1. Chapter 3 Part B:Collisions
The Greco-Persian Wars and the Empire of Alexander the Great

2. Power, Influence, & Conflict
Greece has been traditionally thought of as the foundation of Western Civilization.
But Greeks looked to the East - to Egypt and Persia - for their mathematical and astronomical traditions, building upon them.
As they came into contact with one another through expansion of territories, conflict became inevitable.
Greek Ionia (Anatolia) came under Persian control, circa, 499 BCE.
Greeks there revolted, causing the Persians to launch major military expeditions to punish the “insubordinate” Greeks, especially Athens. (Twice in 10 years.) *GRECO-PERSIAN WARS
*Note: different cultures, God-like Persian kings with vast empire confronting rather democratic Greeks, existing in small, independent city-states.
Against all odds, Greeks held the Persian off, both on land and at sea.

3. Effects of the Wars for Greeks
Great source of pride, ordinary men battling for the freedom they coveted. e.g)Battle of Marathon:
Persia represented Asia & despotism; Greece represented Europe & freedom.
Radicalized democracy: the poorer classes had rowed the ships that won battles, now they demanded more influence.
Effects of the Wars for Greeks
Crystallizing Democracy
The battle waged on the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica in 490 B.C. marked the first blows of the Greco-Persian War. With the Persians closing in on the Greek capital, Athenian general Miltiades assumed command of the hastily assembled army. Miltiades employed a successful strategy in which he weakened the center of his force to strengthen its wings, causing confusion among the Persians. The victory of “the Marathon men” captured the collective imagination of the Greeks, with the tale of the messenger running 25 miles to Athens to deliver the news fueling the creation of the modern marathon.

4. Effects of Wars on Greece, Continued
50 years after the war: Greek culture flourished:
~ Man as the measure of all things, the human form, even amongst their human-like gods.
~Parthenon (For Athena)
~Greek theatre: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
~Socrates: philosopher and irritant
Athens began to try and unify Greece, leading to a civil war with Sparta. (The Peloponnesian War: BCE). Athens was defeated, & the Greeks city-states continued to distrust one another more bitterly than before.
This fragmentation would pave the way for the Macedonian takeover of Greece in just under 100 years.

5. Alexander the Great
King Philip of Macedon defeats the Greek city-states, unifying the region once and for all in 338 BCE.
Philip’s son, Alexander, while still in his 20s, became the stuff of legends.
Alexander played on the Greeks’ hostility toward the Persians and started on a campaign to crush them.
During a 10-year expedition ( BCE) he created a Greek empire from Egypt and Anatolia in the west to Afghanistan and India in the east.
Persia was fully defeated and Alexander was hailed “King of Asia” & liberator from Persian domination. (The Greek territories were finally unified.)
Anointed pharaoh, Egyptian priests declare him “son of the gods”.

6. Alexander’s Legacy rthhhyrytryuytu
Alexander died at 33 years old, in 323 BCE.
Hever returned to Greece, his empire was divided into three kingdoms under the command of his leading Macedonian generals.
Greek culture penetrated the “First Civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India”. (This was the greatest spread of mass culture to its time.)
Cities left in his wake served as cosmopolitan centers where Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Babylonians, Syrians, Persians, and may others came into contact with one another.
The Great Library and museum of Alexandria in Egypt helped spread knowledge.
A harbor with 1,200 ships to help with long-distance commerce fueled the economy.
rthhhyrytryuytu

7. Alexander’s Legacy Continued
Differences between old Greek city-states and ones under Macedonian rule like Alexandria caused problems.
10 percent of the population were Greek and Macedonian, they considered themselves to be elite; some non-Greeks did not like this system.
But the “elitism” was not cut and dry though, some intermingling took place, in fact, Alexander himself had a number of Persian wives, and encouraged his troops to do the same.
He actively supported cultures and religions of the regions he dominated.
There was a lot of cultural blending too: a representation of the Buddha with human form was seen for the first time, in Greek-like clothing, resembling the Greek god, Apollo.