Wednesday, September 5

[5thKendra]

Classical Greece

9/3/2012

Geography

• Sea
  • Allowed for great opportunities for trade and travel
  • Important because it allowed Greece to get the natural resources that it lacked: timber, precious metals, usable farm land
  • 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 armies.
    • Climate
      • Upper 40’s in winter
      • Lower 80’s in summer
      • Climate allowed for many different outdoor activities
      • The Three Big Players in Classical Greece
        • Minoan Influence
          • Created an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 B.C.
          • Minoans culture influenced the Mycenaeans
          • Writing language
          • Design
          • Trade
          • Used ships to trade goods
• Mycenaean Develops
  • The Mycenaeans were heavily influenced by the Minoans
  • They came from the Indo-Europeans migrants
  • Dominated Greece from 1600 B.C to 1100 B.C.
• Dorian
  • Spoke a kind of Greek
  • Not as advanced as the others, no writing system
  • Focused more on story telling
  • Best known story teller is Homer
  • Trojan War
    • Key Players: Both Individual & Group
    • What Occurred?
    • Lasting Effects?

 

9/5/2012

Dorian Period

• During the Dorian Period…
  • Dorian and the Mycenaean people started to identify less with the culture of their ancestors and more with the local area
  • Gov. made the transition from tribal or clan control to more formal gov’ts called city-states
  • Government
    • 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
    • Different forms of Government
      • Monarchy
        • State is ruled by a king
        • Rule is hereditary
        • Some rulers claim that they have a divine right (religious, god-appointed) to rule
        • Practiced in Mycenaean by 2000 B.C.
• 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 600 BC, Athens was taking steps towards a democracy
    • There were major reform 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 punishment for nearly any crime
        • He believed in debt slavery
        • The word “draconian” has come to mean “extreme cruelty or severity”
        • Solon
          • Stated that no citizens should own another
          • Organized Athens into four social classes based on wealth
          • Only the top three classes could hold political office
          • All four could participate in the Athenian assembly (meet and discuss the laws and the direction of the city-state)
        • Clesithenes
          • Broke Athens up based on region that the citizens lived of wealth (10 gorups)
          • He increased the power of the assembly by allowing all citizens to submit laws for debate and passage
          • Created the Council of Five Hundred
            • Proposed Laws
            • Counseled the assembly
            • Members were chosen at random
            • Ended being more bad than good for the gov’t
• Limited Democracy
  • The reforms allowed for a limited democracy
  • Not all were citizens
  • Requirements: Free, Adult, Property owner, born in Athens
  • Sparta
    • Located in the southern part of Greece
    • Was cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth
    • 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 the assembly
        • Two kings that ruled over Sparta military