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The influence of history and geography on Greece
The influence of history and geography on Greece
How did geography affect ancient greece
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Ancient Greece was born in 1750 B.C.-133B.C. Greece was a land which holds many city-states that are spread out from one another. City-states are small villages who grew into a large population. The Greeks develop in their own way that is different from the neolithic time period civilizations. Ancient Greece advance dramatically different in terms of social, economic, religious, philosophy, art and literature compared to civilizations during the Neolithic time period because of geography, warfare, and the philosophical speakers.
The geography of greece led to the development of economic, governments, and literature. Greece is part of the Balkan peninsula, which extend southward toward the Mediterranean sea. Mountains divide the peninsula into valleys. The Greeks farmed the valleys or lived on the island, so they can never really build an empire like the Egyptians or China Shang dynasty. This results in Greek's city-states meaning that each villages evolve into building their own form of governments. For example Sparta was a Greek city-state that develop democracy. This not only help make the government it also help the nation develop economically. The Mediterranean sea promoted farming
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which can help develop economically. The Greeks became skilled sailors, carrying cargoes of olive oil, wine, and marble around the world. They returned with not just grain and metal but ideas. This leads to the development of the Greek alphabet that they expanded from Phoenician. Literature was affected by this. Warfare brought cultural diffusion from Alexander The Great conquering the Persian Empire which help develop philosophically, arts , and literature. The culture in Alexander's Empire expanded and influence many other civilizations. This is part of the development of Greece in the fields of arts, literature and the philosophies. This is the Hellenistic age. This is a shift in culture. China, Egyptians, Indus valley, and the Mediterranean had their own culture so they never really change. In Hellenistic philosophy they believe in finding a way to avoid the evil and hardships of human life was most important.Epicurus, a philosopher who lived in Athens around 300 B.C.E, founded the philosophy called Epicureanism. This philosophy believes in avoiding pain and that pleasure was the highest good. Mental pleasure is the most important. Another philosophy called Stoicism founded by Zeno taught that human beings do not control what happens to them. Fate or destiny controls the outcome of events in each person’s life. They believe you must accept fate, be tolerant and forgiving.In Ancient China they believes in balance and harmon. Mesopotamia philosophy is about life. Ancient Egyptians focus on balance and order. Ancient Greece focus on individual happiness. In literature artists and writers used to concerned about the social issues but now their work dealt with personal suffering and romance. This is the developments caused by a warfare that change the culture of ancient Greece. Philosophical speakers influence people changing what people believe in religion, philosophies, and governments.
During the Hellenistic era many people in greek gave up their belief in polytheism of Creeks and adopted philosophical beliefs as a religion for good morals. Philosophies such as Epicureanism and Stoicism founded by Epicurus and Zeno.The great philosopher was Socrate who not only influence Greece society in philosophy but also to Western philosophy. He created the Socratic Method in which if you have a problem break it down in a series of questions to find your answer in those responses. Ancient Greece develop their philosophies based on logic and reasoning unlike China civilization for example they had the philosophies like respect your elders or education spoils
you. The way ancient Greece develop was a in a unrique way caused by their geography, the wars they frequently had, and the philosophical speakers that influence all the way to the Western world. The geography help promote different types of city-states having their own way of developing the governments then the trade in the mediterranean sea brought back ideas for the Greek alphabets that later western people based off of and the economic growth with trading. Warfare brought a change in culture such as philosophies, arts, and literature. Philosophical speakers also affected the unique growth of philosophies, governments, and religion. Ancient greece develop their culture in slightly different way than the civilizations in the Neolithic era.
During this time, Greece saw major advances in just about every aspect of a modern society. They grew by leaps and bounds socially, economically, and technologically; among many other areas as well. All of these attributes made Greece the main hub of activity in the Mediterranean throughout this time period. During their time of power Greece saw three main civilizations rise within their social society. The Myceneans or Minoans are considered the first.
It is always important to look to the past in order to move towards the future. This was done in the formation of Western Society, and more specifically the formation of American society. The Greek culture served as a frame of reference for many aspects of Western life including government, architecture, math and the arts. Ancient Greek culture served as a very broad base for our society to be built upon.
The cultures of Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome were fundamental in building a foundation of civilization that would carry on for thousands of years. During the height of these civilizations, they each made important discoveries and developments that were as revolutionary at the time as they remain today, and without them, the culture of the Modern Western world would be as primitive and disjointed as early civilizations. The examples provided include the development of political thought and structure, the authority of law as well as the progression of medical and scientific discovery.
Western Europe. But how did this western way of life come to be? Their are many different
In Ancient Greece they use many of their geography to help them be the civilization that they wanted to be. The mountains help them be isolated and separate from other city-state making them more independent. They use the Mediterranean Sea to provide farming to provide additional crops, but they became master sailors and developed a large trading network to be able to trade with others. The climate was always hot and dry, which sometimes affected the growth of the crops for that season.
Athens was located on the Western Europe specifically it’s one of the city on Greece. It was the first birth of democracy and also it was the home of education, that’s included Philosophy, Artists and so many scientists were appeared in Athens. In this city there were so many government came out, but none of them didn’t satisfy what the Athenian people wanted, except one king was called Pericles. He was the first leader who proposed democracy and made Athens glorious by different directions, those were by their military, economy and by other things. The important thing why we learned about Athenian history is their astonishing change in the Western Europe . That means they were super smart in Architecture, artist and so many scientist were appeared. When we see their Architecture they built an amazing and unique, even in the present time when people built houses they used the design of Athens, some of them are, White house. In addition we use Democracy, when we get get back Athenian history, they started the first direct Democracy, but the difference between the present Democracy and Athenian Democracy is modernization. Because all countries in the world used representative Democracy( A type of Democracy that people choose one representative to do things like them) we called it modern Democracy, but in the other side the Athenian used direct democracy ( A type of Democracy that people vote or discussed directly). so, out base or starter was Athens.
I think that the Greeks contributed more to the civilization, because they influenced much of the Western civilization. They were very intelligent they created a lot of artwork. The Greeks contributed to most of the things today. They were great in sculpturing and they created Greek philosophy and Science. They trained many of the upper class males: mental, moral, and physical excellence to eventually lead their households. All the students were males and they taught the most significant of these were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Alexander the Great made the most significant person in the Greek civilization.
Even though they had their similarities if you asked someone where they were from then they would not saw greece they would instead name their city state. each city state had their own army and some larger city states had a navy. they would oftentimes group up to fight a common enemy or other city states, beacuse they were independent from eachother.
Rome and Greece were very similar to one another in many ways. Rome copied methods the Greeks used and incorporated them into their culture. For example, the Greek gods and roman gods are similar but still different. Western civilizations also incorporated ideas into their culture. For example architecture, democracy (government), and academics like science, math, and linguistics.
In ancient Greece, the Greeks lived in city-states as to each of their own and there was no central government at that time. Each city-state has their own culture, made their own laws, and their own monetary system. As a result, Greece was made up of many city-states such as Corinth, Athens and Sparta. Thereafter, each city-state formed their own government according to their preferences: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy.
The Classical Greece era dates back to 500-323 BCE and was considered to be the period of maturity, discovery and achievement. During this era Athens was governed by a democratic government, there came a more rational approach to exploring and explaining the world and the Greeks took art to a more realistic and humanistic approach for the first time. (Sakoulas, 2002) During the Classical era the culture was based on a blend of their old culture and the new. The old is based upon religious beliefs while the new happens largely in part due to trade routes.
There are many different ways that modern cultures in the west have been impacted and built upon, but there are two ancient cultures that were the most influential. The Greek and Roman cultures helped shape Western Civilization in many ways. Both were very important factors in the development of Western culture. The Greeks contributed through art, architecture, government, philosophy, education, and science. The Romans contributed through language, engineering, law, and government.
Early Greece, before its archaic period, was small and scattered farming villages. These villages began to grow and evolve. They built walls, a community meeting place, and an agora, or marketplace. These evolving villages created governments. Their new governments helped organize citizens with a constitution. These evolved villages became city-states. Each city-state
The culture of Greece is quite interesting and fascinating. The book, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill, takes us through the history of Greece. At the beginning of every chapter in this book, the author will give us a story to read so we could then understand the material better. The Greek culture is filled with many amazing stories and myths by writers and philosophers such as Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Pericles, etc… The main ideas of these stories involved love, war, honor, politics and education. These are some of the things that shaped the Greek culture. Other things that also shape Greece are their arts, architecture, music, dance, and drama. Greece has impacted many other cities and countries all over the world.
The classical era in Ancient Greece helped shape western art and culture, this moved on into creating a modern and humanist era. Greeks looked to sculptors and statues to illustrate the classical ideals through the various eras and how Ancient Greece developed a world view.