Ancient Greek Civilization

Currently we are living in a time with fast connections, global exchange and the possibility of worldwide communication. We are able to ship products from one side of the world to the other, within an extremely short amount time. It almost seems unthinkable that these kinds of global trading connections existed before the first century, but nonetheless they were already present the ancient Greek civilization. When looking at how ancient Greece was influenced by the trade with other civilizations, it is shown that commercial trade had an immense effect on the social structure and the politics of the Greek society.

The geography of Greece affected its development because of the various islands and mountainous ranges there could not have a central government like Rome. They had polis’ or city states. A strategic political organization tool to control the many islands. The Mediterranean sea, mountains, islands, and climate isolated divided Greece into city states, virtually This led to a personal form of government which was an early form of democracy. City states came in various sizes, ranging from a few thousand inhabitants to a size of Athens. Each Polis was each fiercely independent and jealous of each others leading to fighting. But on the other hand the whole greek civilization was created on the Aegean Sea with deep pitted coastlines creating natural harbors. Making trade that much easier. Greece couldn't trade overland so the need to import and export goods oversee was needed. Greece imported metals, woods, and food from all over Cyprus, Egypt, Sicily. etc. Greece

The civilians of Ancient Greece had to be resourceful. Most civilizations had rivers to channel, irrigate, and predict. Ancient Greece is a series of islands. This means that the people of Ancient Greece had to learn to live on the ocean. They had to deal with being more vulnerable to land attacks as they were used to battling with ships. And they also had to deal with huge ocean storms. These storms could destroy a new society with no notice. (Acrobatic, 2014)

During the time of the ancient Greeks we read about their remarkable achievements; whether it be social, political, or cultural, we would not understand their accomplishments if it weren’t for their precise interpretation of text and the development of a lasting language. When looking at our lives today, the lack of credit which goes to our ancient descendants is beyond decent; for the lives in which they established for themselves, only furthered our capability and our potential of exceeding what was never imagined. A civilization where individuals look to the text, the mathematical equations, and the records from that of the ancient Greeks and learn from it. Between their development of the written word, the idea of the recorded time, as

Greece is one of the four multicultural empires that occurred around 600 BCE to 600 CE. Ancient Greece had so many different geographical features that helped brand the outcomes of the empire. One of the key features was Greece’s rugged mountains with deep valleys. With the mountains and valleys being rugged, it produced poor rocky soils (Acrobatiq, 2014). Also, there were narrow coastal areas as well. With this being a living environment for the Greeks, the production of food crops was unfortunate because of those factors. The Greeks had to find other ways to gather foods to their city-states because of the low production of food crops. With this being a bittersweet situation, Greeks recognized more about trades. They eventually became more knowledgeable and respectable at it. Greeks would find other places that would trade with them for food crops and other resources. Greeks built colonies that were decent areas for finding foods and resources. Through this time, Greeks expanded with trading and traveling to enhance their empire.

The Greek Empire was a time when people studied arts and mathematics, established democratic government, and built a massive army. The Greek Empire would give to the world many great works of art, philosophy, massive amounts of education in many fields, and influenced many government structures. Although much was gained from the Greek Empire, much darkness came with it. In order to have such great products of the Greek Empire, many suffered because of “progress”. Land was the most valuable item to the Greeks, mainly due to large populations and the need for agriculture. To acquire land, one would have to conquer other territories or “bully” those who occupied the land to willingly be ruled by Greece.

Ancient Greek civilizations mentality is what got them through life by their way of thinking. Even though Greece’s geography isolated the civilizations, it allowed them to see the world by providing the civilizations with the Mediterranean Sea. The geography divided Greece up into city-states that made them strive to do better than each other, which we know today as competition. This allowed for art, politics, literature, athletics, inventions, and new ideas to come about. Greece’s dry and rocky climate allowed for the civilizations to find two cash crops known as grapes and olives. Grapes and olives is what led to Greece civilizations trading around the Mediterranean Sea. This boosted trade, allowed settlement (colonization), and allowed new ways and ideas to come about. When the Persians tried to defeat Greece, Greeks not only

This will play an important role in the growth and development of Miletus. The city was wealthy, already from the Prehistoric period, thanks to its privileged position, as it was the gate of the East to the West and vice versa. Its key position in the relations between the two worlds was further consolidated. They will be in charge of a huge amount of overseas colonies as it is possible that they had around 90 colonies around the Mediterranean area. They were highly involved in the Black Sea trade and also made it as far as Babylonia and to the Nile river. This busy trading city was supported and ruled by the rich merchants forming their own oligarchy. Their basic job was to protect the commerce of the city and to stay out of war with other nations. They were the first Greek city-state to use coinage which was probably influenced by Lydia and helped their commercial activities. The use of coinage will reduce the barter system and will encourage others to use the coinage system. They had good pottery, wool production, purple dye, large scale furniture production which they traded within the city and out the city. Their rich land helped also with the production of olive oil and wine and good pastures for sheep and other livestock to help their domestic and commercial

It was the land of mountains, land and sea, Greece being located in southeastern Europe. Their economic conditions were those of a simple, self-sufficient agricultural system. The city did not have much in terms of wealth. Athenian life was mostly poverty in comforts and luxuries. Teachers, masons, carpenters, sculptors and common laborers all received the same standard wage of income.

Ancient Greece was and still is a mountainous land almost completely surrounded by the Mediterranean sea having more than 1400 islands (The British Museum, n.d.). The mountainous geography caused the Greek populations to be isolated in different colonies, even though they spoke the same language and had the same gods in common, the separation and distance between its people, drove them into forming poleis also known as city-states (Gaskell, 2015). Consequently, it not only influence these colonies to develop different cultures, but also different government systems such as aristocracy, democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, and tyranny, as it will be discussed in the paragraphs to follow.

The Greeks were very successful and throughout their era has lots of power and authority. This essay will explore the key issues of this period; production, economy, culture, warfare and Empire. The production process started in the early 15th century. Production

The first true Greeks were known as the Mycenaean civilization. The Mycenaean people arrived on the Peloponnesian peninsula around 8000 B.C. After the Mycenaean age ended, Greece entered a dark age known as the Archaic period. The people of the Mycenaean civilization lost all of their writing and their heritage was only kept alive by oral tradition. During Archaic Greece, many large city states such as Sparta, Thebes, Athens, and Corinth arose. These cities built up a military and designed a government and laws for their city to be keep in order. After the Archaic period, Greece entered into a Golden Age. The Golden Age began with the Persian Wars in 499 BC. Greece. Athens and Sparta became allies and fought against the Persians for the sake of Greece and were victorious. After the Persian wars, Greece was split into the

(1) The physical environment and Mediterranean climate has greatly shaped the social and political background of ancient Greece. The Greek people surrounded the Aegean Sea and dwelled in its multiple islands. Mountains were also a dominant presence in Greece’s mainland environment. The Greek people inhabited isolated plains and valleys throughout the mountains that allowed them to dwell in separate communities. The rugged landscape and the lack of large rivers made transportation difficult. The inability to easily travel between city-states made it hard to unite Greece under a single government. All of these different factors contributed to Greek individualism. Due to travel over land being so difficult, Greeks turned to trade by sea which

It had a centralised form of governing, division of labour, ideologies, and a monetary system.

Now I can say for the successful When Athens began to emerge as a Greek city state in the ninth century, it was a poor city, built on and surrounded by undesirable land, which could support only a few poor crops and olive trees. As it grew it was forced to import much of its food, and while it was near the centre of the Greek world, it was far from being a vital trading juncture like Corinth. Its army was, by the standards of cities such as Sparta,