Classical Greece
Sea:
- allowed for good 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 3/4 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 40's in winter
- Lower 80's in summer
- Allowed for many different outdoor activities
Minoan Influence:
- Created an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 BC
- Culture influenced the Mycenaeans
- Writing, language
- Design Trade
- Used ships to trade goods
Mycenaean Develops:
- Were heavily influenced by the Minoans
- Came from Indo-Europeans migrants
- Dominated Greece from 1600 BC to 1100 BC
Dorian:
- Spoke a kind of Greek
- Not as advanced as the others, no writing system
- Focused more on storytelling
- best storyteller- Homer
- started to identify less with culture of their ancestors and more with the local area
- government made the transition from 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 have a divine right to rule (God had appointed them to be king)
- practiced in 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
- practiced in Sparta by 500 BC
Direct Democracy:
- state ruled by the citizens
- rule is based on citizenship
- majority rule decides vote
- practiced in Athens by 500 BC
Athens:
- About the 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
- Developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under law
- He had very harsh punishments for nearly any crime
- He believed in debt slavery
- The word "draconian" has come to mean "extreme cruelty or severity"
- Developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under law
- Solon
- Stated that no citizen should own another
- Organized Athens into four social classes based on wealth
- Only top three classes could hold political office
- However, all four could participate in the Athenian assembly
- Stated that no citizen should own another
- Cleisthenes
- Broke Athens up based on region that the citizens lived instead of wealth. (10 groups)
- He increased the power of assembly by allowing all citizens to submit laws for debate and passage.
- Created the Council of 500
- Proposed laws
- Counseled the assembly
- Members were chosen at random
Limited Democracy:
- The reforms allowed for a limited democracy
- However, all people were citizens
- Requirements:
- Free
- Adult
- Property owner
- Born in Athens
- Free
Sparta:
- Located in the southern part of Greece
- Cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth.
Spartan Government:
- Several branches
- Assembly, all citizens, elected officials and voted on major issues
- Council of Elders, 30 older citizens, proposed laws on the assembly to vote on
- 5 Elected officials that carried out the laws that were passed by the assembly.
- 2 Kings that ruled over Sparta's military
- Assembly, all citizens, elected officials and voted on major issues
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