How much success can a city have when they are very limited on resources from the land they roam? In the beginning of Humans are their success dependent entirely on their land. If they lived on prosperous land where farming was easy,they succeeded in their evolution. For those who lived on rocky terrains or dry lands had a different outcome, they struggled very much to survive. So how is it that poleis such as Athens and Sparta were so great and powerful when they didn't live on land favorable for cultivation?
Arguable the greatest ancient Greek city was Athens and this was not thanks to the available resources their land provided. Athens began as a small community which eventually grew into a city and played a major role in Greece.The soil
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People from many neighboring cities can get to Athens easily to trade. One of the many things traded was art, specifically poetry. Athens were very good at pottery. Thanks to trade they were able to buy crops and foods they needed which they were not able to grew. Another reason Athens was so successful was thanks to their way of ruling after Solon came in power. Solon was a statesman and poet of Athens. He is also known as one the Seven Wise Men of Greece. He wanted to change the government in Athens by removing all the power from the king and giving it to the people. Another major issue Solon wanted to fix was Debt Slavery. Many farmers were becoming slaves because they couldn't pay of their debts. This also affected their families who also became slaves. When Solon came into power of Athens he made Slave Debt illegal, he made it illegal for people to put their freedom as collateral. He also created a new form of government which is now known as democracy. This new form of ruling gave the people of Athens a choice. Having a choice was very important when Xerxes, king of Persia, …show more content…
It was ruled by two families which had a dual monarchy. Eventually Sparta decided to take over Messenia and enslave its indigenous people the Helots. The reason for this was because Messenia was fairly good for agriculture which was something very rare since only about 20 percent of ancient Greece was farmable. Due to a revolt by the Helots, Spartan leaders decided to become very strict in their ways of ruling. Spartans kings were determined to make every Spartan loyal to the state. The best choice for this waas to make Sparta a strictly militarized society. Boys were trained at a very young age. An unknown author explains this as “At age 7, Spartans boys entered a rigorous state-sponsored education, military training and socialization program. Known as the Agoge, the system emphasized duty, discipline and endurance”(2009). The purpose of the harsh training of boys and placing them in barracks was for them to be strong and disciplined. Agoge helped transform boys into well trained men capable of taking on any challenges that came their way. It made them both very physically and mentally strong.Taking a child from his family at a young age and training him for years into a warrior made him loyal to his people. What happen if a boy showed signs of defects? Joshua Cole remarks, “At birth, every Spartiate child was examined by officials who determined whether it was healthy enough to
To start off, the geography of Greece affected early settlements in many positive ways. One great example of the lands geography that made a positive impact on Greece was Mount Olympus, more importantly it’s height. Mount Olympus was and still is a very tall mountain. Since the mountain reached so far up into the sky, the top of it was
After an embarrassing defeat at the battle of Hysiai Sparta went through great military change, these changes dramatically changed all other areas of Spartan life, turning Sparta into a military focused state. This militaristic influence impacted greatly on Spartan education, essentially aiming to mass produce the perfect solider. The education and training of Spartan boys aged as young as 7 in the agoge became the crucial
Since Sparta was small, their main way to remain powerful was military strength therefore, their education was based on military disciplines. “A Spartiate’s son was nurtured by his parents only until he was seven years old. At that age he was removed from his family and, from his eighth to his twenty-first year, he was educated by the state according to rigorous [military-like]
I think what city-state had the geographical advantage was Sparta, because they had mountains, their own water supply and a fertile valley. First, Mt.Taygetus and Mt.Pamon protected all the people from all enemy attacks. The mountains helped people survive and live with no worry that there would be enemies attacking. Secondly,They had their own water supply. The Eurotas River provided needed water, and helped to grow all the food they wanted and needed. Finally, the fertile Eurotas valley provided them with rich soil to help them plant their food and everything they needed so they wouldn’t have to count on anybody else to do so. And this is why Sparta had the geographic advantage.
The government in Sparta followed a very different coarse than that of the Athenians. It was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. Working below the ephors was the Council of Elders and an Assembly. Male citizens over age sixty could serve on the Council while anyone, male or female, over the age of twenty could be a member of the Assembly. Though the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government, the system worked effectively. Over the years, the Spartan's brutal reputation in war grew so great that other nations and city-states were too frightened to attack Sparta even though the Spartan army was no larger then eight thousand men. The Spartan Constitution called for all men to begin their military education at the age of seven, where they were trained to be tough and self-sufficient. Every man in the army fought with a great deal of passion for his country. Life in Sparta may have been rough, but the rest of the Greeks envied the Spartans for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and fanatical dedication. The beliefs of Sparta were oriented around the state. The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this philosophy, the education of Spartan males, and the discipline of their army gave the Spartans the stability needed to survive in Ancient Greece.
The Greek Civilization was one of the greatest ancient civilizations to spring up. Though it faced many trials and tribulations, the ancient Greeks were a center of trade, economic development, and technological advancements. The success of the Greeks to construct such a flourishing culture was largely due to the area in which their civilization was located.
The Greek economy was based off of agriculture. They were also colonized to somewhat like the states we have in America. Their main crops and trade products were grapes, olives, and wine. The Greek commerce and trade by sea is what made all of the Greek city-states as wealthy and important as they were. The Greeks were often called “The Masters of the Mediterranean” because of their skillful seafaring.
One way was the sea. Athens was located on the Attica peninsula so they were surrounded by water on three sides and Athens built its naval supremacy of Triremes. The Triremes gave Athens control of the Mediterranean Sea so they controlled trade and gained the name the “Big Olive.” A lot of the battles of the Persian war were fought with navies and the Trireme allowed for them to win the narrow straits of Salamis. The sea also greatly impacted economy. The Ionian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Aegean Sea connected all of the land and islands of Ancient Greece so they could trade with one another. The Sea also allowed for travel and they could trade with other countries like Egypt. They could make a profit for their natural resources and benefit from obtaining resources that were not natural to Greece at the time. The biggest impact geography had on Greece was the land. The land was dry with only 20% arable land and it was extremely mountainous. The mountains ran from the northwest part of Greece to the southeast part along the Balkan Peninsula. Due to the dryness, the Greek city states were constantly looking to expand their land and the mountains caused each city state to be spread apart. This made them have decentralized governments. Also due to the mountainous geography, there were over 1000 Greek city states including Athens and Sparta. Land also was on Sparta’s side during the Peloponnesian
The civilians of Ancient Greece had to be resourceful. Most civilizations had rivers to channel, irrigate, and predict. Ancient Greece is a series of islands. This means that the people of Ancient Greece had to learn to live on the ocean. They had to deal with being more vulnerable to land attacks as they were used to battling with ships. And they also had to deal with huge ocean storms. These storms could destroy a new society with no notice. (Acrobatic, 2014)
Sparta was ruled by a king or at some point two kings. These two kings were from two separate families of royalty and neither of them had absolute power. The king or kings had to be consulted by the Ephors. The Ephors had a lot of power and authority in the Spartan government. They were a group of five elders, men over the age of 30 who would serve in this position for a year. They had the power to bring up charges against anyone in Sparta, including the king. Unlike Athens who was set on trying to establish a peaceful democratic atmosphere; Sparta was a lot more militaristic and strict. One of the Spartan government’s main priorities was the strength of the Spartan army. They believed that strength, endurance and numbers were a key part in a successful and powerful army. Therefore every Spartan boy at the age of seven would be taken away from their mothers and put into training for the next 13 years.
The city-state that was superior was Athens because of their geography, government, and cultural achievements. Athens had the geographic advantage over Sparta economically, politically, and socially. “As the soil was not conductive to large-scale agricultural programs, Athens turned to trade for its livelihood and mainly, to
Thesis: The period between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars can be considered the Golden Age of Athens. It was the golden age because Athens thrived in multiple characteristics of an empire. Context:
The land was not very fertile but the Greek peoples still farmed. They land surrounding Athens could not grow enough food to support the city's whole population. Another reason they were successful because of the resources and tools they used. They used bronze tools or iron tools. The farms were family farms all around the area.
The ancient Greeks made city states that functioned as their society. These were small, usually consisting of a population of around eight to ten thousand people. Some of the famous city states are Sparta and Athens. Sparta imposed many tensions on the individual. Sparta was a highly militarized state and would pull the boys away from the family usually around age seven and put them into a state sponsored training regimen that would make them highly skilled warriors. If the boy was unable to complete the training for any reason they were seen as unable to be a Spartan and were usually seen as an outcast and removed from society. The Spartans, just like most other societies in ancient times, valued boys over girls. “Spartan parents often exposed female babies to the elements and leave them to die they also made decisions on male infants testing them and seeing if they would develop into a mature warrior and if not they would face the same fate as females.”1 This
Sparta was, above all, a military state, and emphasis on military fitness began at birth, imprinted through society and the political system. The education of the Spartan male children prove that the military and war was constantly a huge part of Spartan society, and the laws and systems that Sparta was governed by, only enforced the militaristic attitude into the society of Sparta. That the Spartans needed to be ready for war is proved by the discord between the Spartiate and the helots, who outnumbered and under ranked the Spartans.