Download Chapter 9 Ancient Greece Lesson 1 Geography Greece has no

Chapter 9 Ancient Greece
Lesson 1 Geography
 Greece has no great rivers to form fertile valleys
 It is very mountainous with deep valleys and rugged
highlands
 Due to the mountains there isn’t much farmland
 Seas are never far from the people of Greece
o Ionian to the west
o Mediterranean to the south
o Aegean to the east
 Trade allowed Greek ideas to spread and learn from
other cultures – this is how they got the alphabet
and coins for money
 Geography affected how life in Greece developed
into many small and independent communities
 The people of Crete--an island in the Mediterranean
Sea--developed a written language and learned to
weave cloth and make pottery and jewelry, these
people are called the Minoans after King Minos,
they also held dangerous bull-jumping shows
Lesson 2 Greek City-States
 The Greeks worshipped many gods and goddesses
 The Greeks developed many myths to help understand
the mysteries of nature and life
 The Greeks believed that most gods lived on Mount
Olympus and that gods and goddesses were very much
like humans, but they were immortal, or able to
live forever and had special powers
 In some city-states the government was controlled
by members of wealthy, privileged families – this
form of government was known as an aristocracy
 All men born in Athens were considered citizens in
Athens Democracy
Lesson 3 Golden Age of Athens
 In a mighty sea battle at Salamis, Athenian ships
trapped and destroyed the Persian fleet. The
Persian invasion ended soon afterwards
 Working together Athens and Sparta defeated the
most powerful empire of its time
 Golden Age
o People of Athens built magnificent new temples
o Artists created statues and monuments
o Philosophers extended human knowledge, they
searched for beauty and order in the world,
trying to find natural laws that explained
actions in the world
o Physicians tried to find natural, predictable
explanations for the workings of the human
body
 During the Golden Age Athens became the most
powerful city-state and started to make unwise
decisions
o They formed the Delian League, an alliance to
work together, and some city-states were
forced to join
o Sparta didn’t like Athens becoming so powerful
and rebelled by attacking and destroying farms
and homes around Athens
 Peloponnesian War
o In 431 B.C. war broke out between Athens and
Sparta
o Spartans destroyed homes and farms, hoping to
starve Athenians into surrender
o Athenians suffered great losses from a plague,
which caused Athens to become unstable
o In 404 B.C. Athens surrendered
Lesson 4 Alexander the Great
 Alexander proved he was a great leader by
o Invading the Persian Empire
o Conquered Syria and Phoenicia
o Invaded Egypt and was made pharaoh
 He also invaded India, but it was not a quick
defeat it lasted over 5 years
 Alexander had
o A creative military mind
o Courage
o Confidence
 During the Hellenistic Age
o New Greek cities were founded
o Young people in the cities began to read Homer
and other Greek writers
o Trade grew between Hellenistic cities and faroff parts of the world
 Discovery and Invention
o Doctors make many discoveries about how the
human body works
o Archimedes described how the lever worked
o Euclid worked out the system of plane geometry
that students still study today
Essay Questions:
1. How do you think the mountains affected the Greek way of life?
2. What positive effect did Greece’s location near the sea have on its
economy?
3. How did Mycenae become a powerful city-state?
4. Compare and Contrast Athens and Sparta
5. What did Greek philosophers believe?
6. How did Alexander become king of Macedonia?