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Ancient Greek culture
Chapter 5: Ancient Greece
Ancient Greek culture
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During the eighteenth century and up until the nineteenth century, Greeks were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. It was during this time that nationalism and the idea that your people should have the best became really popular. Greeks in the Balkans and in Asia Minor decided to revolt against their rulers in March 1821, starting a nine-year war in search for their independence. When other European countries siding with them intervened, the Greeks finally gain their freedom. During the war, people formed opinions on the Greeks: some praised and sympathized with them while others didn’t.
Ancient Greece, a thriving country consisting of nearly 100 city states from within. A gem of the Archaic and Classical Greek Era that we have come to discover. While the country thrived, they also had much tension from within caused by its two leading cities, Athens and Sparta. Athens, a democratic and well invested political city found apprehension with their neighboring municipality Sparta, a highly dense military society. Though the two cities shared several traits such as slavery and gradation systeming, they were separated by their political and economic differences.
In Ancient Greece, Sparta, had laws that when you were born you were to be examined for any defects. If you had any you were to be thrown down in a valley to die, and if you were the first born male of your family you were put in a military camp to be trained for further uses. This took away their human rights on living free if you are a man, and if you are a woman you were to stay in the town and be a “house-wife.” The Spartan government wanted to make the city a stronger unit by taking away job choices. The Spartan government was a great government because, they trained young boys to be warriors, their population couldn’t have any flaws, and the people didn’t have a choice in job.
Due to geographical barriers preventing a united empire of Greece, city-states developed that differed in their values. For example, Athens and Sparta were set up based around very different ideals. Athenians valued education and thought, and put a lot of emphasis on philosophy, while Spartans valued military above all. These values were reflected in their education systems, as
Like most of the things about Greece’s geography, this did the opposite of make life simpler for the Greeks. Because of the mountains, the Greeks could not move around easily on land. As said in Document 5, this caused the polis, or city-states, to develop as separate communities with their own governments. The city-states were practically their own countries, and rather than living in harmony, as they might’ve if they didn’t feel so detached from each other, they were distrustful of each other. Several, like Sparta and Athens, who started the Peloponnesian Wars, were actively malicious toward one
Both the city states of Greece and the Roman Empire had distinctly different and yet powerful political systems. Both systems influenced many civilizations and empires and were respected by existing societies. In greece, most notably in Athens, a form a government never seen before was put in to play; Democracy. The democracy in Athens was a system of government unique to Athens and founded by the teachings and knowledge of Cleisthenes. Democracy was an early system of representative government, where the citizens of Athens elected officials to rule.
As I said before that mountains cover most of Greece and make it hard for the ancient Greeks to farm anything other than olives, the mountains served and another limitation as well. They essentially blocked them into wherever their city was and thus the city’s were quite isolated from each other. This, in turn, kept them from much contact other than traders, so the city-states in ancient times never formed into one strong nation. The mountains also forced many cities to turn to the sea to make a living.
The geography of Greece influenced the development of ancient Greek government and politics. When describing ancient Greece, “mountainous land” is the phrase one would use because Greece is made up of many mountains. Because of the mountains, it was difficult to commute from place to place. As a result of that, instead of Greece being ruled by one government, it formed many different poleis, which each had their own government Polis is the Greek word for independent city-states. Greeks had a strong connection with their polis, and they strongly identified with them.
It was a really hot summer day in the valley and all kids wouldn’t even go outside, but it wasn’t because of the weather. Throughout the week it has been said that the three goddesses have escaped from the sorcerer. 17 years ago, just when summer was about to begin a war was declared from the goddesses, but abuelito Juan or Winter was not to be a part of it. He knew they were all up to no good, but he new better not to mess with them. Summer, Autumn, and Spring goddess desired to rule the world together, without abuelito Juan.
Although the two city-states of Greece carried different motives they were both thought of as thinkers who loved beauty and multiple forms of art. Culture is one thing the two city states seemed to differ in greatly. Athens was thought to be a more progressive city-state. It’s known for art, architecture, drama, science advancements, philosophy, as well as literature. Though they were advanced in all of these fields they were behind on the rights of women.
Sparta vs. Athens To begin with, Athens and Sparta were both famous in antiquity for their legend, cultures and the character of the people. On the one hand, the two poleis share certain obvious affinities, such as language, geographical scope, a common Greek ancestry etc. On the other hand, they were polar opposites in many aspects, from social spheres, political structures, to military might, which I believe there are some hidden depths in these city-states. Hence, let’s look at how did their people obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community, and who held public office first.
Introduction Monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy were all forms of government found at different times and in different city-states in Ancient Greece. Elements of more than one of these forms also co-existed, however, and the modern connotations of labels such as these are not necessarily the same as those that prevailed in Ancient Greece. In this paper I firstly describe these various forms of government and provide examples of their use in Ancient Greece. I then compare and contrast the models.
in the more advanced areas of Greece, economically and socially speaking” (“Greek Administration”, 1988). The polis was a way of the Greeks finding a way to organize themselves into a society, becoming more civilized. According to Greek Administration, “In its fundamental essence it was never conceived as an extent of territory, although its boundaries could be drawn on a map, but rather as a group of citizens feeling themselves bound together under the rule of law” (“Greek Administration, 1988). In terms that are more familiar to the way we teach history today in our society, the polis is what we would call a city-state, each individual polis being its own city-state, acting almost like a small country. According to Nardo, “Although all Greeks, the residents of the various poleis developed differing local governments and customs as well as different forms of currency” (Nardo, 2007).
Sparta seemed intent on consolidating power amongst its aristocratic families, while Athens moved in a different direction, attempting to keep power from gathering around any specific group, How were the two city-states similar in their governmental structures, and how did they differ? Both societies had a public assembly in which every citizen could make themselves heard. Both had relatively short terms of public office, (excluding the Gerousia) and both believed in reaching a consensus before enacting policy. Athens had a much larger group of citizens who had a much greater influence on matters of policy, and Sparta was a much more streamlined machine, geared toward making war, and maintaining military readiness.
Hello in this paper Im going to define, discuss Political Economy in Ancient Greece. Politcal Economy is the earlier name for economics , the Ancient Greeks came up with the name but in the late 19th Century economists decided economics is a better shorter name. The economy in Ancient Greeks were based on Agriculture,Crafts, Trade, Taxation and Currency . Agriculture was imporant to the Ancient Greeks because it employed up to 80% of the Greek population. Agriculture consisted of olive trees, grapevines, herbs, vegetables, and oil producing plants .