Alexander III was arguably one of the greatest and most effective emperors in the history of civilizations. During his 13 year reign over Macedonia from 336 B.C. to 323 B.C, he greatly advanced the Macedonian Empire by nearly tripling the size of the empire, spreading Hellenistic culture throughout the ancient world and unifying the diverse ethnic groups of his vast empire under it, and improving the empire’s economy by forging new trade connections. Without his skillful leadership, Macedonia would not have become the dominant power it became at its peak.
Within 4 years of when he first took the throne in 336 B.C., Alexander expanded the empire from the kingdom of Macedon itself to the area around the eastern half of the Mediterranean Sea, including Thrace, Anatolia, and the upper part of Egypt. He did so by launching a series of decisive military campaigns around the Mediterranean, specifically the sieges of Thebes, Olynthus, Halicarnassus, Tyre, and Gaza, and the battles at Chaeronea and Granicus River. He then proceeded to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia, and after major battles at Issus in 333 B.C. and Gaugamela in 331 B.C, he succeeded in overthrowing the Persian king Darius III and
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The conquests introduced new trade links in Asia that the Persian empire had been dependent on. As a result, commerce between the two economies proved beneficial for both of them and helped create an almost universal economy with trade links as far-reaching as India and China. The volume of trade skyrocketed, as evidenced by Egypt’s annual export of nearly 20 million bushels of grain during that time. Because of this, the wealth of the Hellenistic Civilization grew immensely, enabling its culture to flourish as more money could be used to finance pursuits such as the establishment of the cultural hub Alexandria. (Doc