12.9.2019
PPT Chapter 6, Section 1 The Rise of Greek Civilization.ppt
ANCIENT GREECE: CHAPTER NOTES
Section I. EARLY GREEK CIVILIZATION
I. The Geography of Greece
The land of Greece looks as if the sea had smashed it to pieces
Some pieces have drifted away to form small, rocky islands. Others seem to barely cling to the mainland.
Greece is a peninsula made up of smaller peninsulas and islands.
Mountains are the major landforms of Greece. Greece’s islands are mostly mountain peaks leaving only small patches of farmland.
Only about one fifth of Greece is good for growing crops, so many Greeks became traders and sailors.
Many ancient Greek communities were separated by water or mountains, therefore each community developed its own customs and beliefs.
Despite this, they shared a common heritage, spoke the same language, and worshiped the same gods.
II. The Rise of Greek Civilization
Early Greek civilizations arose both on and off the Greek mainland. Two ancient peoples, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, made important contributions to Greek civilization.
From about 3000 to about 1100 B.C., Bronze Age people called the Minoans lived on the island of Crete. The Minoans developed a broad sea-trade network and traded with mainland Greece, Egypt, and Sicily.
The Minoans developed an advanced culture. Samples of Minoan writing have been found as well as palace ruins in the ancient city of Knossos.
In the middle of the 1400s B.C., Knossos was destroyed, probably by the Mycenaeans, and Minoan civilization declined.
After the Mycenaeans came to power, mainland and island cultures blended.
At the height of their power, around 1400 B.C., the Mycenaeans controlled the Aegean Sea and parts of the Mediterranean.
The Mycenaeans relied on conquest to spread their power. Greek myth tells the story of the Trojan War, a long struggle between Greece and the city of Troy on the west coast of Asia Minor.
According to Myth, Greece conquered Troy by using a trick—the Trojan Horse. Greek warriors hid inside a huge wooden horse. The horse was rolled to the city gates. Thinking it was a gift, the Trojans brought the horse into their city. During the night, the Greek soldiers climbed out of the horse and let the rest of their army into Troy. The Greeks burned and looted Troy and then returned home.
The Iliad and the Odyssey tell the story of the Trojan War. They may have been composed by many people, but they are credited to one poet called Homer.
These poems were important to the Greeks because they taught them what their gods were like and how the noblest of their heroes behaved.
Not long after the Trojan War ended, civilization in Greece collapsed. No one knows exactly why.
Poverty was everywhere and people no longer traded beyond Greece for food and other goods.
They were so concerned with survival that they even forgot the practice of writing.
These years, from the early 1100s B.C. to about 750 B.C., have been called Greece’s Dark Ages.
Greece’s Dark Ages were not completely bleak, however. During that time, families gradually resettled in places where they could grow crops and raise animals. Villages developed and people built fortifications near rocky, protected hills.
The name for the fortified hill of an ancient Greek city is Acropolis, meaning “upper city.”
III. Governing Ancient Greece
Historians believe that around 750 B.C., villages throughout Greece began joining to form cities.
Each city formed near an acropolis.
Hundreds of Greek city-states formed, each one more or less independent.
The earliest rulers of city-states were probably chieftains or kings. By the end of the Greece’s Dark Ages, most city-states were ruled by aristocrats who controlled most of the good land and owned horses, chariots, and the best weapons.
As the Greeks sailed to foreign ports trading olive oil, marble, and other products, the city-states became richer.
A middle class of merchants and artisans developed and they wanted a say in the government of their cities.
Gradually, military strength shifted from the aristocrats to the merchants and artisans.
As a result, aristocratic governments were often overthrown and replaced by rulers called tyrants who were supported by the middle and working classes.
Eventually, the people of many city-states overthrew tyrants who were too harsh. Some adopted a form of government called a democracy where citizens governed themselves.
Democracy was most fully developed in Athens where, about 594 B.C., a leader named Solon reformed laws to allow male citizens aged 18 or older to debate important laws.
In Athens only men who had an Athenian mother and father could be citizens.
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