 Throughout history, the Greeks have had an everlasting impact on European society. Ancient Grecian empires paved the way for Europe’s future in several manners.

Changes in governmental policies, art, and philosophy influenced European culture, inducing future cultures to model their ideas and policies after the Greeks. The expansion of the Greek empire encouraged cultural diffusion, blending the culture into the lands it conquered.

 The West originated with ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Over time, their allied empires grew first to the east and south, conquering and absorbing many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East. Later, they grew to the north and west to include Western Europe.

 Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Muslims due to the Commercial, Scientific, and Industrial Revolutions, and the expansion of the Christian peoples of Western European empires.

 Another role the Greeks passed on to European culture was the area of literature and drama. The conquering of their neighbors led to the cultural diffusion of Roman culture into the neighboring areas, greatly influencing the future of European culture. This greatly influenced the way people of Europe were going to run their governments and appoint leaders for many years to come.

 The "Greek" classical ideas of history and art may be considered almost inviolate in the West, as their original spread of influence survived the Hellenic period of Roman classical antiquity.

 Greece is the birthplace of Democracy. Although the Greek Empire went Eastwards and stretched as far as India, the influence of democracy in Europe was later spread by the Romans who had fought a very costly war with the Greeks, although the Romans won, they were impressed with some Greek ideas, Democracy being one of them.

 Philosophers were frequently very skilled mathematicians and astronomers. Pythagoras, for example, was a Greek philosopher - though his lasting effects are in the mathematical world, he was never considered a mathematician. Greek medical theories shaped medical practice for hundreds of years before the discovery of the microscope and bacteria.

 Modern language, industry, arts and culture all demonstrate the impact of Greek mythology in today's world. For example, most people who have no knowledge of Greek mythology still know that Hercules was a strongman and that Aphrodite is the goddess of love.

 The concept of the Western world has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, the start of Christianity, and the Great Schism in the 11th Century which divided the religion into Eastern and Western halves.

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