Greece Political History
1000-500 B.C.E
AP World History
Unit 1
Geography and Resources

Greece is part of the Mediterranean ecological
zone.


The Mediterranean zone is highly conducive to


No water resources sufficient for irrigation.
Limited water caused limited arable soil.


Migration, transfer of crops and technology, and trade.
The areas inhabited by the Greeks relied entirely
on rainfall.


These areas have similar climates, seasons, and crops.
Could not support large populations.
Very few metal resources and little timber.

Did have plentiful harbors.
The Emergence of the Polis

The polis was an urban center and with
rural territory.
 Polis

was a city-state.
Characteristic features of the polis:
 An
acropolis.
 An agora.
 marketplace.
 Fortified
walls.
 Public buildings.

There were frequent wars between the
various city-states.
Great Acropolis in Athens
Style of Warfare
 The
Greeks developed a style of
warfare that used hoplites.
A
close formation of heavily armored
infantrymen who would try to break the
enemy’s line of defense.
 The
soldiers were mostly farmercitizens who served for short periods
of time when called.
Hoplites
Colonization

Population growth used up available resources.


Colonization introduced the Greeks to new ideas.


The Greeks sent people out to colonize other areas in the
Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Increased the sense of Greek identity.
Invented coins in Lydia in the early 6th century BCE.


Western Anatolia.
Coinage was one of the most significant new
developments of this period.
Rule by Tyrants

One-man rule by tyrants began to increase
during the mid-7th and 6th centuries BCE.
Caused by increasing prosperity and the growth of a
middle class.
 Reduced the power of traditional elites.


The tyrants were eventually ejected and
government developed in one of two directions:
1.
Oligarchy

2.
Power rests with small elite part of society.
Democracy

Rule by the majority.
Religion

Worshiped the anthropomorphic sky gods.
 Many
of which represented forces of nature.
Gods were worshiped at state ceremonies.
 Animal sacrifice was a central part of
religious practice.

 Create
a sense of community.
Sparta
A polis located in the Peloponnese of
southern Greece.
 Need to assure a supply of food.

 They
took over the more fertile land of
Messenia and enslaved the people.

Create a severely ascetic and highly
militarized society.
 Resulted
out of fear of an uprising by
Messenian slaves.
 All Spartan males trained for the army.
 Devoted
their lives to the needs of the state.
Athens

Attica was an unusually large hinterland.
 Supported
a population of about 300,000 in
the 5th century BCE.
Ruled by tyrants in the 6th century BCE.
 Athens rejected the tyrant families and
developed a democracy.

 This
occurred in the between the late 6th and
early to mid-5th centuries BCE.
Early Encounters
Persia vs. Greece (526–323 BCE)

In 499 BCE, the Greek staged a 5 year revolt
against Persian rule.

Started by the cities of Anatolia.




Aided by Eretria and Athens,
This led to the Persian Wars.
Two Persian attacks on Greece.
In the 1st Persian War, the generals of Darius I
captured Eretria and attacked Athens, 490 BCE.

Ended when the Athenian defeated the Persians at
Marathon.
A reconstruction of beached
Persian ships at Marathon.
Early Encounters
Persia vs. Greece (526–323 BCE)

In the 2nd Persian War, Xerxes attached the
Greeks in 480 BCE.
 Many Greek city-states submitted.
 Spartans organized the Hellenic League.
 Southern Greece.
 An alliance of city-states

that defeated the Persians.
In 477 BCE, the Greeks went on the
offensive and drove the Persians out of most
of the eastern Mediterranean.
 Led
by Athens and organized into the Dalian
League.
 Cyprus was still controlled by the Persians.
The Height of Athenian Power
(480–323 BCE)

The classical period of Greek history was marked
by the dominant role of Athens.


Athenian power was based on the Athenian navy.



They subordinated the other states of the Dalian
League and became an imperial power.
Superior technological innovations.
The use of lower-class men as rowers.
The biggest technological innovation was the
development of the trireme.

A fast and maneuverable 170-oar boat.
Trireme
The Height of Athenian Power
(480–323 BCE)

The use of lower-class rowers meant further
democratization of Athenian society.

These men, realizing their importance and demanded
the full rights of citizenship.
Athens used its power to carry out profitable
trade and to extract annual tribute from subject
states.
 The wealth of the empire made it possible for
Athens to construct:

1.
2.
3.
Impressive public works.
Put on grand festivals.
Support development of the arts and sciences.
Socrates
Turned the focus of philosophy to ethics.
 Probed the precise meaning of words.
 Created the Socratic method of question
and answer.
 Put on trial on charges of corrupting the
youth and not believing in the gods of the
city.

 He
was sentenced to death.
Plato
Wrote dialogs exploring concepts such as
justice, excellence, and wisdom.
 Taught that the world as we see it is a
reflection of a higher, ideal reality.

Inequality in Classical Greece
Athenian democracy was very limited in its
scope.
 Only free adult males participated in
Athenian democracy.

 They
accounted for about 10-15 percent of the
total population.

Women, children, slaves, and foreigners did
not have the rights of citizens.
Slaves
Were mostly foreigners.
 Accounted for 1/3 of the population.
 Were regarded as property.
 The average Athenian family owned one
or more slaves who were treated like
domestic servants.
 Slaves provided male citizens with the
leisure for political activity.

Women
The position of women varied in different
Greek communities.
 In Sparta, women were relatively free and
outspoken.
 In Athens, women were more confined
and oppressed.
 Athenian marriages were unequally
arranged unions of younger women to
older men.

Women

The duties of a wife were:




Produce and raise children, especially sons.
Weave cloth.
Cook and clean.
No meaningful relations between men and
women.
Men sought intellectual and emotional companionship
with other men.
 This gave rise to a common pattern of bisexuality in
which older men engaged in extended social,
intellectual, and sexual relationships with younger men.
