Ancient Greece and the Development of Greek City-States

2. Ancient Greece and the Development of Greek City-States Location, location, location!

3. Friday Five: Answer in complete sentences. • How were Sparta and Athens different? Give one example. • What are 3 geographic features of Greece? • Why did Persia invade Greece? • Who was Pericles? • What is a tyrant?

4. What are they? Why are they important to ancient Greeks?

5. What is it?

6. Detention • Why are you here? • How did your behavior affect others and you? • What are you going to do to avoid being in detention again for this reason?

7. Geographic Features • Peninsulas…lots of them! • Mountains…Pindos Mountains • Natural barriers kept early people isolated from each other • Narrow, rugged coastlines • Ionian Sea and Aegean Sea…part of the Mediterranean Sea

8. Peninsulas of Greece The peninsulas resemble your hand, fingers are the many peninsulas.

10. How did they make a living? • Many Greeks earned their living from the sea • Expert sailors • Developed trade networks with other cultures around the Mediterranean Sea • Set up colonies: small groups of people who relocate to build a settlement and increase trade with mother country

11. How did the Greeks make a living? • Some farmed in the plains areas between the higher plateau and mountain ranges • Travel over land was very difficult • Some of the products raised on farms include grapes, figs and olives. They are resilient to the harsh conditions of the lands of Greece.

12. Minoans • The Minoans lived on the island of Crete from approximately 2000 to 1600 BC. • They were expert shipbuilders and sailors. • Minoan ships carried goods such as wood, olive oil, and pottery all around the eastern Mediterranean. They traded these goods for copper, gold, silver, and jewels. • There were pros and cons about the location of Crete.

13. Minoans • Crete gave the Minoans open access to trade all around the Mediterranean Sea BUT… • Sometime in the 1600s BC a huge volcano erupted just north of Crete. This eruption created a giant wave that flooded much of Crete. (tsunami) • In addition to tsunami, ash covered everything on Crete. • The civilization of the Minoans did not survive this eruption.

15. Mycenaeans • The first people to speak Greek, and therefore the first to be considered Greek, were the Mycenaeans. • While the Minoans were sailing the Mediterranean, the Mycenaeans were building fortresses all over the Greek mainland.

16. Mycenaeans • The decline of the Minoan civilization gave the Mycenaeans a chance to gain power and control trade around the Mediterranean Sea. • They set up colonies in northern Greece and Italy from which they shipped goods to markets around the Mediterranean and Black seas. • The Mycenaeans didn’t think trade had to be conducted peacefully. They often attacked other kingdoms.

17. Fact or fiction? • Some historians believe the Mycenaeans were the Greeks who went to war against the city of Troy, starting the long fabled Trojan War.

18. Guess what happened next? • By the end of the 1200s BC, the Mycenaean civilization lost power when their leaders could not protect themselves from invaders from Europe. • Following these invasions, Greece fell into a Dark Age of chaos and disorder, with people fighting for control and power….

19. Rise and Fall of Civilization

21. Development of city-states in Greece • Dark Ages lasted about 300 years. • People started to gather together for protection. • As time went on, these groups built city-states. • Although they all spoke the same language (Greek), they considered themselves separate cultural groups.

22. Why did city-states develop? • Mainly because the people were isolated due to geographic features making natural barriers. • They were seeking protection and stability after so many years of disorder and fear of attack.

23. Development of City-States in Greece • All the people did not live within the city walls. • For examples, farmers lived on the small fields around the city. • In times of danger, the women, children and elderly living outside the city walls were brought in for safety. •  The city-state became the foundation of Greek civilization. • Besides providing security for its people, the city gave them an identity.

24. What is a polis? • A polis is the Greek term for city-state. • The English word politics comes from the Greek polis (fun fact  ) • City-states were built around a hill, or acropolis. The important buildings such as temples and other public buildings were built on the top of the hill.

26. What is an agora? • Each Greek city-state had an open area of the city that was kept free of large buildings. • This area, called an agora, was used as a marketplace and the location of meetings by the citizens. • Think about a football field, with people meeting in the field to trade or discuss political issues.

28. Greek Colonies • Before long, groups from city-states around Greece began to set up colonies in distant lands. • After they were set up, Greek colonies became independent. In other words, each colony became a new polis. • In fact, some cities that began as colonies began to create colonies of their own.

29. Trade with the Colonies • Once a group of people settled in a new area, they sought to continue trade with city-states on the mainland of Greece. • The colonies sent metals such as copper and iron back to mainland Greece. • In return, the Greek city-states sent wine, olive oil, and other products.

30. Trade • Trade made the city-states much richer. Because of their locations, some city-states became great trading centers. • By 550 BC the Greeks had become the greatest traders in the whole Aegean region. • Greek ships sailed to Egypt and cities around the Black Sea.

31. City-states • People thought of themselves as residents of a city, not as Greeks. • Because the city-state was so central to their lives, the Greeks expected people to participate in its affairs, especially in its economy and its government.

32. Take 5: Minoans, Mycenaeans, Athenians, Spartans

33. Athens and Sparta Two City-States Two very different ways of life…

35. Democracy • A democracy is a form of government where the citizens have a say in how it is run and the decisions that need to be made.

36. Oligarchy • Government run by a few wealthy people.

37. Tyranny • A tyrant is the head of a form of government called a tyranny. • A tyrant was not always a cruel ruler. • A tyrant is one man running the government. • They are absolute rulers, meaning they have all the political power. • Some tyrants actually improved life, reformed society and helped the poor.

38. Oligarchy, tyranny and democracy in ancient Greece • Government in Greece evolved from rule by a single man or a few wealthy people to a form of government that allows citizens to have a say in political decisions.

39. Government of City-states • Not all city-states were democracies! • Athens was the first city-state to develop a democratic form of government. • Other city-states, such as Sparta, maintained an oligarchy. A few wealthy powerful people had absolute power, or made all the decisions.

40. Peloponnesian War…prelude • The Persians built an empire on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea that extended through Mesopotamia as far east as India and southwest to include parts of Egypt. • They wanted to take control of Greece, because that would give the Persians control of the Mediterranean World and all its trade. • The Greeks were willing to fight to keep their city-states safe.

41. Persian Wars • The Persians attacked the Greeks in a series of wars called the Persian Wars • The Athenians and the Spartans had some serious differences of opinions and did not get along…. • However, they recognized they needed to join together to defeat the Persians and maintain control of Mediterranean Sea trade.

42. Persian Wars • These wars lasted over 20 years and ended with the defeat of Xerxes by a combined force of the Spartan army and Athenian navy. • Following the defeat of the Persians, a messenger from the battlefield ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens, announced the Greek victory, and dropped dead from exhaustion!

43. Peloponnesian War pages 270-71 • After the Persian defeat in 480 BC, many of the city-states decided to form an alliance, or an agreement to join together against a common enemy. • Each city-state in the alliance gave money to a common treasury to finance an military force in the event of another war with Persia. • The money was kept on an island called Delos in the Aegean Sea, and those city-states who joined this alliance were called the Delian League.

44. Peloponnesian War • Athens had the strongest navy, which it sent to protect the treasury on Delos. • The Athenians started to boss the other members of the alliance and misuse the funds; Athens was the strongest city-state in the Delian League. • They used the money in the treasury for building projects and bullied other weaker city-states to join the alliance and pay the dues for protection.

45. Peloponnesian War • The Delian League was not the only alliance in Greece. • The Spartans and many of the city-states in southern Greece formed an alliance also, called the Peloponnesian League, named for the peninsula on which these city-states were located. • Some of the weaker city-states in the Delian League went to Sparta for help in dealing with the bullying of the Athenians.

46. Peloponnesian War • Sparta decided to teach Athens a lesson and declared war. • This was the Peloponnesian War, and it lasted almost 30 years.

47. Persian Wars: Cornell Notes • Why did Darius swear to get revenge on the Greeks? • What was the name of the place near Athens where the Persian Wars began? • Why did Persia want to invade Greece? • What two city-states joined together to defeat the Persians?