Download Ancient Greece: Geography and First Civilizations

[p. 3 is the backside of p. 2]
Warm-up (p.3)
How does the geography of a place influence
the way that a society develops? (hint: think
about farming, trade, travel, etc.)
** Don’t forget to write your unit, objective, and date at
the top of the page above the margins.
**Make sure you ALWAYS write the question AND your
response to the warm-up in your notebook.
Ancient Greece:
Geography and First
Civilizations
Geography!
• Greece is a mountainous country almost
completely surrounded by ocean.
– The Greek mainland is a peninsula—body of
land with water on three sides
– This peninsula sticks out into Mediterranean
Sea
• Greece also includes thousands of islands
• Along the coast, there are plenty of excellent
harbors.
• Mountains make up over 70% of Greece’s
landmass
• Rugged landscape, lack of large rivers
made transportation hard
• Greece also lacked natural resources and
metals, which had to be found elsewhere
Think-Pair-Share
1. How do mountains affect political unity?
What would the Greeks do to govern
themselves?
2. How would proximity (closeness) to water
influence the Greek economy?
3. Since the Greeks did not have many
resources, how would did they survive?
The Polis
• This mountainous terrain encouraged the
development of the polis, or city-state.
• The geography made it difficult to unite
Greece under single government
• Because communication among different
places was tough,
these city-states were
independent and
developed their own
governments.
Minoan Civilization
Fresco of three Minoan Women
• Oldest Civilization from this part of the
world—Developed around 2,000 BC on
the island of Crete
• Minoans were completely surrounded by
water—so they took to the sea and
eventually had a culture based on trade
• They even established settlements in Asia
Minor—all the way across the Aegean Sea
Mycenaean Civilization
• They come a little after the Minoans—
show up around 1250 BC
• Like the Minoans, they also trade but their
culture is based much more on things like
war and conquest
• Conquer lands as far away as
Asia Minor
Key Vocabulary
• Read p. 129- 130. Start at “Greek CityStates” and stop before “The Might of
Sparta.
• Define polis, acropolis, and agora on
p.4 of your NB as you read
Map Activity
• Read p. 126 in your TB and use the map
to label your own map of Greece. Glue on
p. 4 in your NB.
• Create a key. Color code and fill in the
following in your key: city-states,
landforms, and seas
• Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, Athens,
Sparta, Pindus Mountains, Macedonia,
Crete, Asia Minor—labeled on map on
p. 128
Quiz Time!
• Clear your desk of everything except for a
writing utensil.