Global - study guide

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The mountainous terrain had the effect of isolating Greeks from one another. Consequently, Greek communities tended to follow their own separate paths and develop their own way of life.
Much of Greece consists of small plains and river valleys surrounded by mountain
No doubt the small size of these independent Greek communities fostered participation in political affairs and unique cultural expressions, but the rivalry among these communities also led to the bitter warfare that ultimately devastated Greek society.
It is no accident that the Greeks became seafarers who sailed out into the @@Aegean and Mediterranean Seas,@@ first to make contact with the outside world and later to establish colonies that would spread Greek civilization throughout the Mediterranean region.
Minoan Crete The earliest civilization in the Aegean region emerged on the large island of Crete, southeast of the Greek mainland.
- ==A Bronze Age civilization that used metals, especially bronze, in making weapons had been established there by 2800 B. Evans’s excavations on Crete led to the discovery of an enormous palace complex at Knossos, near modern Heraklion, that was most likely the center of a far-ranging ‘‘sea empire,’’ probably largely commercial==
Minoan Cretans also made contact with and exerted influence on the Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Greek mainland.
The Minoan civilization reached its height between 2000 and 1450 B.
The palace at Knossos, the royal seat of the kings, demonstrates the prosperity and power of this civilization

%%The Greeks in a Dark Age (c. 1100–c. 750 B.C.E.)%%

After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, Greece entered a difficult period in which population declined and food production dropped.
- Because of the difficult conditions and our lack of knowledge about the period, historians refer to it as the Dark Age.
Other important activities occurred in this Dark Age as well.
- Greece saw a revival of some trade and some economic activity besides agriculture.
- The Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet to give themselves a new system of writing.
- By reducing all words to a combination of twenty-four letters, the Greeks made learning to read and write simpler.
Finally, near the end of this Dark Age appeared the work of ^^Homer^^, who has come to be viewed as one of the great poets of all time.
Homer and Homeric Greece The Iliad and the Odyssey, the first great epic poems of early Greece, were based on stories that had been passed on from generation to generation.
\ ^^The World of the Greek City-States (c. 750–c. 500 B.C.E.)^^
The Greek polis developed slowly during the Dark Age, but by the eighth century had emerged a unique and fundamental institution in Greek society. In a physical sense, the polis encompassed a town or city or even a village and its surrounding countryside.
But each had a central place where the citizens of the polis could assemble for political, social, and religious activities.
In some poleis, this central meeting point was a hill, which could serve as a place of refuge during an attack, and later in some locales came to be the religious center where temples and public monuments were erected.
Below this acropolis would be Angora , an open space that served both as a place where citizens could assemble and as a marketplace.
- Poleis varied greatly in size, from a few square miles to a few hundred square miles.
- Most poles were much smaller, consisting of only a few hundred to several thousand people.
- Although our word politics is derived from the Greek term polis, the polis itself was much more than just a political institution.
It was, above all, a community of citizens in which all political, economic, social, cultural, and religious activities were focused.
- As a community, the polis consisted of citizens with political rights, citizens with no political rights, and noncitizens.
- All citizens of a polis possessed rights, but these rights were coupled with responsibilities. ’’
- The unity of citizens was important and often meant that states would take an active role in directing the patterns of life.
Nevertheless, the loyalty that citizens had to their poleis also had a negative side.
Poleis distrusted one another, and the division of Greece into fiercely patriotic sovereign units helped bring about its ruin.
These aristocrats, who were large landowners, also dominated the political life of their poleis.
Hoplites advanced into battle as a unit, shoulder to shoulder, forming a phalanx in tight order, usually eight ranks deep.
The phalanx was easily routed, however, if it broke its order. The safety of the phalanx thus depended on the solidarity and discipline of its members.
The hoplite force, which apparently developed first in the Peloponnesus, had political as well as military repercussions.
Since each hoplite provided his own armor, men of property, both aristocrats and small farmers made up the new phalanx.
The Greek philosopher Plato described war as ‘‘always existing by nature between every Greek city-state. All of these features of Greek warfare remained part of Western warfare for centuries.
But each had a central place where the citizens of the polis could assemble for political, social, and religious activities.

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Classical Greece is the name given to the period of Greek history from around 500 B.
- The Greek plan, as it evolved, was to fight a holding action at the pass of Thermopylae along the main road from Thessaly into Boeotia, probably to give the Greek fleet of three hundred ships at Artemisia, off northern Euboea, the chance to fight the Persian fleet.
- The Greeks knew that the Persian army depended on the fleet for supplies.
- A Greek force numbering close to nine thousand, under the leadership of the Spartan king Leonidas and his contingent of three hundred Spartans, held off the Persian army at Thermopylae for two days.
- When told that Persian arrows would darken the sky in battle, one Spartan warrior
We will fight in the shade!’’ Unfortunately for the Greeks, a traitor told the Persians of a mountain path they could use to outflank the Greek force.
- Meanwhile, the Greek fleet remained in the straits of Salamis while the Persians sacked Athens.
- The Peloponnesian’s wanted the Greeks to retreat to the Peloponnesus and the Greek ships to move to the isthmus as well.
- Although the Greeks were outnumbered, they managed to outmaneuver the Persian fleet and decisively defeated it.
The Persians still had their army and much of their fleet intact, but, frightened at the prospect of another Ionian revolt, returned to Asia but left a Persian force in Thessaly.
The next seventy years witnessed continuing warfare among the Greeks, with the leading roles shifting among Sparta, Athens, and new Greek power, the city-state of Thebes.

}}- Culture and Society of Classical Greece}}

The central theme of $**Herodotus’s work**$ is the conflict between the Greeks and the Persians, which he viewed as a struggle between Greek freedom and Persian despotism.
The first Greek dramas were tragedies, plays based on the suffering of a hero and usually ending in disaster.
Sophocles - The most successful writer of Greek tragedies was the Athenian playwright Sophocles, whose background included holding some important public offices in Athens.
His most famous play is Oedipus the King.
The oracle of Apollo foretells that a man will kill his own father and marry his mother. ’’ 15 In Sophocles' play $**Antigone,**$ Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, is caught in a terrible dilemma.
Her brother Policies has died in an attempt to seize the throne of Thebes, and now the king of Thebes, Antigone’s uncle Cleon, has forbidden his burial as a traitor to the state.
In the confrontation between Cleon and Antigone, Sophocles bears witness to the complexity of human existence.

<<- Phalanx, hoplites, wars, history<<

Phalanx - massive packed formation of infantry(foot soldiers) - hoplites

can defeat aristocrats on house or chariot with round shield and spar
Individuals outfit themselves seventh and sixth century B.C - 600s-500s

Development of the polis and rise of tyrants

Because of hoplite warfare you have overthrow of the polis aristocrats or kings by unites hoplite soldiers → leads to oligarchies or more democratic poleis
tyrants were dictators appeal to democratic poleis armed disempowered men
tyrants kill or exile enemy aristocrats and break up/distribute farmland
more prosperous farmers → larger army → more powerful polis and support tyrant

Greek colonization - use hoplite warfare
- To seize land and settle over seas
Persian Wars
- 490 b.c → Marathon - Athenian defeat Persia
- 480 b.c → Thermopylae - spartans hold off Persian army
- 470s b.c → Persians are defeated

}}Importan Dates}}

431- 404 B.C → Athens should’ve won
1400 - 1200 B.C → Mycenae domination
1600 - 1500 B.C → Minoans reached its height and success