By Rollin Nathan
Ancient Greece
Location
Greece is located at the southeast end of Europe and it is the southernmost country of the Balkan Peninsula.
Greece is located between several countries and seas.
-in the north it borders with Albania, Fyrom, and Bulgaria.
-In the east greece is bordered with Turkey and the Aegeian sea.
- In the south west Greece surounded by the Mediterranean sea.
GREEK BORDERS
Mainland Greece is a mountainous land almost completely surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Greece has more than 1400 islands. The country has mild winters and long, hot and dry summers.
The ancient Greeks were a seafaring people. They traded with other countries around the Mediterranean. Many cities created settlements overseas known as colonies.
Greek City-States & The Dark Ages
villages started to band together, in part for protection and in part for more organized trade. They wanted strong trading centers. Groups of villages that banded together were called city-states. There were hundreds of city-states in ancient Greece, some really small ones and some really big ones with large populations.
Although each city-state had its own form of government and its own army, and even sometimes its own navy, and each city-state certainly its own way of doing things, the city-states of ancient Greece had many things in common. They all spoke the same language; they all believed in the same gods; they all worshiped in the same way; they all thought of themselves as Greeks. But they were loyal to their city-state. If you asked someone in ancient Greece where they were from, they would not say they were from Greece, because Greece at that time was not a country. It was a collection of city-states, each with its own personality and way of doing things. They would say they were from Athens, or Sparta, or Corinth, or Argos. The Greeks were very proud of their own city-state.
Five of the most powerful Greek city-states
-Athens
-Sparta
-Corinth
-Megara
-Argos
Minoan’sand Mycenaean Civilizations
Minoans
The Minoans were named after the legendary King Minos. A large palace had been discovered at Krossos on the island of Crete. It is believed to have been built around 2000 B.C. The Minoans grew grapes, grain, and olives and traded with the Greeks, Egyptians, and others in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Mycenaeans
The Mycenaeans were from the Peloponnesian Peninsula. They invaded and conquered the Minoans on Crete. The most famous of the Mycenaean kings was named Agamemnon. He was a key figure in the Trojan War, as retold in Homer’s poem theIliad. The Mycenaeans were then conquered by the Dorians. This began the period in Greek history known as the Dark Ages.
