1. Ancient Greece

2. Geography & The evolution of Greek society
Geography played a role in the development of classical Greek civilizations.
Two peninsulas make up much of the Greek landmass. The Isthmus of Corinth connects with the Peloponnesian peninsula to the mainland.
The mountain ranges that surrounds the area isolated Greeks from one another, causing different Greek communities.
The isolation also played a role in protecting their land from invasion.
The sea also influenced Greek culture. The Aegan, Mediterranean, and Ionian Seas surround Greece.
They became seafarers, making it easy to spread Greek civilization throughout the Mediterranean.

3. Mycenaea: the first greek state
Mycenaean Greeks
Fortified city in Greece.
They were made up of an alliance of powerful monarchies, each living in a fortified center within large stone walls.
These centers were beehive-shaped tombs where members of the royal families were buried.
They developed an extensive commercial network.
But by the late 13th century B.C., Mycenaean Greece was showing signs of trouble. Mycenaean states fought each other and wide spread earthquakes caused severe damage.
By 1100 B.C., the Mycenaean civilization collapsed.

4. Greek City-states
Polis (the city-state)  was central to the development of classical civilization in Greece.
The Polis was a community of people that shared the same common goals.
Led to the development of a new military system.
The term “politics” derived from the Greek word “polis”
Greek expansion led to new Greek colonies. The most notable being Byzantium, which later would become Constantinople.
Colonization increased trade and industry.
Greeks traded pottery, wine, and olive oil.

5. Sparta Spartans conquered neighboring cities to gain more land.
They became a military state, in order to ensure control over the conquered helots.
“Spartan”  “highly self-disciplined”
They followed very rigorous rules.
Men lived in the barracks, therefore Spartan women had more freedom and greater power in the household than women in other parts of Greece.
Spartan government was an oligarchy.
Ephors, were elected each year and responsible for educating the youth.

6. Athens Unified polis on the peninsula of Attica.
Athens became an oligarchy, under the control of aristocrats.
Struggling with debt problems within the city, Athenian aristocrats gave full power to Solon.
Solon cancelled all land debts and freed people who were in slavery.
Peisistratus, seized power in 560B.C. and aided Athenian trade in order to please the merchants. By 510 B.C., his tyranny ended.
Cleisthenes, created a council to supervise foreign affairs and proposed laws that would be voted on by assembly.

7. Greek Religion Temples were dedicated to gods and goddesses.
Twelve gods were thought to live on Mt. Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.
Festivals were developed as a way to honor the gods and goddesses.
Greeks had a desire to learn the will of the gods and created oracles, a sacred shrine where a god or goddess was to reveal the future.
Ancient Greece religion influenced most Greek drama and art.

8. Greek art & literature
Temples were built and dedicated to a god or goddess.
The Parthenon is seen as the greatest example of a classical Greek temple.
Greek sculptures sought to reveal ideal beauty. Focusing on the human form.
Greek dramas originally focused on tragic storylines. Western culture was created by the Greeks.
Thucydides, even today, is considered one of the greatest historians of Ancient Greece.
He believed that the study of history was a great value in understanding the present.

9. Greek philosophy Philosophy refers to an organized system of thought.
Socrates
He believed that the goal of education was only to improve the individual.
Socratic method  was a method of teaching used by Socrates that set up in a question and answer format to lead students to see things for themselves.
Plato
Focused on the question, “How do we know what is real?”
Aristotle
A student of Plato, he did not accept Plato’s theory.
His interest lay with analyzing and classifying things based on observation and investigation.
He defined categories.