Download Name: American History Unit 1 Study Guide

Eastern Hemisphere
Study Guide
Unit 5: Ancient Greece
This unit study guide contains most of the knowledge you will need to be successful during this unit.
Please keep it in your social studies binder for future reference.
Essential Questions
The purpose of this unit is to teach you the answer to the following essential questions:
 How does Ancient Greece fit into the chronology of world history?
 What governments did the ancient Greek city-states create to govern themselves?
 How did the ancient Greeks gain and lose power through warfare?
Lesson A: The Geography of Southern Europe
1. Where is Southern Europe located? Southern Europe is located on the northern coast of the
Mediterranean Sea. You should be able to locate this region on a map of the Eastern Hemisphere, along
with the nations of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece. You should also be able to locate the
Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean.
2. What are some important points to remember about the geography of Southern Europe? You
should know the following points about the geography of Southern Europe:
a. Southern Europe enjoys hot, dry summers with mild to cool and wet winters. This type of climate is
known as a Mediterranean climate, and is similar to the climate found in Southern California.
Southern Europe is a land of rugged mountains, peninsulas, and small islands. It is a land that is
geologically unstable, suffering many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes since ancient times.
b. The vast majority of the people in this region are Christian. In Portugal, Italy, and Spain, most of the
people are Roman Catholic. In Greece, most of the people are Greek Orthodox.
c. The people of Portugal, Italy, and Spain speak romance languages—Portuguese, Italian, and
Spanish. These languages were heavily influenced by Romans, an ancient people who came from
Italy. In Greece, the people speak Greek.
d. Southern Europe has been in the news lately. For a very long time, Southern Europe exported
laborers to other parts of the world; this region was traditionally poor. Many Italian families, for
example, emigrated to North America from this region in search of a better life. Lately, however,
great changes have taken place. Since the nations of Southern Europe joined the European Union in
the late twentieth century, the economy of this region has much improved. As a result, it has
become attractive to immigrants from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. As a result,
a great deal of illegal immigration has been going on in the region. They are bringing a wide range
of problems to the nations of this region, including drug trafficking, organized crime, illegal arms
smuggling, and terrorism.
e. The governments of Southern Europe are having financial crises. These nations have often
borrowed far more money than they have taken in from taxes to keep their governments running. As
a result, they are having a difficult time repaying these loans. This has caused economic problems
in these nations, which are likely to continue.
Lesson B: The Chronology of Ancient Greece
3. How does Ancient Greece fit into the chronology of world history? Please refer to assignment
5B1 for a chronology of Ancient Greece
Lesson C: The Greek City-States
4. What is a city-state? A city-state included a Greek city itself and the lands surrounding it. Each of
them had its own government and personality. The people of Greece who lived in these city-states saw
themselves as Spartans, Athenians, Corinthians, etc.—not as a unified Greek nation.
5. What governments did the Greeks develop in their city-states? The ancient Greeks experimented
with many governments for their city-states. Many of America’s ideas about how to run a government
came from the Greeks.
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a. Tyranny. A tyranny is rule by one person who appoints himself to rule. That person rules with
unlimited power. He answers to no one and does not have to follow laws unless it suits him to do
so. The leader of a tyranny is called a tyrant. This type of government is also called a despotism,
dictatorship or autocracy, and its leader is called a despot, dictator, or autocrat.
b. Monarchy. A monarchy is a government ruled by one person called a monarch—a king or queen.
The right to rule is passed along family lines (e.g., father to son). In a limited monarchy, the
monarch has limits on his or her power. For example, he has to have his actions approved by a
council or has to follow laws. In an absolute monarchy, the monarch has no limits to his or her
power. Absolute monarchies are also sometimes called despotisms and their rulers are called
despots.
c. Oligarchy. An oligarchy is rule by a small group of people. An example of this would be a group of
wealthy noblemen. They usually inherit their right to rule from their families. The other people
living under this type of government have little or no say in how the government is run.
d. Democracy. A democracy is a government ruled by its citizens by vote. In a direct democracy, all of
the citizens vote to make laws and the government’s decisions. In a representative democracy, the
citizens elect representatives to vote for them. A representative democracy is also called a republic.
6. What were the two major city-states in ancient Greece? The two major city-states in ancient
Greece were Sparta and Athens. They were very different in government and personality.
a. Athens was famed for the great artists, scientists, and philosophers she produced. It was renowned
for its educational system which schooled boys from the age of six or seven in poetry, music,
reading, writing, math, science, public speaking and the military arts. The city produced one of the
very first democracies in human history. It was formed in 508 BCE when the people of Athens
overthrew the tyrant, Cleisthenes. They formed the Athenian Assembly, which was made up of all
the citizens in Athens. A citizen was any free adult male in Athens who was not of foreign birth.
The Assembly made and passed the laws for the city. A Council of 500 was chosen from the
Assembly. Its members ran the government. They also chose 10 generals to command the army
and navy. The democracy had no king or “president” as such, but the generals became very
powerful. This democracy lasted only about a 100 years until the Athenians were defeated by
Sparta in the Peloponnesian War.
b. Sparta was famed for the soldiers it produced. From a very young age (about 7 years of age), the
boys of Sparta trained for war. These Spartan warriors were a minority in Spartan society,
however. Most of the people living under Spartan rule were slaves called helots. They had been
defeated by the Spartans in war. The Spartans kept them in line by humiliating them and
mistreating them. Not surprisingly, the helots rebelled from time to time. The city was ruled by an
oligarchy—a council of warriors. They also had kings, who controlled the military.
Lesson D: War in Ancient Greece
7. Who were the Persians? The Persians were a group of people who originated in what is now Iran
around 2000 BCE. Under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, they conquered most of Mesopotamia and
Palestine around 540 BCE. His son, Cambyses, conquered additional lands in Egypt and Asia Minor
around 525 BCE. Their conquests included many Greek city-states on the southwest coast of Asia
Minor (called Ionia), and they threatened Greek power in the region. As a result, the Greeks and the
Persians fought a series of wars over Ionia.
8. What were the Persian Wars? The Persian Wars were two wars that were fought between the Greek
city-states and the Greeks over the Greek cities in Asia Minor.
a. Around 500 BCE, the Greek cites of Ionia rebelled against the Persian Empire. Under the leadership
of Athens, the Greek city-states of mainland Greece sent aid to their Ionian brothers. This angered
the Persians, who were led by King Darius I.
b. In 492 BCE, Darius sent an army to punish the city-states of Greece during the First Persian War.
The Athenians sent an army to a place called Marathon in 490 BCE to stop the Persians. The
smaller Greek army defeated Darius’s larger army. (To bring word of the Greek victory back to
Athens—a distance of 26 miles—the Greeks sent a runner. To commemorate this victory, we run
marathons to this day). They beat the Persians because of the way they fought. They fought in a
tight formation called a phalanx, which was a wall of spears and shields the lightly armed and
armored Persians could not penetrate. It also helped them beat the Persians in later conflicts.
c. In 480 BCE, Darius’s son, Xerxes, sent an army into Greece once more to avenge his father’s defeat
in 490 BCE. The Greeks sent an army under King Leonidas of Sparta to Thermopylae to slow it
down as it marched on Athens. It did so, but Leonidas and his 300 Spartans were all killed. This
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battle gave the Greeks time to prepare to resist the Persian invasion. The Athenians beat the
Persians at sea at the Battle of Salamis. Then, in 479 BCE, the Greeks and Spartans joined to
defeat the Persians at Platea, forcing them back to their homeland.
d. The Persian wars made Sparta and Athens the two most powerful city-states in Greece. Later,
these two city states would have serious disagreements. Later in Greek history, Sparta, Athens,
and their allies would go to war to settle those disputes. This civil war would seriously weaken the
city-states.
e. They also seriously weakened the Persian Empire. The Greeks saw that they were not invincible,
and that encouraged the invasion of Alexander the Great 140 years later.
9. What were the Peloponnesian Wars? After the Persians left Greece in 479 BCE, the Greeks worried
they would come back. The Athenians formed the Delian League, a group of city-states that would help
protect each other if the Persians came back. The Spartans also formed their own group, the
Peloponnesian League. In time, the two leagues clashed. They finally went to war in 432 BCE in a civil
war called the Peloponnesian Wars. The Spartans and their league came out on top, but both sides
were seriously weakened by the wars. Under King Philip, the Macedonians took advantage of this
weakness and conquered the Greek city-states by 338 BCE.
10. What were the conquests of Alexander the Great? In 338 BCE, Macedonians under King Philip took
over Greece. He planned to invade the Persian Empire next, but died before he could do so. His son,
Alexander, took over and led a combined Greek and Macedonian army into the Persian Empire in 336
BCE. Over 12 years, it conquered all of the lands of the Persian Empire: Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and Persia. Alexander died in 323 BCE, leaving no clear successor to take over after he
died. As a result, his empire fell apart into three kingdoms ruled by his generals.
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