897-1922 is characterized by remarkable innovations permeating Greek society. The small kingdom of the nineteenth century acquires to a large extent the borders of the present day.

Territorial expansion is accompanied by a series of reforms in the social, economic, political and cultural sector, taking place after the coup of Goudi and politically expressed by the Venizelist bloc. In the context of these developments a social rift, manifested with the National Schism, became manifest in a period when the country was entering the swirl of international competition and the Great War. Conflicting views for the position of the country in the international field ultimately reflect a different approach concerning the course of development of the structures of Greek society.

In the period under examination the population and the territory of the country almost double. At the same time, considerable movements of people are observed. On the one hand in the beginning of the twentieth century a mass immigration movement chiefly towards the USA took place. On the other hand there has been a movement towards the interior, with the arrival of Greek refugees from the areas where military operations were under way or from areas being under the control of foreign powers.

The largest part of the labour force of the country is occupied in the sector of agriculture.

In this context the Thessalian question arises, that evolved into the most important social mobilization of the period with the outbreak of revolts in the 1910's. For its resolution but also the settlement of respective problems created by the presence of refugees and landless in the new territories the agricultural reforms of 1917 took place. To the same direction a series of institutional innovations occurred in the field of agriculture, such as the establishment of agricultural co-operatives and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The growth of urban centres follows a rapid pace, their population increases as well as the activities taking place in their space. New large cities with a tradition in the economic and cultural field such as Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Kavala are incorporated in the Greek territory. In the cities in-migrators are gathered and form the first labour class. There is a considerable problem of unemployment, housing and sanitation conditions whereas certain groups of people live in the margin of the city's activities. After 1910 the first form of the labour movement is observed, whereas the state institutes for the first time a protective social policy. Various traditional petit bourgeois strata of small businessmen and lower rank civil servants continue to be present.

At the same time, along with all the war ventures and the internal crises, Athens experiences the climate of the belle epoque. A new business bourgeois class develops, tending to supplant the older formed upper social class, the old "tzakia", directly related to the state mechanism.

Very intense during this period has been the struggle of the demoticists for the establishment of demotic Greek, which resulted to a great dispute between them and the supporters of katharevousa. This dispute deteriorated to violent incidents, as was the case with Evangelika and Oresteiaka. Demoticism facilitated the dissemination of various ideas and brought together the Socialist intellectuals with the educational reform. In the field of the exercise of policy and ideology, a group of young scientists -the "Group of Sociologists"- makes its appearance pursuing radical reforms. At the same period Georgios Skliros with his work To Koinoniko mas Zitima (Our Social Issue) lays the foundations for a Marxist approach of Greek society.Also for the first time an anti-monarchist discourse is articulated in Greece and the prospect of a Republic is put forward. It is a transition period for the claims of women, it marks the passage from demands for participation in education and work to the claim for political participation.

In the same period outside the national centre the Greek communities of the Ottoman east but also the Greek diaspora live and develop along the Greek actuality, until the dramatic events of the end of the period overturned the old status.