A brief history of Armenians
Explore Armenian kingdoms, the adoption of Christianity, and the road to modern independence.
Ancient kingdoms
The Armenian Highlands lie between Anatolia, the Caucasus, and northern Mesopotamia. The Iron Age kingdom of Urartu ruled parts of this region. Later Armenian kingdoms included the Artaxiad dynasty. Under Tigranes II in the first century BCE, its territory expanded across much of the Near East.
Christianity and medieval Armenia
Armenian tradition dates the adoption of Christianity as a state religion to 301 CE. In the early fifth century, Mesrop Mashtots devised an Armenian alphabet, which made it possible to translate religious works and develop a written literary tradition. The medieval Bagratid kingdom made Ani its capital. A separate Armenian kingdom later flourished in Cilicia on the eastern Mediterranean.
Modern Armenia
By the nineteenth century, Armenian communities lived across the Ottoman, Russian, and Persian empires. The Armenian Genocide during World War I uprooted Ottoman Armenian communities. An independent Armenian republic formed in 1918, and Soviet rule followed in 1920. The present Republic of Armenia declared independence in 1991.