A History of World Societies Combined Volume 10th Edition - Test Bank

· The Greeks referred to their land as “Hellas,” and it included land on a peninsula surrounded by the Aegean, Adriatic, and Mediterranean Seas, as well as numerous islands. Over time, cities in Ionia (Anatolia) were added to this civilization. Most of this land is mountainous and lacks navigable rivers. Harbors did provide access to the seas and encouraged trade. The disconnectedness of the geography contributed to the disconnectedness of the Greek city-states, which generally lacked unity and favored independence.

· Knossos is a large structure with more than one thousand interconnected rooms, as well as pipes to bring in drinking water and sewers to remove waste. Archeological evidence indicates a wealthy culture, led by a king and a group of nobles. Minoan art shows women in prominent roles, including religious and athletic ones. Long thought to be a peaceful society, new excavations are revealing more walls around the cities, indicating a need for defense.

· Archeological evidence reveals that Mycenaean cities had thick stone walls, and gravesites contain weapons such as spears, javelins, and swords. Also, they had the first metal armor that we know of. The civilization was led by a king and his warrior aristocracy. Finally, palace records written in the script known as Linear B have been deciphered and indicate frequent warfare.

· Although democracy should mean a style of government in which all members of the state have a say in the government, and oligarchy means rule by just a few (usually wealthy) members, as the Greeks practiced these systems, they had much in common. Greek democracy only allowed a select number of citizens (male only) to vote. The main difference is that more members had power in the democracy than the oligarchy, and the oligarchy included a greater number of prosperous citizens. Both systems allowed for advancement. Tyrants often came to power during a period of violent political or social upheaval, and they were not always oppressive, sometimes using their power to benefit the citizens.

· The aristocracy of Athens had been ruling oppressively. Wealthy aristocrats seized the land of small landholders, or small landholders became so indebted to the wealthy that they were forced to sell family members into slavery or be exiled. Spurred by these injustices, the poorer classes demanded access to political power. Solon supported the common people. When they elected him archon, he enacted reforms that freed people enslaved for debt, cancelled all debts on land, and allowed commoners into the assembly, where they could vote in the election of magistrates.

· Although the Greek poleis did come together to fight the Persians in the fifth century B.C.E., the creation of the Delian League (a naval alliance intended to liberate Ionia from Persian rule) was increasingly dominated by Athens as the Athenians used its power to create an empire. Under Pericles, Athens grew so powerful and aggressive that it alarmed Sparta and its allies. Athenian imperialism and Sparta’s fear of an Athens-dominated Greece led to the generation-long conflict known as the Peloponnesian War.

· The plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes often explored the conflicts between individual needs and the needs of the polis. In the process of asking what a model citizen should be, these playwrights might not always have had the same answers, but all concurred in their belief in the possibility of a just society.

· By incorporating Greek and non-Greek territories into his empire, Alexander built a multilinguistic, multireligious, multicultural world. It included Greek, Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian, Indian, and Arab cultures, among others, and created new hybrid cultures such as Bactrian. To bridge the diversity, a new dialect called koine facilitated communication. After his death, Alexander’s empire was broken up into three main states (Egypt, Persia, and Greece and Macedonia), and a couple of smaller states (Bactria and Parthia). These political divisions were less important than the shared Hellenistic culture.

· Trade in the Hellenistic world included the material goods of metal weapons, wine, olive oil, cloth (wool and silk), precious stones and ivory, spices, grain, and slaves. Nonmaterial trade goods included Greek philosophical ideas and religious beliefs, such as Buddhism. The trade in goods and ideas unified the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian worlds.

· Mystery cults were a common feature of the Hellenic culture before Alexander, but were tied to specific deities in specific regions. The mystery religions of the Hellenistic world, however, were not tied to one particular region and thus represented a less geographically centered world than one in which culture provided links. New or non-Greek deities such as Tyche or Isis could now be incorporated into the Greek tradition of the mystery cult.

· The Dark Age saw widespread problems, including invasions, disasters, and migrations. Craftsmanship became simpler, and skills such as writing declined. Greeks dispersed beyond the mainland. The Iliad and Odyssey recorded events of the Trojan War and included heroes, divine characters who were larger than life but also petty, and populations that had to endure suffering. The polis helped organize a community of citizens with their own laws and customs. Poleis were generally small and self-governing but helped Greek individuals find their place in the world.

· The student should discuss the development of Greek science and philosophy, noting the belief in basic elements (Pre-Socratics), atomic theory (Democritus), medicine (Hippocrates), Sophist concentration on logic and the study of human beings, the Socratic method, Platonic dualism and political thought, and the impressive achievements of Aristotle in natural science and political philosophy. A good essay should stress the Greek emphasis on rational thought and the belief that the universe could be explained and understood. In addition, the essay should emphasize the Greek concentration on the study of human beings. The essay should conclude with a discussion of how Hellenistic philosophy introduced concepts of personal happiness and an increasingly more pragmatic view of science, such as the heliocentric theories of Aristarchus.

· To explain the lack of political unity, one should emphasize the geography of the Greek peninsula. Next, the distinctiveness and independence of the Greek city-states should be discussed, using Athens and Sparta as examples; the Peloponnesian War and the Macedonian conquest of Greece can also be used as evidence of the independent nature of Greek civilization. In contrast, the Olympic and Delphic games, language, religious beliefs and customs, and philosophical inquiry can all be used as examples of unity.

· The student should discuss the urban nature of the Hellenistic world. This discussion should include the motivation behind the founding of the new cities and the growth of established cities, the official functions of the cities, their role in the spread of Greek ideas and peoples, and their importance in the emergence of the trading networks in this era. The essay should also consider how the cities provided a place for Greek and non-Greek cultures to merge. A good essay should also mention how the urbanized and economically unified Hellenistic world proved valuable to the Romans after their conquest of the Mediterranean world.

· In the Hellenistic period, the urbanization of Alexander’s empire (and its successor divisions) was marked by trade in basic commodities and luxury goods. Coinage and the use of koine as the common language of the Mediterranean world provided links between Greece and other cultures that remained in place and facilitated the Roman Empire. The essay should describe the trade patterns established by the Greeks, such as indirect contact with China and after Alexander, direct contact with India. There were also trade ties between the Hellenistic world and Arabia and sub-Saharan Africa. Generally, the Greeks exported metal weapons, wine, olive oil, and cloth, while importing silk, ivory, precious stones, spices, and so forth. Slaves travelled in all directions. More important, however, than the long-distance trade in luxury goods was shorter-haul trade in basic bulk items such as grain.