Section 5 essay The Conquest of Alexander the Great In the fourth century B.C. King Phillip, had passed away and his young but eager son, Alexander III of Macedon, immediately assumed the role and position of the throne of his father. Alexander III not only inherited the throne of his father but also initiated the continuation of the plans of his late father, King Phillip. King Phillip had just recently taken over the disunited poleis, including Athens, and was planning on converging on Anatolia before he was assassinated. In less than three years Alexander III gained control over all of Anatolia, assuring that the known plans of his father were completed. In the short but brilliant career of Alexander III of Macedon, soon to be known as Alexander …show more content…
The Greek culture, language and influence had an extreme advantage during this time because of the great efforts of alexander the great and his army expanding the Greek territories. Because of this a phenomena started which is called Hellenistic. The interactions between the Greek language and culture and the languages and cultural forms of peoples of southwest Asia, the Nile valley, the western Mediterranean and the black sea region, defines the term Hellenistic. One of the main aspects of Hellenistic culture was the expansion of Greek language. Greek rapidly acquired the position of being the language of trade and commerce and people from all around the empire benefited from its common use. Now they could understand each other with ease disregarding whatever their personal culture and language. Use of a language that was common also brought about widespread appreciation of Greek art, drama and philosophy. New schools of philosophical thought came about of which the main focus was on the individual, such as Stoicism and Epicureanism. The new cosmopolitan world created by Alexander’s conquests threw away the power of competing Greek city-states. This allowed an adaption of a mentality more concerned with the individual rather than identification with the city-state, which was at first a huge part of Greek society. The osmosis of the Hellenistic culture was not the only thing taking place because of alexander conquest, Alexander’s empire created a stable habitat for trade in cities to expand without fear of attack. Governments under his rule now provided protection and promoted trade which allowed the emergence of primary routes like the Silk Road. Chinese silk was a commodity of great importance and was in great demand in the Mediterranean. Increased trade also led to the development of caravan cities along the