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The History of Greece
In 3000 B.C., the first people inhabited Greece. They built settlements along the shores of Greece so they could trade with other civilizations. The Greeks relied upon the Aegean Sea for trading their supplies. Traveling by sea exposed the Greeks to many different cultures. They were also exposed to the various western benefits, such as agriculture and metalwork.
Around 2500 BC, different communities began to develop in Greece. Some of the most prominent ones were the Aegeans, Archaeans, and the Pelasgians. Crete soon became the center of the Aegean civilization, also called the Minoans. The Achaeans built the capital at Mycenae. A powerful volcanic eruption in 1400 BC caused the destruction of the Minoan Thera, an island east of Crete. The destruction crushed the Minoans and the Mycenaean Greeks absorbed their culture. The Greek settlements soon transformed themselves into city-states, small states which were founded around the territory controlled by a single city. City-states are also called poleis. A king and the king1s council always ruled city-states. The city-states had political structures that were usually unstable because the kings acted like tyrants to the citizens. It is ironic that the Greeks are credited for most of the ideas of democracy. Democracy would rarely exist in ancient Greece, only for short periods of time in-between unstable governments.
City -states were soon growing larger in population. The city-states were beginning to transform into empires. Empires are big nations that control many different city-states and they have one ruler. The many different empires soon had rivalries going on between them. The first war took place around 1200 BC. This was a ten-year battle that mostly took place at the city of Troy. There is a myth that says armed Greek invaders hid in a giant wooden horse. When the horse was taken into Troy the invaders stormed the city and left it in ruins. Homer, a very famous poet, wrote an epic about the hero Odysseus who was a major part of the destruction of Troy.
The Persian wars began in 490 BC. Darius the Great of Thrace led an invasion into Greece. The Greek defensive army crushed the invaders at Marathon, under a commander named Miltiades. Later in the year 480 BC, the Persians launched another attack led by Xerxes. Unfortunately for Greece this attack left the city of Athens in ruins.
The Peloponnesian wars took place in 461 BC. The first of these wars were between Athens and Sparta. Athens won this war and they decided to make a truce with Sparta. Athens lost the second Peloponnesian war to Sparta. The thirty tyrants, a group of aristocratic Spartans, took control of Athens.
There were many famous people in the history of Greece. Socrates was one of them. Socrates was a famous philosopher in 399 BC. He objected to some tyrants because he thought they were unfair citizens. He was tried and executed for these reasons. In 386 BC Plato, a famous pupil of Socrates, founded his philosophical academy. In 359 BC Philip II, became the king of Macedon. Thebes, Athens, and Sparta were three major competing powers in Greece at this time. Philip 2 took control of the entire Greek peninsula, and in 336 BC he was assassinated. His son Alexander the Great took control of the kingdom. Alexander took Egypt and conquered the entire Persian Empire. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC. His empire was divided into three regions: Ptolemic Egypt, Antigonid Macedonia, and Seluced Syria. After Alexander the Great1s death, the three kingdoms constantly feuded with each other. This time period was known as the Hellenistic Age. Finally in 197 BC a vicious battle took place at Kynoskephalai. King Philip V lost to Roman forces. The mighty Roman Empire destroyed the Greek warriors. After Rome overtook the Greeks, they tried to incorporate the Greek culture into their own culture.
Greece was a mighty empire for over 1000 years. The Greek culture contributed many activities to the western society. Some of the things contributed were art, literature, religion, philosophy, drama, architecture, warfare tactics, and politics. These are some of the everyday skills in life that people use.
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