Classical Greece • Sea - Allowed for great opportunity for trade and travel. - Important because it allowed Greece to get the natural resources that it lacked: timber, precious metals, usable farmland. • Land - Rugged mountains covered about ¾ of ancient Greece - Mountains were often the divider for different regions - Played a big role in wars. Hard to move through the mountains with large army. • Climate - Upper 40s in winter - Lower 80s in summer - The climate allowed for many different outdoor activities • The Big 3 Players in Classical Greece - Minoan influence: created an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 BC. Culture influenced the Mycenaean’s. - Minoan – writing, language, design, trade. Used ships to trade goods. - Mycenaean – heavily influenced by Minoans. - Mycenaean – came from Indo- Europeans migrants, dominated Greece from 1600 BC – 1100 BC - Dorian – spoke a kind of greek. Not as advanced as the others, no writing system - Dorian – focused more on storytelling, best story teller: Homer
During the Dorian period - dirian and mycenaean peopel started to identify less with culture of the ancestors and more with the local area.
- government made the transition from the tribal or clan control to more formal governments called city - states.
- a polis was made up of a city and its surrounding countryside, which would include numerous villages
- citizens of the polis would come together to meet at an acropolis to discuss their city government
- not all city states had the same form of government
Monarchy - state ruled by a king, rule is hereditary, some rulers claim that they had a divine right to rule, practiced by mycenae by 2000 bc.
Aristocracy - state ruled by nobility, rule is hereditary and based on ties, social rank, wealth.. social status and wealth support rulers' authority, practiced in athens prior to 594 BC
Oligarchy - state ruled by a small group of citizens, rule is based on wealth and or ability, ruling group controls the military.
Athens - about 600 BC athens was taking steps towards a democracy, there were major reforms for the next 100 years that would eventually lead to a democracy starting around 500 BC
Key Players :
Draco - very harsh punishments, believed in debt slavery
Solon - stated that no citizen should own another, organized athens in 4 social classes based on wealth, only top 3 could hold political office
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