Greece Study Guide

Greece Study Guide

Basic Info:

-Greece was decentralized

-¾ of Greece was mountains

-Greeks lived around the sea

-Greece had limited arable (farming) land:

-This limited population (because of limited food supply)

-Colonization occurred because of overpopulation, the goal to spread culture, and the search for arable land.

-Athens had a democracy

-Sparta had an oligarchy

Vocab:

-Polis: City or city-state

-Acropolis: High city

-Agora: Place of assembly

-Monarchy: When one person governs everything.

-Aristocracy: Small group of nobles and landowning families.

-Oligarchy: Government ruled by a few powerful people.

-Tyranny: When powerful people seize the government by appealing to the people.

-Direct Democracy: Government ruled directly by the people.

Early Greece:

-Minoan Society (2000 B.C.E. in Crete):

-Valued sea trade

-Language: Linear A

-Mycenaeans

-Descendents of Indo-European nomads

-Conquered the Minoans (who were once their trading partners) in 1100 B.C.E.

-Language: Linear B

-Fought Troy in 1200s B.C.E.

-This war inspired the Illiad and the Odyssey.

-Dorians

-Dorian period is known as the “Greek Dark Age” because…

-No written record from the time

-Oral tradition is how we have information on the Dorians

Athens:

-Basic Facts:

-Mycenaean settlement that declined during the Doric Age.

-Government began as a monarchy, turned into an aristocracy, a tyranny, and finally a democracy.

-Women, slaves, and foreigners had no political rights.

-People:

-Draco: Developed a legal code where everyone was equal under the law and criminals were dealt with harshly.

-Solon: Developed a new constitution after Draco’s code failed that had no debt slavery, consisted of 4 social classes, and the idea that all citizens could participate in the Athenian assembly.

-Peisistratus: Became Athen’s first tyrant.

-Cleisthenes: Took charge in 510 B.C.E. and established a democracy.

Sparta:

-Basic Facts:

-Began as 4 villages during...