NAME_______________________________________ PER. ____ DATE __________________________ TEACHER COPY
DAY 1
CHAPTER 5 LESSON 1 – GREECE
[Classical Civilizations of the West]
Geography
a. Disadvantages /
b. Advantages
Characteristics of Classical Greece
In southeastern Europe on the tip of the Balkan Peninsula within the
Mediterranean Sea with the Aegean Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the
west; east of Italy and Sicily and west of what is now Turkey; mountainous
terrain with no major rivers; off from mainland Greece are hundreds of tiny
islands that the Greeks used for trade and colonization
a. no major rivers to begin an agricultural revolution as the earliest ancient
civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, India, and China had relied upon; mountains
separated the city-states of Greece causing no unity or loyalty to one another /
b. The seas linked the Greeks to the outside world. The Greeks became
skilled shipbuilders and sailors, traveling and trading all over the
Mediterranean, spreading their culture while absorbing others (cultural diffusion)
Early Influences
by the Minoans
Early Influences
by the Mycenaean
Development of
Greek city-states
 Similarities
among Greek
city-states
The Minoans established civilization on the island of Crete, helping to shape the
Greek civilization. They traded with Egypt and Mesopotamia and acquired
ideas/technology that they adapted to their own culture. The fall of the Minoan
civilization was due to possible natural catastrophes such as a volcanic eruption,
an earthquake, or a tidal wave. Now weakened, the Minoans fell to the invading
Mycenaean.
The Mycenaean conquered the Greek mainland and Crete, and by dominating
the Aegean Sea from about 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C., they absorbed Egyptian and
Mesopotamian influences that they passed on to later Greeks. They traded
with Sicily, Italy, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Phoenicians, considered to be the
greatest sea-trading people of the ancient world, who invented a 22-letter alphabet
from which the Greek alphabet was adapted. Greek poet, Homer, who wrote the
Iliad and the Odyssey about the Trojan War that was fought between the two
cities of Mycenae and Troy, reveal many of the values held by the ancient Greeks
such as honor, courage, and eloquence.
Each city-state was called a polis, first meaning “fort,” and each polis had its own
acropolis (fortified hilltop) and agora (marketplace); each polis was ruled by a
king, whose rule was eventually overthrown by an aristocracy (nobility who
owned land) which became so oppressive, Greek hoplites (foot soldiers of a
citizen-army), using their phalanxes (8-rank formations) defeated the aristocrats
with the use of a new material called iron to make affordable weapons. The
hoplites replaced the aristocracy with a ruling class of oligarchs known as
Tyrants who successfully built temples, forts, and harbors for the betterment of
the Greek civilization.
 all Greek citizens considered themselves “Hellenes,” (Greeks) living in
“Hellas;” (Greece)
 used language of Greek, derived from the Phoenician 22-letter alphabet
 participated in Olympic Games, counting every four years as one Olympiad
 practiced a polytheistic religion
 feared constant threat of attack from the Persian Empire
 felt superior to non-Greeks whom they called “barbaroi,” people who did not
speak Greek
NAME________________________ PER.___ DATE_______________ TEACHER COPY
CHAPTER 5 LESSON 1 NOTES - GREECE
Athens
 Differences
between the
Greek citystates of
Athens and
Sparta
 on Greek mainland
 established the world’s 1st democracy
called a direct democracy led by all male
citizens 30 years or older as Assembly
members (U.S. has a representative
democracy whereby the people elect
senators and state representatives to
speak and vote on their behalf)
 Greek government based on idea of
popular sovereignty (the people choose
their form of government to rule them)
 Archons (reformers who worked to
improve Athens’ democracy) wrote laws:
beginning with the Draconian Code of
Laws, a set of harsh, severe laws
comparable to Babylonian King
Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, the world’s
1st written law code
 Sophists (Greek wise men) taught
rhetoric (public-speaking course to
Athenian citizens’ older sons); wide range
of educational opportunities for males only
Persian Wars
Major Wars Fought
by Ancient
Greece
 began in 490 B.C., lasted for 11 yrs.
 Athens, angering Sparta, takes
credit for defeating the ancient world’s
most powerful military, the Persian
Empire:
 from Middle East area; now Iran;
had lands on 3 continents; militarily
centralized in Asia by building the Royal
Road, with a pony express to introduce a
postal service; treated all conquered
people with tolerance & respect, even
allowing the conquered monotheistic Jews
to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem
 Pericles, Athenian military general and
political orator, begins Athens’ Golden
Age by rebuilding the Parthenon,
strengthening democracy; supporting
knowledge and learning and ensuring that
Athens became known as the “School of
Hellas;” Greece is confirmed as the
Western World’s 1st classical civilization
 jealousy intensifies between Athens and
Sparta, leading them into a 27-year Greek
civil war
DAY 2
Sparta
 on Greek area called
Peloponnesus at the southern end
of Balkan Peninsula
 established a closed society led
by an oligarchy with 2 kings and a
Council of Elders
 based society on a military state
 glorified war according to the law
code of Lycurgus, a Dorian warrior
ancestor of the Spartans & Sparta’s
1st lawmaker, who, legend has it,
sacrificed his own life to save all
other Spartans
 began military training at age of 7
 women honored as “mothers of
soldiers”
 feared revolts by helots (enslaved
farmers forced to work for the
Spartans and provide them with
food)
 feared strangers (xenophobia)
Peloponnesian War
 Greek civil war began in 431 B.C.
 Pericles dies of a plague along with
1/3 of the Athenian population
 with a Persian-backed navy,
Sparta defeats Athenian naval
forces
 Athens surrendered to Sparta, so
that totalitarianism triumphed over
democracy
 Greece, weaker than ever, falls to a
foreign power in the north, the
kingdom of Macedonia led by King
Philip II, father of Alexander the
Great