Review Notes: the Greeks

*Greeks invented democracy*

• barbarians are people that had a distinctive way of life, based on farming and warfare. 
• anybody that lived the lifestyle based on farming was also into warfare, fighting eachother, fighting against other people
• Greeks are war-like people
• so were Athenians 
• megaliths: massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs 
• Ex: the stone age 
• over three thousand years, up to the time of the Persian Empire, civilization had spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands right across southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa

why the Greeks rocked:

• new ideas
• incredible art forms
• democratic government with citizen participation
• innovations in warfare 

LO1 notes:

4000 BC- farming and village life spreads from Sumerian and Egyptian lands across SW asia and NE africa, and the European continent 

3500 BC- some are organized enough to construct megaliths, massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs, such as stonehenge, (finished in England in 2000 BC), consisting of 160 massive boulders weighing up to 50 tons (100,000 punds) each, staked and circled and aligned to the movements of sun and moon

from 2500 BC on- indo-European nomads migrated from the steppes in eastern Europe

• their language would evolve into Greek and Latin
• their lives centered around strength and courage, comradeship and loyalty, contests and battle (arate)
• thinner populations than Egypt or Mesopotamia- they formed tribes, social and political unit consisting of communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship

• Greeks thought their gods had human characteristics 

• tribes were headed by powerful hereditary chieftains, thought of as kings (or, rarely, queens)

• this is how Europe came to be populated by speakers of Indo-European languages who were skilled in farming, metalworking, trade, and warfare

• there were no cities, written records, or fixed structures of government 

• they were good at trading and making things other people wants

• they were barbarians (from Greek barbaros- non-Greek") 

• they adopted the way of life of those they encountered, and as they traveled (from 2000 BC to AD 1000), this is how civilization eventually spread throughout Europe 

• the distinctive civilization the Greeks developed is the first that counts as definitely "Western" 

• the Romans took so many things as the Greeks did 
• the Roman gods are Greek gods with different names 

geography of Greece 

• mountainous peninsula
• mountains cover 3/4 
• approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas
• location shaped its culture
• skilled sailors
• poor natural resources 
• difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities 
• example: Athens and Sparta
• approximately 20% suitable for farming 
• fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula 
• because of geography the Greeks diet consists of grain, grapes, olives 
• lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer