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The Rise, Fall and Legacy of the Greeks

The Rise of the Greek Empire  

As the Athens and the Greek city states lost independence, a new era starts to arise and Alexander the Great begins to take over Greek. At the young age of 20, Alexander demonstrated knowledge of taking over land, and continued to strive for victory against Persia. 

The empire grew in wealth because of their trade routes. They took timber, food, wine, wool, and many other materials. In return they got stones, copper, ivory, gold, silver, and finally tin. The abundance of resources in other civilizations gave the Greeks the advantage over the trade routes. They also traveled far amongst the land to trade with civilizations that should have been unreachable. This also gave them an advantage over the trade routes. 

When the Greeks conquered different areas, they incorporated the people’s culture and way of life into their religion and culture. They did not completely copy everything from the different areas of people, but they did squeeze it into their way of life. The empire consisted of city-states and those city-states also shared religions and different culture stuff in their lives. The city-states were not together but were shown to share similarities as well as culture with each other, which helped them join. 

When Alexander the Great started to conquer and expand the Greeks empire he spread the influence, religion and culture of the Greeks. He, while doing this, also adopted the culture of the cities and civilizations he conquered. The Greek's influence was also spread through the trade routes, religions, and stories. The architect and the sciences were also a influencing part of the culture of the Greeks when expanding into other regions and people.  

The Greeks were divided by physical features, such as the Mediterranean Sea, and mountains This caused them to be isolated from building a large empire, each isolated city-state being cut off by mountains, or a body of water. Greek city states continued to have conflict, because the Greeks felt that they must be loyal to their city-state. Many different forms of governments began to rise such as, Monarchy-led by king or queen, Aristocracy-a single high class controlling laws, Oligarchy-small wealthy people that have power. A popular city-state, Sparta, they were not a part of the other Greeks, and they had a rigorous discipline for men, and wanted women to be healthy to give birth. The power declined because of the warriors they had shrunk. Another city-state is Athens, after the failure of a non-democratic government, Athens moved to democracy. Solon was king, and the democracy ran a little different than today, Solon often made citizens just as valuable as nobles. Women had a significant role in religion, and took care of the house, and often worked outside of home.   

Greek wars with Persia started with separation in city states for the longest time. Finally, in 480 B.C., the Greek city-states join, and fight against Persia. After lots of battle, the Greeks achieve victory. The joined together city-states defend from Persian attacks. An alliance is formed between many Greek city-states to defend in a more powerful empire. Following the death of Philip II, Alexander the Great takes over, and conquers most of Persia in 331 B.C. Although they began the plotting of taking over India, Alexander the Great suffers an early death. Many advances, and development for the Greek empire occur after the death, and no one could match his kind of leadership. Resulting in the fall of the Greek empire.

The Decline of the empire 

After the development of the aristocracy in Athens, the city flourished in wealth and power. However, discontentment grew among the people and soon resentment between the classes of people grew. They'd argue over who had given more service or who had more rights. Artisans from outside the city-states couldn't become citizens. As the discontent spread, Athens turned into a democracy.  

Alexander the Great dies a premature death at the young age of thirty-two due to pneumonia. But he did not have a set successor before he did, and anyone can imagine how that turned out. He said he wanted the strongest person to succeed him after he died. But nobody lived up to the legend of Alexander the Great. 

The effects of deforestation, 300-year drought, and loss of animal/plant species led to the decline of the Greek empire. Natural disasters were high in that area making it challenging to live there even for a short period of time. Agricultural decline led to a decline in population, which is not advisable when you wish to maintain an empire. The climate has changed frequently, resulting in people leaving. As a result of many ecological issues that destroyed people's way of life, Greeks were forced to move.   

The Greek city-states operated under a democratic system after they had joined together. During Pericles's reign, Athens was a direct democracy, with a council of several hundred men meeting up several times a month. Pericles believed all civilians should have a right to be able to join this council. As a result of Alexander the great's reign, Greece now had many other cultures, new cities, and no one to take his place. There were no clear governments, and no leaders stepped up. For the next 300 years after Alexander’s death the areas and empires that’d been conquered by Alexander fought and competed for power. 

The Legacy of the Greeks 

The Greek Empire is remembered for founding cities, Greek statues, athletic contests, blending eastern and western cultures. More things such as women can now take on new roles such as not being restricted from just homes and are now allowed education assuming that they learned how to read and write that way. Larger building style emerged from the Hellenistic Arts and Sciences. The philosophy of Stoicism emerged; Stoicism is the thought that everyone is morally equal because they were all there for a reason. Hippocrates looked for cures and began to study more illnesses which represent medical improvement. Physics was used alongside basic arithmetic to build new machines, and things that are still developed today. The Greek idea of politics/government leave the legacy that is still brought up today. 

Once the Greek empire fell, the Romans took over what was left of their land and people. The Romans were already a greatly established empire, conquering what was considered another legendary empire further launched the Romans into popularity and power. Even though Rome conquered the Greek empire, Greek culture and artifacts remained popular all-around Europe. Even throughout Rome’s empire, there were signs of Greek culture there in Rome. Greek culture still lives strong today due to documentations, and them living amongst the Roman empire.  

Greek influence continued after Alexander's death in 323 BC, followed by the Hellenistic Kingdom until the rise of the Roman Empire in 31 BC. In the pre-Roman period, Greek language, Greek thinking, and most importantly Greek writers were introduced to the many non-Greeks who absorbed Greek into their culture including Egyptians, Iranians, Bactrians, Indians, Phoenicians, etc. (The Human Journey) The Greek Empire influenced on our culture and society today by democracy, alphabet, libraries, Olympics, math, science, and lighthouses. 

The Greeks still exist today, maybe not as an empire, but there are people who still believe in the many gods and the culture the Greeks had. Most Greeks live in the country, which is settled in the southeastern part of Europe. We can also find designs in our architecture the Greeks used, our math systems, lots of our modern arts and sciences and medical discoveries come from the Greeks. Technology has advanced since their time, but it started with us using those ideas from Greek scientists to get it to where it is today. Poetry, math, music and astrology are some of the things we’ve expanded upon- but not just in America. The Greek’s legacy of science and art has spread to other countries that developed in science sooner than America such as Germany and England. Their mythology and form of democracy has is still found all around the world today. 

FACTS!!!! In ancient Greece the idea of throwing an apple at a woman was meant to be an attempt at seducing her, as apples were sacred to the goddess Aphrodite. The Greek gods, in the Greek mythology, were not the first rulers or even creators of the earth, before them their were the titans. Olive trees were, and still are, the most common tree in ancient Greece. Greece had over 1,000 city-states with Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Corinth, and Delphi being some of the most important. The Supreme court buildings design is based off the architecture in ancient Greece.