Ancient and Classical Greece and Persia AP World History

Classical Empires  Empires began to grow in number and size  Frequently competed for resources  Built powerful military machines  Built administrative institutions  Could organize human activity over long distances  Created new groups of military and political elites  Developed policies and procedures to govern empires  Had to integrate or exclude different groups  Faced environmental problems  Permitted excessive wealth to be concentrated in the hands of the privileged class

What do you know about Greece? Make a list of everything that you know in your notes.

Ancient Greece Geography

Geography Shapes Greek Life  Consisted of mainly mountainous peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean Sea  Included approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas  Lands on the western coast of Anatolia were also part of ancient Greece

Physical Geography Greece is very mountainous   75% of Greece is covered by mountains   Difficult to farm Surrounded by seas  Greece is located on the Balkan Peninsula   Made trade easier  Could get what they could not grow  Also brought ideas back with them

The Land  Mountains divided the land into a number of different regions   Mountains made it difficult to unite the Greeks under a single government  Developed small independent community within each valley  Made land transportation difficult

Effects   With so little fertile land or fresh water for irrigation, Greece was never able to support a large population  Based their diet on basic staple crops   Grains, grapes, olives  Desire for more living space, grassland for raising livestock, and adequate farmland were factors that motivated the Greeks to seek new sites for colonies

The Sea  Sea shaped Greek civilization   Lived around a sea rather than on the land  The seas were important transportation routes (liquid highways)  Connected Greece with other societies   Sea travel and trade were important because Greece was poor in natural resources  Lacked timber, precious metals, and usable farmland

Climate of Ancient Greece Greece has a Mediterranean climate Only 20% of the land was suitable for farming Winters are mild and wet Winters are mild and wet – allows for limited farming – – grapes and olives Summers are warm and dry – – leads to drought – grapes and olives are one of the few plants that can survive the summer droughts

Ancient Greek Culture Cut off by mountains and the seas   Isolated   Led to the formation of city-states   Limited interaction and unity of Ancient Greece   Created fierce rivalries   Sea became a vital link  Hundreds of bays to provide safe harbor for ships   Skilled sailors  Traded olive oil, wine, and marble  Returned with grains, metals, and ideas  Adapted the Phoenician alphabet  Became basis for all Western alphabets

Early Greek Societies  Greece  Early Greek civilizations emerged on Crete (Minoans) and on the mainland Balkan Peninsula (Mycenae)

Archaic Greece 1650 B.C. – 700 B.C.

MINOAN CIVILIZATION 2000 B.C. – 1400 B.C.

  Flourished on Island of Crete  Lightly color Crete on your map  Create a key and label the key Minoan Civilization and the time period

 Fertile Soil  Isolation  Limited Resources encouraged immigration, trade  Trade and contact with Egypt, Mesopotamia, other Mediterranean islands  Wealthy  Little evidence of military

Minoan Palace Economy  Trade, taxes, and farming were centered around the palace complex at Knossos. ServantsSold Taxes Palace Lands

 Artistic  Social and Gender Equality  Anthropomorphic religion with Goddesses dominant

Minoan Art

The Palace of Knossos

Palace of Knossos  The palace stored food and made goods.  Centralized government.  Created writing to facilitate trade.   Linear A (based on hieroglyphics)  Used to keep the economic record of the palaces, largely un-deciphered today.

Linear A and B

  Great trading power  Carried goods from the Black Sea to the Nile Valley and Phoenicia  Exchanged olive oil, honey, and wine for gold, precious stones, grain and linen  Wealthy merchants spent lavishly on their homes and personal comforts rather than on temples and tombs

Minoan Trade “Bireme” ship Coast of Crete

28 The Minoans Earthquake (around 1700 BCE) Volcanic eruption (around 1500 BCE) Tidal waves (following volcanic eruption) The Minoans disappear “Good thing we did not build there!” the Greeks agreed happily. Natural disasters hit Crete!

Ca BCE: Eruption of Thera

Mycenaean Civilization 2000 B.C. – 1200 B.C.

 On your map lightly color the Mycenaean civilization  Include this civilization and time period in your key as well  Label Mycenae on your map

 2000 B.C. invaded Greece from the north   Built on the achievements of the Minoans

Mycenaean Migration Conquered the Greek mainland

Mycenaean Conquest of Minoans Mycenaean’s conquer the island of Crete.

Mycenaean Expansion into Asia Minor Mycenaean conquest of Troy

The Mycenaeans  Settled in mainland Greece before and after the Minoan collapse  Minoan weakness allowed Mycenaeans to gain strength

Aerial View of Mycenae

Mycenean Culture WarlikePatriarchal Adapted Minoan culture Monarchies Merchants and traders Wealth concentrated in hands of monarchs Major cities: Mycenae, Tiryns, Troy

Trojan War  1250 B.C.banded together under the leadership of the king of Mycenae to attack Troy, a rival power  Troy controlled trading routes between the Aegean and Black Seas

The Trojan War Add this to your map and key The Trojan War Add this to your map and key

Read the Trojan War Handout  Answer the questions in your notebook.   Title this TROJAN WAR ANSWERS

The Trojan War  1200 B.C. Mycenaean Kings fought a 10 year war against Troy (an independent trading city located in Anatolia)  Trojan youth kidnapped Helen  Many thought stories were fictional until…

Troy Ruins

The “Trojan Horse”?

Sir Heinrich Schliemann German Archeologist

The Real Trojan War

Plan of the City of Troy

The Seven “Layers” of Ancient Troy

Homer’s Troy (VII)

Original Wall of the City of Troy

Mycenaean Writing  Linear B writing was found both on mainland Greece and Crete.  Greek was the language of the Mycenaean culture.  The Mycenaean's adapted Linear A to their language to create Linear B.  The Mycenaean's were ruling Crete by the 15 th century. Took writing and adapted it.

Mycenaean Tombs

The Mask of Agamemnon

Mycenaean Decline  Conflict between Troy and Mycenae Population decline in cities Ca 1100 BCE, cities abandoned

Mycenaean Destruction EarthquakesEarthquakes  Crop Failures WarWar  Sea people  Dorian's Dorian Invasion

DORIAN CIVILIZATION.

DORIANS 1200 B.C. – 700 B.C. (DORIANS}

BCE: Greek Dark Ages  Dorians move into Greek mainland and take control  Sedentary agricultural, non-urban  Mountainous topography, irregular coastline precluded unity  Thin, rocky soil encouraged fishing and trading rather than farming

 Around 1200 B.C. sea raiders attacked and burned palace after palace The Dorians had iron weapons!  Dorians moved in   Far less advanced   Central economy collapsed   Trade came to a standstill  (no written record exists for 400 years)  Temporarily forgot the art of writing (no written record exists for 400 years)  Little known about this period

Oral Poetry  Homer  Blind Poet.  Compiled a series of oral stories.  The stories started around 1300 BCE.  The stories were compiled around 800 BCE.  Homer did not create the story he wrote it down.  (How did a blind person write anything down?)

Dark Age of Greece  The Odyssey was compiled during the Dark Age of Greece.  People were Ignorant they were living in a time of superstition.  After the destruction of the major cities in the 1200’s. (Sea People)  High art in pottery and fresco’s stops.  Jewelry making stops.

 Because of the Dorians  Because of the Dorians there was a need for governments to be flexible to the rapidly changing conditions and responsive to local needs.

Development of the Polis  Ca 800 BCE: Trade revived  Market places formed in villages  Small villages combined for better trade and self-defense  City-states developed around  City-states developed around acropolises

Greeks Create Greeks Create Myths  Developed a rich set of myths, or traditional stories, about their gods   Sought to understand the mysteries of nature and human passion