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During the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now
Georgia, such as Colchis and Iberia. In the early 4th century, ethnic Georgians officially adopted
Christianity, which contributed to the spiritual and political unification of the early Georgian
states. In the Middle Ages, the unified Kingdom of Georgia emerged and reached its Golden Age
during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries.
Thereafter, the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under the hegemony of various
regional powers, including the Mongols, the Turks, and various dynasties of Persia. In 1783, one
of the Georgian kingdoms entered into an alliance with the Russian Empire, which proceeded to
annex the territory of modern Georgia in a piecemeal fashion throughout the 19th century.
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia emerged as an independent republic under
German protection.[11] Following World War I, Georgia was invaded and annexed by the Soviet
Union in 1922, becoming one of its constituent republics. By the 1980s, an independence
movement emerged and grew quickly, leading to Georgia's secession from the Soviet Union in
April 1991. For most of the subsequent decade, post-Soviet Georgia suffered from economic
crisis, political instability, ethnic conflict, and secessionist wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Following the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003, Georgia strongly pursued a pro-Western
foreign policy; it introduced a series of democratic and economic reforms aimed at integration
into the European Union and NATO. The country's Western orientation soon led to worsening
relations with Russia, which culminated in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008, and entrenched
Russia occupation of a portion of Georgia.