Download Chapter 5 Section 2 Notes

Chapter 5 Section 2 Notes
I. Rule and order in Greek City-States
A. Polis was the local city-state and its surrounding farmland
B. Acropolis was the fortified hilltop in a city-state
C. Political structure
1. In some city-states a king or monarchy ruled
2. Aristocracy was a government ruled by a small group of nobles
3. An oligarchy was a government ruled by a few powerful people
D. New kind of army developed
1. Iron was more common than bronze , cheaper more people could afford
it
2. More people from different classes
3. Foot soldiers called hoplites stood side by side and formed the phalanx
E. Tyrants Seize Power
1. Gained control by appealing to the poor and discontent
II. Sparta Builds a Military State
A. Sparta was located on the Peloponnesus
B. Sparta conquered the Messinians which were the local people around Sparta
1. The Messinians became known as Helots (farmers)
2. The Messinians outnumbered the Spartans
3. Spartans developed a Military State
C. Sparta’s Government and Society
1. Two groups ruled Sparta
a. An assembly composed of free adult males and elected officials
b. Second group Council of Elders
1. Five elected officials called Ephors carried out the laws
D. Spartan Education
1. For Men
a. Daily life centered around military training
b. Age 7 boys left home for military camps
c. Rigorous training
d. Intense discipline
2. For Girls
a. Service to Sparta above love of family
b. Did not have right to vote
c. Raise healthy babies
3. Most powerful army in Greece
a. Suppressed individual expression
b. Did not value art
c. Not much freedom
III. Athens Builds a Limited Democracy
A. Athens located on the Hellas
B. Democracy : a state ruled by the people
1. Direct Democracy is where people vote directly for issues
2. Representative Democracy is where people elect others to rule for
them
C. Only free adult males could vote
D. Athenians were in to art, philosophy , and the fine thing of life
E. Political Reformers
1. 621 Draco records the first legal code for Greece
2. Solon outlaws debt slavery in 594 B.C.
3. Solon also introduced the legal concept that any citizen could bring
legal charges against wrongdoers
4. Pisistratus in 546 provided funds for farmers to buy back their farms
from nobles
5. Cleisthenes in 508 B.C. reorganizes the assembly to break up the power
of the nobles.
a. Creates the Council of Five Hundred
F. These political reforms kept Athenian farmers from revolution and led to
Athens becoming a democracy
IV. The Persian Wars
A. Began at the city of Miletus on the Ionian peninsula
B. Darius I was the Persian king who would lead his armies against the Greeks
C. In 490 B.C. Darius leads a fleet of 25,000 troops against the Greeks at the
Battle of Marathon
1. The Greeks use the fighting formation called a phalanx
2. Pheidipppides races back to Athens 26.2 miles away to summon the
Spartans that are there.
3. The Greeks would win at the Battle of Marathon
D. In 480 B.C. Xerxes the son of Darius leads a massive force some 75,000
Persians to the Battle of Thermopylae on the northern Hellas against
7000 Greeks
1. Some 300 Spartans fight to the death for three days before 25,000
Persians finally break through
2. Now the Persians head towards Athens
3. The Athenians head to a nearby island called Salamis
E. The Battle of Salamis
1. The Persians follow the Athenians towards the island and the
Athenians sink about one third of the remaining Persians Army
2. Some Persians land on the island but are quickly killed by the
Spartans who are there waiting
3. Never again do the Persians come back
F. Consequences of the Persian Wars
1. The Greeks no longer fight against the Persians, fight against
each other
2. The Athenians create the Delian League on the island of Delos
a. People of the Hellas and islands off the Hellas
3. The Spartans create the Peloponnesian League as a defense against the
Delian League
4. The Peloponnesian Wars weakened the Greeks and eventually will
allow Philip of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great to
conquer them