Ancient Greece

• Geography of Ancient Greece

  • Peninsula, with water on 3 sides
  • Southern tip forms Peloponnesus peninsula
  • Isthmus links Peloponnesus to rest of Greece
  • Mountainous, covering 70-80% of land
  • No large rivers
  • Grew grain on few open plains
  • Olive trees on edge of plains
  • Grapevines on lower hill slopes
  • Sheep and goats grazed on rocky, infertile land
  • Long coastline, most places <100 miles from coast
  • Cities built directly on harbors
  • Mediterranean, Ionian, and Aegean seas
• Climate of Ancient Greece


  Mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers
• Geography of Ancient Greece


  • People became skilled sailors and shipbuilders
  • Built rowing ships for battles and sailing ships for trade
  • Did not produce much grain but surplus olive oil, wine, wool, and pottery
  • Traded items to other regions around Black Sea and Mediterranean including Egypt and Italy
• The Minoans


  • First civilization to rise in Greece
  • Not Greeks, but their civilization later became Greece
  • Minoan civilization developed from local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC
  • Minoan civilization suddenly collapsed, possibly due to undersea earthquakes
• The Mycenaeans


  • Originally from central Asia
  • Invaded Greek mainland around 1900 BC
  • Mycenaean leaders became first Greek kings
  • Warriors became nobles
  • Copied Minoans' work with bronze and shipbuilding
  • Learned Minoans' use of sun and stars for navigation
  • Worshipped Earth mother, Minoans' chief goddess
• Greek Dark Ages

  • Years between 1100 BC and 750 BC, difficult for Greeks
  • Overseas trade slowed and poverty took hold
  • Farmers grew only enough food for their family
  • People stopped teaching writing and crafts
• The Phoenicians


  • Important trading people
  • After Mycenaeans' downfall, Greeks thrived again based on what they learned from Phoenicians
  • Lived on eastern Mediterranean coast
  • Invented world's first written alphabet
  • Greeks picked up Phoenician alphabet and changed some letters
  • Greek alphabet later evolved into our 26-letter alphabet
• Greek City-States (Polis)


  • Independent state with its own laws, customs, political system, military, and currency
  • Main gathering place was Acropolis
  • Built temples and altars
• Greek Citizenship

  • Only free native-born men who owned land could be citizens
  • Citizens should vote, earn properly, and protect themselves during trials
• Greek Rulers

  • Kings
  • Nobles
  • Tyrants (took power by force, ruled with total power)
  • Autocratic (ruled by one)
  • Oligarchic (ruled by many)
  • Democratic (ruled by all)
• The First Greeks

  
  

  • The island of Crete lies in the southeast of the Greek mainland
  • The Minoans were not Greeks but their civilization was the 1st to rise and later became Greece
  • Minoan civilization developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC
  • The Minoan civilization suddenly collapsed
  • Some historians think undersea earthquakes caused big waves