It occupied virtually the coterminous territory of modern Greece (with the exception of the Dodecanese) and bordered Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey and the Italian Aegean Islands.

Public outrage at the Asia Minor disaster, as Greece's defeat in the war became known, was partially reflected in the military coup which followed it.

His eldest son and successor, King George II, was soon after asked by the parliament to leave Greece so the nation could decide what form of government it should adopt.

[11] He goes on to add that "the regime change was carried out by men who imposed their preferred form of government posthaste as representatives of the sovereign people so as to educate them, but this is considered by many not to be a true expression of the national conscience and will".

[15] Meanwhile, the decree of 1924 "on the safeguard of the republican regime" introduced the jail sentence for a minimum of six months for advocating in public the return of the monarchy, disputing the results of the referendum or publishing slander against the founders of the republic.

[17] Following his coup, Pangalos was sworn in as prime minister by the acting governor of Greece (Pavlos Kountouriotis) and demanded that the Parliament give him a vote of confidence.

A clash along the Greco-Bulgarian border on 18 October led to the Pangalos dictatorship ordering the III Army Corps to invade Bulgaria.

[20] Moreover, there was a growing democratic deficit in Greece between liberal democracy as enshrined in the Constitution, and as implemented in practice; over 1,000 political activists, mostly communists were exiled to remote Aegean islands under the Pangalos dictatorship, and the situation did not improve after his fall.

[21] A new law targeting trade union activism was passed in 1929, commonly known as the Idionymon, and some 16,000 activists were brought before criminal procedures in the period 1929–1936, with 3,000 exiled to remote islands.

Despite a period of stability and sense of well-being under the government of Eleftherios Venizelos on 4 July 1928 – 6 March 1933, the effects of the Great Depression were severely felt, and political instability returned.

[29] In co-operation with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as well as İsmet İnönü's government, a series of treaties were signed between Greece and Turkey in 1930 which, in effect, restored Greek-Turkish relations and established a de facto alliance between the two countries.

In October 1929, as prime minister, Venizelos gave a speech outlining his government's support for Aristide Briand's efforts on the matter, saying that "the United States of Europe will represent, even without Russia, a power strong enough to advance, up to a satisfactory point, the prosperity of the other continents as well".

[36] This particular emblem was criticised for being inappropriate and violating heraldic rules before being replaced by the simple shield following the fall of Pangalos' dictatorship.

These encompassed the production of salt, petrol, matches, playing cards, rolling paper, saccharin (artificial sugar), and narcotics.

[52] Ultimately however falling prices during the Great Depression had a bigger impact in improving the trading position of the country than protectionist policies did.

[53] The annual Thessaloniki International Fair was also inaugurated in 1927, with over 1,600 participating companies from numerous countries in 1933, and great economic benefit to Northern Greece.

[52] The conditions for this loan, however, stipulated that Greece had to stabilise its currency (the Greek drachma) by adopting the gold standard and by establishing a central bank to oversee economic policy.

[52] One of the main electoral promises made by Venizelos during his campaign for the premiership in 1928 was to change the face of Greece in four years by funding large-scale infrastructure projects aimed at increasing production.

[52] This was largely achieved by his government, and between 1929 and 1938 Greece had industrial growth rates that averaged between 5.11% and 5.73%, ranking the country third in the world behind Japan and the Soviet Union.

[52] Overall successive governments under the Second Republic borrowed over ₯6.6 billion from within the country in the period 1924–1929, either through loans with Greek banks or through the forced exchange of banknotes for interest-gaining floating rate notes.

[52] Nevertheless, Greece declared bankruptcy for the fourth time in its history in 1932, ceasing to make payments on its international loans, some of which dated as far back as the 1820s.

[67] The creation of a national statistics agency also aided in the organised collection of reliable tourist information, while efforts by the government to regulate the quality of hotels saw an increase in accommodation standards.

[72] The country's principal urban centers in 1928 were: A major step in the creation of a welfare state in Greece was done under the Liberal government of Eleftherios Venizelos which passed Law 5733 on 11 October 1932, creating the Social Insurance Institute (Ἵδρυμα τῶν Κοινωνικῶν Ἀσφαλίσεων, IKA).

[69] Migration figures from that year show that the lion's share of migrants departed for the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (5,407), followed by Egypt (2,825), Romania (2,352), and the United States (2,281).

[83] After the fall of the Second Republic, the 4th of August Regime of Ioannis Metaxas brought back Demotic in 1939, only to be replaced by Katharevousa again during the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941.

[83] Standard Modern Greek finally won the debate only in 1976, becoming the sole official language and overcoming the hurdle to intellectual and scientific advancement that the state of diglossia had imposed upon the country since its creation.

[83] Beginning in 1925 the government introduced an alphabet book, called the Abecedar, for the country's Slavic-speaking minority as part of its obligations towards Bulgaria from the Treaty of Sèvres.

[82] The Ministry of Education described it as a textbook for "the children of Slav speakers in Greece [...] printed in the Latin script and compiled in the Macedonian dialect".

[84] Literacy rates also varied widely between regions, ranging from 66% for Central Greece & Euboea and 63% for the Aegean islands, to 50% for Epirus and 39% for Thrace.

[87] The following are publicly available primary sources relating to the era of the Second Hellenic Republic, in the Greek language, primarily in the form of statistical yearbooks.