World History / Unit 2: Classical Greece and Rome
2.1 Geography and the Greek City-States
Notes
Greece is a mountainous peninsula with many islands, so Greeks lived in separate, independent communities.
- Mountains divided the land, so Greece formed independent city-states (each called a polis) instead of one kingdom.
- Little farmland pushed Greeks to the sea for trade and to found colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
- Early cultures: the Minoans on Crete and the Mycenaeans on the mainland. Homer's epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, tell of a legendary Trojan War.
- Types of government: monarchy (one king), aristocracy (noble families), oligarchy (a small wealthy group), tyranny (one person seizing power) and democracy (rule by citizens).
- Sparta was a military state. Boys began army training at age 7, and helots (enslaved workers) did the farming. Spartan women had more freedom than Athenian women.
- Athens valued trade, arts and learning and developed democracy.
Practice
Why did ancient Greece develop as many independent city-states rather than one united empire?
Rugged geography isolated communities, which governed themselves.
A city-state is ruled by a small group of wealthy landowners. This government is a(n):
Oligarchy means rule by a few.
Which description best fits ancient Sparta?
Spartan life centered on producing strong soldiers.
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