THE GreeceOld it was a civilization that existed in the region of modern Greece and was known for its high level of sophistication. Human habitation in the region of Greece dates back to the Neolithic Period, and more sophisticated civilizations began to develop from 2000 BC onwards. Ç. In all, the Greek history was divided into five periods.
In the Classical Period, Greece was organized into city-states, known as polis, and each of them had autonomy to adopt the model that suited them. The two biggest polis were Athens and Sparta, cities that had different models. Greece was very marked by the great intellectual development in this period.
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Periods of Greek History
The history of the Greeks is very long and was marked by different events. The forms of organization of this people varied throughout this vast period. The Greeks are one of the main peoples of antiquity, and historians have established five periods to organize Greek history. Let's get to know a little about these periods.
Pre-Homeric Period: extended from 2000 to. Ç. to 1200 BC C., being known as formation period of the greek people. Two great civilizations existed in this period: Minoan and Mycenaean.
Homeric Period: extended from 1100 to. Ç. to 800 BC C., becoming known as a period of retreat at the civilizational level in Greece. The inhabitants of Greece abandoned the way of life of the previous period and began to live in villages known as genos.
Archaic Period: extended from 800 to. Ç. to 500 a. Ç. and had as a great mark the polis development and the spread of the Greeks across the islands of the Aegean Sea, caused by population growth and the search for new and better lands to live on. It was also the period when the Greeks created their alphabet.
Classic Period: extended from 500 to. Ç. to 338 a. Ç. and is the best known and most influential period in ancient Greek history. It was the heyday of the Greeks, being marked by intellectual development and political disputes waged in Greece.
Hellenistic Period: extended from 338 to. Ç. up to 146 a. Ç. and was marked by being the period when Greek culture expanded to North Africa and the Orient on account of the Macedonian Empire. It ended when the Greeks lost their autonomy to the Romans.
formation of greece
The history of human settlement in Greece dates back to the Neolithic Period, but historians consider the development of the Minoan civilization as the kickoff for the study of formation of the Greeks. THE first great civilization that developed in Greece was the Minoan, also known as cretan civilization.
The Cretans developed on the island of Crete and formed a great civilization, which existed from 2000 a. Ç. up to 1400 BC Ç. this civilization survives from agriculture and maritime trade. It was discovered by archaeological excavations carried out in Crete at the beginning of the 20th century.
You Cretans had a writing in hieroglyphics known as Linear A, but scholars have never been able to decipher this writing and it remains a mystery to this day. They builtbig onespalaces on the island and it is believed that they were the center of power of the Cretans. The growth of the Mycenaeans and natural disasters brought this civilization to ruin.
You Mycenaean, in turn, formed a civilization from 1600 a. Ç. and existed until about 1200 BC. Ç. They were also called achaeans and settled in Mainland Greece, spreading across the islands off the Greek coast, reaching the regions of present-day Turkey. In this expansion process, they assimilated the Cretans.
formed major cities, surrounded by great stone walls and that, like the Cretans, had in the palaces their administrative center. Organized city-states, mastered techniques such as metallurgy and ceramics and also had a well-developed trade. They developed a form of writing known as Linear B.
They entered into decay around 1200 BC. Ç. It is believed that this decay may be related to the arrival of other peoples in the region, such as the sea peoples and the Dorians. With the downfall of the Mycenaeans, a period of civilizational retreat began. Large cities emptied themselves, forms of organization became tribal and writing was temporarily forgotten.
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polis development
When we talk about Ancient Greece, one of the first things that come to many people's minds is the polis, the city-states that existed there. This form of social organization developed during the Archaic Period, around the 8th century BC. Ç. The period between the Mycenaean decay and the development of the polis was marked by the existence of genos.
You genos they were rural communities in which the inhabitants were structured in a tribal order led by a patriarch. The people who inhabited the genos were generally descendants of a common heir. Over time, the genos grew, uniting with other genos and forming phratries, which became the polis.
THE polis was a city marked by its autonomy in relation to the other polis. In this autonomy, the city could choose the best way to organize itself, decide the criteria of participation of the population in politics, form their own laws, define their main gods, etc. There was no political and territorial unit in Greece.
Athens and Sparta were the two great Greek city-states, but there were other big cities, like Thebes, Argos, Corinth, etc. At the athena case, this polis was marked by the existence of democracy, a model that allowed all citizens (born in Athens and children of Athenian parents) to participate in politics. Athens also provided room for great cultural and intellectual development.
Sparta, in turn, had a modelaristocratic, which was the opposite of what happened in Athens. In this model, only a minority had the right to participate in politics - the Spartans. This group formed the city's aristocracy and dedicated their lives to war and politics. The rest of Spartan society was very violently exploited.
Greek weakening
THE Greece lived its heyday in the Classic Period, both in the economic and in the intellectual aspect. The wealth of Greek cities and their power turned out to be a definite factor in their weakening. This process took place through wars that took place throughout the V centuries a. Ç. and IV a. Ç.
Medical Wars
The first great war recorded in the Classical Period was the Medical Wars, two-phase conflict that was caught between greeks and Persians at the beginning of the fifth century a. Ç. This war was caused when the Persians decided to punish the Athenians for their support. by Athens to the Ionian cities (cities that were in Asia Minor) that rebelled against the dominion Persian.
The Persian invasion took place in two phases and led the Greeks to band together to resist the invasion. So much Darius how much Xerxes they were defeated by the union of the Greeks. Decisive moments of this conflict were the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Salamina, the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Plateia.
Peloponnesian War
After the Medical Wars, Athens occupied a leading role, mainly because it took advantage of the funds of the turns onindelos. This enrichment of Athens bothered Sparta, and when the Athenians decided to interfere in the affairs of cities allied with the Spartans, it turned into war.
THE WarofPeloponnese occurred from 431 BC Ç. to 404 a. a., and, after three phases of that war, the Spartans left like winners. The Spartan domination over Greece was not long and, already in 371 a. C., the city of Thebes he defeated them and became the dominant force among the Greeks. This large amount of conflict weakened the Greeks and opened space for other peoples to conquer the region.
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Hellenistic Period
A few decades later, the Macedonians started with the king Philip II of Macedonia a territorial expansion project. The Macedonians were a people who inhabited northern Greece, being one of the last to settle in that region. They had Greek culture and language. In 338 a. a., the Macedonians conquered the territory.
With the reign of alexander (336-323 a. C.), the Macedonian territories expanded and reached the East. The Persian Empire was dominated and, with it, the Greek culture could be transmitted to Asia. This spread of Greek culture became known as Hellenism. After Alexander's death, the Macedonians weakened. Greece lost its autonomy when the Romans conquered the region in 146 BC. Ç.
