Effects Of Geography On The Development Of Greece

Ancient Greek and Roman’s geography was greatly affected. There were also some positive things about their location. The land of Greece is broken up by mountains and valleys. The coastline of Greece made it easy to colonize the Greek islands and begin colonies throughout the Mediterranean Sea. It was not a unified empire but was made up of independent city-states which were like mini-countries. Greeks also became traders, shipbuilders, and sailors. Geography Helped Rome Become a Strong united Empire. Geography Helped the Roman Empire Expand and become one of the Most Powerful Civilizations in History. Rome is Located on the Italian Peninsula. Italian Peninsula has few mountains, but fertile Land. They had easy access to the Mediterranean

The Greek economy was based off of agriculture. They were also colonized to somewhat like the states we have in America. Their main crops and trade products were grapes, olives, and wine. The Greek commerce and trade by sea is what made all of the Greek city-states as wealthy and important as they were. The Greeks were often called “The Masters of the Mediterranean” because of their skillful seafaring.

What is a peninsula in Europe featuring over 2,000 islands? This is no other than Greece. It has been geographically shaped by tectonic plates as well as grabens occurring previously in its age. Consequently, the land is rugged and hilly. In addition to geography, the Greeks have contributed immensely to our world’s culture. In Greece, you can find sculptures, such as the intricately designed Discobolus. Arts and mathematics have also bloomed there due to people such as Archimedes, Aristotle, and Euclid. Throughout this essay, Greece’s location, shape, size, surrounding countries, enclosing bodies of water, landforms, climate, vegetation, as well as government, will be portrayed.

One way was the sea. Athens was located on the Attica peninsula so they were surrounded by water on three sides and Athens built its naval supremacy of Triremes. The Triremes gave Athens control of the Mediterranean Sea so they controlled trade and gained the name the “Big Olive.” A lot of the battles of the Persian war were fought with navies and the Trireme allowed for them to win the narrow straits of Salamis. The sea also greatly impacted economy. The Ionian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Aegean Sea connected all of the land and islands of Ancient Greece so they could trade with one another. The Sea also allowed for travel and they could trade with other countries like Egypt. They could make a profit for their natural resources and benefit from obtaining resources that were not natural to Greece at the time. The biggest impact geography had on Greece was the land. The land was dry with only 20% arable land and it was extremely mountainous. The mountains ran from the northwest part of Greece to the southeast part along the Balkan Peninsula. Due to the dryness, the Greek city states were constantly looking to expand their land and the mountains caused each city state to be spread apart. This made them have decentralized governments. Also due to the mountainous geography, there were over 1000 Greek city states including Athens and Sparta. Land also was on Sparta’s side during the Peloponnesian

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)

From the struggles the people who lived in Ancient Greece had to face to the positives, geography has always had a great influence on Greece and how the people there survived. Two big positives being the climate which was perfect for growing valuable olive trees and another positive being the seas that surrounded Greece and allowed the Greeks to trade and help them in many other ways. Two big negatives being the rocky, mountainous terrain and another negative being the common volcano eruptions and earthquakes. Although Ancient Greece had its negatives so does every country and it were these pros and cons that helped the Greeks develop essential survival skills.

Decentralization was positive to Ancient Greece. Decentralization allowed Greek city-states to experiment with unique forms of government and led to prosperity and advancements in art, technology, math, science and military areas. Greece could not be centralized because of its geography. The mountainous regions are significant in that they prevented Greek city-states from unifying and the uneven terrain and transportation made connection and communication difficult.

There were also bad effects too. One effect was that they were right in the middle of an active volcanic zone (Doc 3). The volcanic zone made the people of ancient Greece very nervous because there could be a natural disaster at any moment. Earthquakes are very common for Greece. Earthquakes and volcanoes got the people of Greece believing in Oracles. Oracles are when the gods speak to them through earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. They believed that the gods told them about their future. One more negative affect geography had on ancient Greece was that the city-states would fight against each other. Especially Sparta and Athens, but no single city-state was strong enough to conquer the other. These fights between city-states caused a big war later on. The mountains caused the communities to separate, then the communities turned into city-states. Since the mountains separated the city-states they usually didn’t travel over the mountains to other city-states and couldn’t communicate any other

The major reason for Greece's city-states, instead of being dominated by a king was its geography. Greece has a mountainous terrain, many valleys, and many islands that are offshore. These characteristics encouraged many local

Even though Greece had a geography that was hard to live in, they did many great things. Greece began as small towns and villages, but they realized it would be better to live together. They Greeks started

After the war the rise of Greek city-states came. For these Greek city-states the sea was vital, many different governments happened including Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Oligarchy. Each city-state had different ways of society. The city-state of

Political- The Greeks had no centralized government and instead had separate city-states that were formed around a polis, a fortified sites that were the center of villages and cities. Due to this, forms of governance were different in each city state along with culture. Henceforth, Greek city-states had very distinct political structures and strengths. Among these city states, the most influential ones were Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Delphi, and Sparta, with Athens of Attica and Sparta of Laconia being considered the most powerful of them all.

During the time period of 3200 to 146 BCE, ancient Greece went through a cycle of three different civilizations. First there were the early civilizations, then the classical Greece and lastly the Hellenistic age. All three of the civilizations were great and are known for many important things that are a key part of society in the 21st century. Ancient Greece is a wonderful place with many things to learn from which was all started by the early civilization.

When examining the effect that geography had on the civilizations of the early cities you can see that many were founded for strategic purposes. The settlers had to choose the land that would make life easiest as well as give them the best chance of developing a flourishing community. The choice was generally out of need, the need for water, food and shelter. When early leaders chose a place that was full of the necessities and provided smart options to grow a stronghold the communities would gain power and amass an empire to rival others. The civilizations of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were such empires, they used their geographical locations and features to grow the cities, expand their empires, and trade goods making them both powerful

The mountains made it difficult to trade and communicate through land (Geography Shapes Greek Life). With mountains covering most of the land, it divided ancient Greece into smaller city-states. Because of that, it took weeks to travel from place to place, thus limiting trade and communication. With the lack of trade and communication, it was difficult for ancient Greece to