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Ancient Greece
Geography of Greece
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Mountainous: allowed for the Greek City-States to become isolated and independent
of one another.
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Seas: Greek city-states and its people became seafarers due to the close proximity of
the Aegean & Ionian Seas
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The warm climate promoted an outdoor life.
Minoans
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By 3000 BCE, the Minoans lived on the large Greek island of Crete.
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The Minoans created an elegant civilization that had great power in the
Mediterranean world.
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Bronze Age civilization.
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The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. (tin)
Mycenaean Civilization Develops
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Came into contact with the Minoans sometime after 1500 BCE.
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Preserved & spread aspects of the Minoan culture. ( writing system, art, literature,
religion)
Cultural Diffusion
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Primarily through Trade Networks
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Concept will be repeated throughout history
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Two major types:
~ diffusion through choice where the group adopts new concepts because they want
to
~ diffusion by coercion where the group is forced to adopt new concepts by war and
domination of another culture
The Trojan War
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During the 1200s BCE, the Mycenaeans fought a ten-yr war against Troy.
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Last great military campaign for the Mycenaeans.
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Fought over Helen who was kidnapped by a Trojan prince.
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Not long after the war the Dorians became the dominant Greek civilization & a
period of decline began.
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Little is known of the Dorians b/c they kept no written records.
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Most of the time periods history was passed down through story telling.
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Homer: Iliad and the Odyssey
Ancient Sparta
Sparta Government & Society
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Spartan citizens elected officials who made up the Council of Elders which made
laws.
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The major social classes of Spartan society were made up of citizens with history in
Sparta, then non-citizens who were free and owned land and lastly the helots who
were servants and slaves.
Daily Life
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The military was the central focus of Spartan society.
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At the age of 7 all males were sent to live in army barracks where they were trained
to read write and fight.
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At age 30 they were sent home to marry then they reported to the military front.
At age 60 they were allowed to retire.
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Spartan women were also given military training and were fed more food than their
Athenian counterparts.
The Persian Wars
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Name given to a series of battles between the Greeks and Persian Empire.
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The Spartan army used a military tactic known as a phalanx. (Standing side by side)
Four Forms of Government in Ancient Greece
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Monarchy: form of govt. in which the ruling power is in the hands of a single
person. This was the case under the Mycenaeans who ruled Greece from 2000 to
1100 BCE.
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Oligarchy: Form of govt. in which the ruling power is in the hands of a few leaders.
Between 1100 and 800 BCE small groups of people began to share the ruling power
This was shared among aristocrats. People lacked full political rights
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Tyranny: form of govt. in which the ruling power is in the hands of an individual
who has seized control, often by illegal means. Tyrannies in Greece first arose
during the mid 600s BCE. Many tyrants only ruled for short periods of time.
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Democracy: form of govt. in which the ruling power is in the hands of all the people.
Democracy developed in ancient Greece around 500 BCE in the city-state of Athens,
where many people began to oppose the rule of the tyrants. One important fact.
Public officials did not have that much individual power.
Greek Golden Age
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Occurs during the leadership of Pericles in the 5th Century BCE.
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The achievements were mainly confined to the city-states of Athens where a
strong economy and good government created the conditions necessary for
such advancements.
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Pericles increased the number of paid officials in Athens.
Government
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The Ancient Greeks were the first to use democracy as a form of government.
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Under Pericles, male citizens in Athens participated in the daily running of
government.
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This form of direct democracy excluded all non-citizens, such as women and slaves.
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Today, many governments around the world practice some form of democracy.
The Peloponnesian War
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Fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.
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More than 1/3 of the Athenians, including Pericles,died as a result of disease.
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Won by Sparta.
Hellenistic Age
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Occurs under the leadership of Alexander the Great, who conquered an empire
stretching from the Greek mainland all the way to the Indus River Valley.
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Hellenistic society was a blending of Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and many other
cultures that gave rise to advancements in math, science, art, and literature.
Ancient Greece
Philosophy
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Greek philosophers, or "lovers of wisdom," used observation and reason to study the world
around them.
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Socrates encoraged Greeks to question themselves and their moral character. ( Socratic
Method)
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Tried for “corrupting the youth” & put to death.
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Plato wrote The Republic & favored a strong central government.
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Aristotle favored human reason as a way to solve problems. (Teacher of Alexander the Great)
Literature
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Early Greek literature was in the form of plays developed for religious ceremonies.
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Famous writers, such as Aeschylus and Sophocles, wrote tragedies and comedies about human
conflict and interaction between the gods and man.
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The Greeks were also the first. historians Herodotus, known as the Father of History, wrote
books chronicling historical events, such as the Persian War.
Art & Architecture
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Greek artists portrayed the human figure in idealized realism. Paintings and sculptures show
humans in the perfect form.
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Greek architects build elaborate buildings using marble and the Greek column. The most
famous example of Greek architecture is the Parthenon in Athens.
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Many buildings around the world today use Greek architectural ideas.
Math & Science
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Greek mathematician Pythagoras, developed a formula to calculate the relationship between
the sides of a right triangle, a method still in use today.