Ancient Greece Geography Essay

When telling about the geography of Greece, all five themes of geography need to be addressed. The five themes of geography are location, place, region, movement, and human-environmental interaction. The absolute location of a specific place is the coordinates of a map using longitude and latitude. A place is an area that is defined by its physical and cultural characteristics. A region is areas that are similar and have definite characteristics. The movement is the way people, products, and ideas travel from one place to another. Human-environmental interaction is the relationship between humans and the environment in a certain area.

Nowhere was participation universal. The widest participation occurred in Athens beginning in 594 b.c.e., when the reforming leader Solon took Athenian politics in a more democratic direction, breaking the hold of a small group of aristocratic families. Debt slavery was abolished, access to public office was opened to a wider group of men, and all citizens were allowed to take part in the Assembly. Later, all holders of public office were chosen by lot and were paid, so that even the poorest could serve. Athenian democracy was direct rather than representative. Even at its height, it was far from universal, with well over half the population, including women, slaves, and foreigners, excluded from participation.

The had prosperous fields of barley and wheat that they prided themselves on. They were the true earth born in their eyes. Athenians were in their own little world since they were isolated from other states. They had superior skill in making pottery and it was the main merchant trade. They had a large gap between the rich Eupatrids and the poor countryside folk. The Eupatrids started to get to big of ahead and finally realized when they were beat by a village of pig-farmers that they could be defeated. They knew reform was needed and appointed Solon to do the job. He knew he needed to give some power back to the working class. He made them debt free and gave them the right to vote. Although this seemed awesome in the beginning, they quickly realized the stipulations. They would soon be in debt again, and they couldn’t voice their opinion about laws or issues that affected their lives. Athens did well after that, although they never left the aristocracy governing. It was indeed a democracy, but it was only for men to spread their opinion and common people to only vote.

     The ancient Greek and Roman civilizations of Europe began to progress toward a more civilized order of society. As there were no previous establishment to base their ideals on, it was understandable that there were some difficulties in their progression as a society. Although the ancient Greek and Roman governments fell, both had similar paths of creation, conquest, and destruction.

A disparity of the classical civilizations of Athens and Han China was the type of government in each culture. Greece consisted of many individual city-states. Each polis, an individual city state, had similar traditions, but different cultures. Greece was also comprised of many islands. Mountains dominated the

There is lots of strategies that have led the ancient empires to their success and staying strong. .Geography was a huge part of history, this is because many people live upon geography. They rely on geography to live. To add on, the success and failures all come from geography, which is very important. Ancient Egypt had many ups and downs through their empire, geography helped them a lot for planting crops and getting resources. Ancient Greece was affected by the geography near their location a lot. The Aksum empire heavily relied on the geography near their empire, it helped them a lot with the way they traded with other empires. In all of the empires, geography was the breaker or the winner and determined whether the empire would fall or

In the period known as classical Greece in the years 800-323 BCE, Greece comprised of small city states (poleis) which were considered and operated as independent small countries. Amongst those city states Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful and considered in Greek history as the most influential states to western civilisation. These two city states shared some common characteristics whilst in some instances they were very different from each other. Sparta and Athens had differences and similarities in the way they governed their city states, in how they established their military forces, how they treated women, their marriage customs and social gatherings

Because Greek city-states were largely independent of each other, multiple forms of power were able to

“Polis is a term that is used to describe a tight knit small community of Ancient Greek citizens who agreed on certain rules and customs. Usually a polis was centered on a small town and the countryside the surrounded it” (Deering). The polis defined a public and communal space, the Agora, for the purpose of leading public affairs. The affairs of men and affairs were included as these had essentials parts to the entire community’s affairs. The Ancient Greek poleis are among the first recorded democratic governments in the world. The term polis has been translated into city-state as there was typically only one city and because an individual polis was independent from other poleis in terms of political, judicial, legal, religious and social institutions and practices (Cartwright). A polis offered security for its inhabitants and gave organization to government through structure, function and hierarchy.

Geography has always been a unique and picturesque part of Greece. Greece has amazing mountains and landscapes. Having the geography Greece has, has both positive and negative effects on Greece but the results are ultimately negative. Like the lack of communication and the isolation between communities. Also the natural disaster were negative too.

The physical geography of Ancient Greece promoted and impeded the movement of people, products, and ideas in many ways. First, one way the mountains promoted Ancient Greece was providing stone for building. Another way is it provided gold and silver to trade with other countries. Next, they were able to grow olive trees to use for oil and olives. One reason the mountains impeded Ancient Greece is it resulted in different governments and ways of life.

When examining the effect that geography had on the civilizations of the early cities you can see that many were founded for strategic purposes. The settlers had to choose the land that would make life easiest as well as give them the best chance of developing a flourishing community. The choice was generally out of need, the need for water, food and shelter. When early leaders chose a place that was full of the necessities and provided smart options to grow a stronghold the communities would gain power and amass an empire to rival others. The civilizations of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were such empires, they used their geographical locations and features to grow the cities, expand their empires, and trade goods making them both powerful

In a relatively resource-poor region, a society rose from the access of foreign sources of raw materials and markets abroad. This society came to be known as one of the largest nations in Eurasia. The rise and fall of this great nation has to do with war-fare and the conflict between city-states. Their division led to the widespread of language and culture. This is the great story of Ancient Greece and how individualism changed the view Greece had on certain issues. (Bulliet 99) From 1000 B.C.E to 30 B.C.E, Ancient Greece’s view on individualism changed the political system Greece had, over time changed the way individuals thought and made important Intellectual changes, and gradually changed the Economic system such as bartering.

Solon is the second person to reform the laws of Athens. He began revising laws in the 590s BC and “allowed all men in Athens to take part in the assembly that governed the city and to serve on the juries that heard trials” (SOURCE 1). Along with participation in the assembly, Solon “forbade the practice of debt slavery and set up a fund to buy back Athenian slaves who had been sold abroad” (SOURCE 2). Solon “based eligibility for political office on property qualifications, not birth,” permitting those not born of high social status to have the opportunity to hold an office (SOURCE 2). Through all of these events, society still did not accept the laws and because of this, more problems arose. During the troubles and chaos, a man by the name of Peisistratus “took advantage of the renewed conflict to seize power” (SOURCE 1). Peisistratus is a tyrant among the Athenians, however, is a popular person. This is because he “proceeded to institute Solon’s reforms” (SOURCE 2). The men of Athens who participated in the democracy were to “vote in all elections, serve in office if elected, serve on juries, and serve in the military during the war” (SOURCE 1). Cleisthenes, another law reformer, “divided Athens into 10 tribes based on where people lived” and “made these new tribes…the basis for elections” (SOURCE 1). The tribes had to send

Very few civilizations have had as profound an influence on the world as those of ancient Greece. The Greeks laid the foundations for fields varying from philosophy to political theory to war tactics. However, this influence was not just due to their intelligence or success, but their widespread presence in the Mediterranean. Greek culture was spread throughout their known world in two distinct manners, the foundation of apoikia in the Archaic Age (8th century to 500 B.C. ) and imperialists by poleis, primarily Athens of the Classical Age (490 - 323 B.C ). Though the culture of a mother city (mētropolis) may have spread through two very different manners of “colonization.” The word is not used in the literal sense, but rather hereafter used to mean “spreading of culture”, as the former can hardly be described using the contemporary definition of colonization and the latter was through Athenian empire-building. These developments had a significant impact on ancient Greece and our modern perception thereof. Like most of the ancient world, we can best analyze these methods of colonialism through extant artifacts. I will analyze an inscription of the foundation oath of Cyrene, which recounts the decision and manner in which the island of Thera sent its citizens to the form a new polis, and the fragments of the Lapis Primus, a marble monolith that documented tributes to Athens when the city was at the peak of its imperial age, evidencing the magnitude of their power and influence in the Greek region.