Ancient Greece
EQ-HOW DID ANCIENT GREECE DEVELOP AND IMPACT THE MODERN WORLD?
Introduction
HOW DID GEOGRAPHY SHAPE GREEK LIFE?
In ancient times, Greece was not a united country. It was a collection of separate lands where Greek-speaking people lived. By 2000 BCE, the Minoans lived on the large Greek island of Crete. The Minoans created an elegant civilization that had great power in the Mediterranean world. At the same time, Indo-European peoples migrated from the plains along the Black Sea and Anatolia. The IndoEuropeans settled in mainland Greece. Seaborne commercial networks spread ideas as well as resources throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient Greece consisted mainly of a mountainous peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea. It also included approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas. Lands on the western coast of Anatolia were also part of ancient Greece. The region’s physical geography directly shaped Greek traditions and customs.
HOW ARE MODERN POLITICAL SYSTEMS RELATED TO GREEK CITY-STATES?
The thousands of city-states that sprang into existence during these centuries were remarkable for their diversity. Every variety of political experiment from monarchy to communism was practiced, and the fundamental principles of political life were formulated by their philosophers. The vigour and intensity of the citizens’ experience were such that they made unparalleled advances in all fields of human activity, except industry and technology, and laid the basis of Greco-Roman civilization. The particularism of city-states was their glory and their weakness. Incapable of forming any permanent union or federation, they fell victim to the Macedonians, the Carthaginians, and the Roman Empire, under which they lived on as dependent privileged communities. Rome, which began its republican history as a city-state, pursued policies of foreign expansion and government centralization that led to the annihilation of the city-state as a political form in the ancient world.
HOW IS ANCIENT GREECE STILL APART OF OUR LIVES TODAY IN REFERENCE TO DEMOCRACY, ART, LITERATURE, AND PHILOSOPHY?
Ancient Greece is still a part of of today in ways like the classical art. Some of the classical art from back then is still around today, in some places they have even rebuilt and remade some of the paintings and buildings and statues from along time ago. Also in the way of the comedy and tragedy that we use in movies and plays. All around us today people use comedy and tragedy in tv shows, plays, videos, and all sorts of other things.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S EMPIRE?
World trade, common language, and peace are examples. Since his empire stretched form Greece to India he brought one language to all of them. He also brought world trade to them by different places in his empire trading supplies to each other. Alexander the Great ruled with an iron first, and everyone did what he said because if you didn't listen to what to he said he killed you.
HOW IS OUR "AMERICAN CULTURE" LIKE "HELLENISTIC CULTURE" ?
The American culture and the Hellenistic culture both believed in a democracy. They both believed that the people have a say in the government. The American culture also has the same art with columns in our buildings just like the Hellenistic culture.