How does geography impact the development of civilizations?
What causes people to unite, and to fight?
What can we learn about people from their stories?
The civilization created by the ancient Greeks has an importance to the Western world that cannot be overstated. An understanding of the ancient Greek’s history, politics, mythology, and geography will allow students to better understand the past and connect it with the present. Students will continue to examine how geography influences civilizations, analyze how the stories told by ancient people can shed light on their values, beliefs, and knowledge (or lack thereof), and identify the causes of conflict among people with different wants, needs, and values.
Our course of study will introduce students to ancient Greece through the lens of those disciplines, and will continue our work developing student skills in the areas of reading, writing, and reasoning.
Greece's Geography and the Earliest Greeks
Greece is a mountainous peninsula in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The Greek civilization developed in mainland Greece and on the many islands that are found nearby. The earliest civilization in this region we will learn about are called the Minoans. They lived on the island of Crete, south of mainland Greece. Although the Minoans weren't true Greeks, the early Greeks learned a lot from their culture. The earliest Greeks we will study are called the Mycenaeans. We don't know what they called themselves, we named them after the first city where we found their artifacts.
The City-States
The people who settled in Greece were separated from each other by mountains and the sea. As a result they developed independent city-states that were known as a Polis. Each Greek polis had its own government, laws, army, and traditions. These city-states traded goods and ideas with each other, but were just as likely to go to war with each other as they were to get along. As we study the Greek city-states, we will focus on the types of government that the Greeks developed or used.
Monarchy: Rule by a king.
Aristocracy: Rule by the rich.
Oligarchy: Rule by a small group of powerful people.
Tyranny: Rule by an individual that seizes power and rules alone.
Democracy: Rule by the people.
Anarchy: The absence of government.
The Persian Wars & Golden Age of Athens
As the Greek City-States developed and expanded their influence, mainly by colonizing parts of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), they began to clash with one of the largest empires the world had yet seen, The Achaemenid or Persian Empire. Eventually these clashes broke out into a war between the Persian Empire and the Greek City-States.
Over the course of 50 years, the Greeks and Persians clashed. At the end the Greeks were able to drive the Persians out of Greece, and it was time for the Greeks to start an empire of their own. The next 50 years were a golden
The Greeks got to war with themselves
Philip II, Alexander the Great, and spread of Greek Culture