History Exam Two Review ESSAY ONE Minoan Civilization The Minoans were a large island present day Crete that supported an urbanized civilization The towns were led by Knossos on Northern coast They were masters of a wide ranging empire and became wealthy through their mastery of the sea a highway of commercial transport The wealth produced a socially complex society They had running water and elaborate cities Woman had an important role in society and they recognized a number of gods that they worshiped They suffered from natural disasters which caused their decline Mycenaean Civilization This was the first civilization on the Greek mainland They were more militaristic aggressive and expansive The kings that ruled them had functions that were political and militaristic This is best characterized by the Trojan War and the capture of Homer a Greek poet They establish a warrior city state They had important gods and religious traditions that they followed The Dark Ages The Dark Ages are characterized by a stagnation of cultural development Nothing was written down or recorded and it was a decline in city ad economic life There was political weakness and Greek political life needed to be restructured The Dark Ages began the establishments of many aspects of Greek culture There began the decline of kings and the restructuring of the Polis The Polis the center of Greek life and each one was its own city state They were made up of a town and each was a political and social unit independent of every other The rise of Homer a Greek poet officially marked the end of the Dark Ages because Greek culture began to be written down again He compiled many of the epics of Greek culture and we are able to learn about Greek traditions through Homer s attitude in his writing Homer was the inspiration for other writing everyone turned to him The Greeks believed their gods to have human characteristics That is they look like humans are passionate are involved in human affairs and have a powerful controlling nature Furthermore the Greeks faced a great economic challenge after the Dark Ages They had limited fertile soil and land that could be used for farming They began to grow olives and grapes which became very big cash crops However it takes a long time for these crops to grow so there was an ongoing economic crisis leading to increasing pressure on farmers They began having trouble paying back loans which also helped lead to the evolution of the Polis Since the population was also increasing it caused food shortages which lead people to begin colonizing This was a solution for the release of social tension Sparta Sparta was the only city state not to colonize They were militaristic authoritarian and held arts and intellectual life in contempt and dreaded the extension of freedom to the individual and community They made themselves a nation of soldiers and devoted all of their energy to military arts Public life was expressed in total obedience of the state They were lead by Ephors which was a dual monarchy Athens Athens went through three different types of government monarchy aristocracy and oligarchy until finally settling on democracy They believed that the people should have the lat word in their government They were lead by the boule counsel of 500 citizens and the deme basic political subdivision It was the center of Greek educational artistic and scientific activity Persian Wars Early fifth century BCE Persia started expanding westward They were organized and militaristic In the process of their expansion led by Darius they conquered Greece Some Greeks revolted and asked for help from the mainland Athens helped and Greece won Persia decided to then invade mainland to punish Athens for helping but Greeks won in a major battle Darius begins to plot revenge against Athens but dies as Athens is preparing for Persia s return They build a fleet of ships and Athens and Sparta join together to fight Persia s invasion A group of Greeks led by Sparta stopped the Persians in their tracks and they ended up losing but it let the rest of Greece make preparations for the ultimate arrival The Greeks won because they were able to work together Peloponnesian War Athens began taking control of the alliance made between the Greeks It was no longer a shared alliance because Athens took control and became the central authority They alienated Greek tradition and people began to resent them so Sparta became the ultimate protector against the greed of the Athenian empire This led to the war between Athens and Sparta from 431 404 Neither side made any advances so they decided to make a truce However neither side trusted the other so Athenians decided to try and break down Sparta s alliances but they lost the battle Sparta needed help to defeat Athens so they turned to the Persians and eventually defeated Athens at sea The Spartans technically won but the war ended in problems for all concerned There was no longer an effective central government Solon He began the development of political growth Around 600 he sought to solve the problems of debt and restructure the nature of the government He wanted everyone to have a say Pericles He was a Greek general and democratic statesman Wanted to bring his fellow Greeks into a mutually supportive defensive alliance against the Persians However the power proved to be too much for him since he began to abuse it Lycurgus He set up political and social order in Sparta All of his reforms were directed towards the Spartan virtues of equality military fitness and austerity Alexander the Great He was a great conqueror and he conquered everything especially Persia He was a smart general and a talented commander and he was personally brave so he was able to lead by personal example He open his empire to other cultures and his conquest brought about full merging of cultures from the Middle East in Greece He founded cities everywhere and called them Alexandria Egypt declared him as a god because he was traditional that ruler was a god He was successful because he led by example and he was able to conquer other people because he allowed them to keep their own traditions instead of forcing them to conform to Greek s culture Aristotle Student of Plato and was the nearest equivalent to universal genius His interests included practically every field of science yet known as well as formal analysis of thought and actions now known as philosophy Plato Student of Socrates and tried to solve the