Macedonia- rough terrain, and cold climate. people lived in mountain villages instead of city states. nobles in Macedonia considered themselves Greeks but Greeks did not because mas was considered barbaric.
After Peloponnesian war the Greek city-states were very week. in history there is someone who takes advantage of the weak always.
Philip II was the king of Macedonia in 360 BC. Became king at age 23. A brilliant general. wanted to take over Greece and avenge Greece from the Persian invasion.
Philip organized his army in phalanxes of 16x16. all 256 men had to work together for this formation. after phalanx broke the line he would send the cavalry.
An Athenian named Demosthenes tried to warn the Greeks of the threat of Phillip. The city-states could not make a united response and were defeated.
Phillip was stabbed in the back by a guard at his daughters wedding. his son proclaimed himself king and became Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great-was tought by Aristotle. Spread Hellenistic culture. Very smart. Wanted to show his power early and when the people of Thebes rebelled he destroyed the city and took 6000 lives and many slaves.
Persia-Alexander marched onto Persia with 35000 men. Persia attacked his army with 40000 men. Persia was defeated by his new strategy.
The leader of Persia Darius III-raised a huge army of 50000 to 75000 men. Alexander knew he was outnumbered so he called for a surprise attack on the king.
1. He should not have punished them so hard.
He could have shown his power just as effectively by just bring his army to them and showing them that they could not defeat him. He could have also just have taken out their army and not their whole population. The would have spread the word of how much of a good hearted yet strong king he was. That would have made him even more popular than he already was.
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