Chapter 5 Section 3 World History Mrs. Thompson Mr. Williams

Philip II of Macedonia united the Greek states. Macedonia lay north of Greece. They were warriors who fought on horseback. Macedonians raised sheep and horses and grew crops in their river valleys.

Philip II rose to the throne of Macedonia in 359 B.C. He wanted to make his kingdom strong enough to defeat the Persian Empire. He took some city-states by force and bribed the leaders of others to surrender. He needed to unite the Greek city-states with his own kingdom. He admired everything about the Greeks.

Demosthenes was a lawyer and one of Athens’s great public speakers. He warned the Athenians of the threat of Philip II. He urged Athens and other city-states to fight the Macedonians together. The Peloponnesian War had weakened and divided Greece. Fighting had destroyed farms and killed many people.

Many young Greeks had left to join the Persian army as well, and Athens could not stop Philip II. In 338 B.C., the Macedonians crushed the Greek allies at the Battle of Chaeronea near Thebes. Philip then controlled all of Greece.

Alexander builds an Empire. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and spread Greek culture throughout southwest Asia.

Alexander was 20 when he became king of Macedonia after his father was murdered. He was trained about war as a boy, and commanded the army at age 16.

Alexander’s Conquests In 334 B.C., he invaded Asia Minor with 37,000 foot soldiers and 5,000 mounted warriors. In 331 B.C., Alexander went east and defeated the Persians at Gaugamela near Babylon. At the Battle of Granicus, Alexander destroyed the Persians. He freed the Greeks in Asia Minor and defeated another army at Issus. By the winter of 332 B.C., he had captured Syria and Egypt and built the city of Alexandria as the center of business and trade on the coast of northern Egypt. Result: Alexander’s army overran the rest of the Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great’s Empire

Some ancient remains at Alexandria.

Library at Alexandria

When his soldiers refused to go any further, he agreed to let them go home. On the return march, the troops entered what is modern-day Iran. Heat and thirst killed many soldiers. In 326 B.C., he crossed the Indus River and entered India and fought numerous bloody battles.

According to a Greek historian, when the soldiers found a little water and scooped it up, Alexander, “in full view of his troops, poured the water on the ground. So extraordinary was the effect of this action that the water wasted by Alexander was as good as a drink for every man in the army.” In 323 B.C., he returned to Babylon to plan an invasion of Arabia, but he died ten days later with a bad fever. He was 32.

He was a great military leader. He inspired his armies to march into unknown lands and risk their lives in difficult situations. A legacy is what a person leaves behind when he or she dies. The key to his success may have been his childhood education. He kept a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. Aristotle was his tutor.

In turn, Greeks brought new ideas back from Asia and Africa. Alexander extended Greek and Macedonian rule and culture over a vast area.

Alexander’ s Conquests The word Hellenistic comes from a Greek word meaning “like the Greeks.” Alexander’s conquests marked the beginning of the Hellenistic Era. It refers to a time when the Greek language and Greek ideas spread to the non-Greek people of southwest Asia.

Alexander the Great planned to unite the Macedonians, Greeks, and Persians in his new empire. He used Persian officials and encouraged his soldiers to marry Asian women. After Alexander’s death, his generals fought each other for power.

The empire divided, and four kingdoms took its place. Macedonia Egypt Pergamum Seleucid Empire

The Breakup of Alexander’s Empire

GUESS WHAT?!? All government business was conducted in Greek language. Any Egyptian or Asian applying for government job had to speak Greek. This way the Greeks remained in control.

Building Greek Cities in the East

Pergamum: A New “Hellenistic” City

Trade in the Hellenistic World

By 100 B.C., the largest city in the Mediterranean world was Alexandria. The new Greek cities needed architects, engineers, philosophers, artisans, and artists. Hellenistic rulers encouraged Greeks and Macedonians to settle in southwest Asia.

These new colonists: were new recruits for the army helped spread Greek culture into Egypt and as far east as modern-day Afghanistan and India. became new workers in these areas were a pool of government officials