Dorian Period
- Dorian and the Mycenaen people 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 call 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-state had the same form of government
GOVERNMENT
- Monarchy: State ruled by a king
- Rule is hereditary
- Some rulers claim that they have a divine right to rule
- Practiced in Mycenae by 2000 BC
- Divine Right: That it was God's will to have them rule (Kings)
- Aristocracy: State ruled by nobility (Knights, Kings etc)
- Rule is hereditary and based on ties, social rank; rank
- Social Status and wealth support rulers' authority
- Practiced in Athens prior to 594 BC
- Oligarchy: Stated ruled by a small group of citizens
- Rule is based on wealth/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 just because you live in Athens doesn't make you a citizen
- Majority rule decides vote
- Practiced in Athens by 500 BC
Athens
- About the 600 BC, Athens was taking steps toward 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 every crime
- He believed in debt slavery
- The word "draconian" has to come to mean "extreme cruelty or severity"
- 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
- Cleisthenes- Broke Athens up based on region that the citizens lived instead of wealth( 10 groups)
- 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
- Limited Democracy- The reforms allowed for a limited democracy
- However, but all people were citizens
- Requirements
- Free
- Adults
- Property owner
- Born in Athens
- Sparta- Located in the southern part of Greece, and was cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth
- Goverment: 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
- Five elected officials that carried out the laws that were passed by the assembly
- Two kings that ruled over Sparta's military
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