Ancient Greece

Geography

The hills and mountains of the Greek peninsula are relatively rugged and thus made it difficult for the early peoples of Greece to travel overland. This geographical factor resulted in three important impacts on the lives of the Ancient Greeks:

	There was no common Greek empire, which united all Greek-speaking peoples. Instead separate city-states arose along the Peninsula.
	Also due to the rugged terrain there was relatively little cultural diffusion between the city-states of Greece. Each of these city-states had its own distinct form of government and culture. Athens and Sparta are two excellent examples of completely different cultures that developed along the Peninsula.
	In addition, the rugged terrain forced the Greeks to turn out to the sea for trade and food production, since the Greek land could mostly support the growing of olives and grazing of sheep. The Greeks were great sailors and fishermen. They traded with many other of the great civilizations in existence at this time, like Ancient Egypt, Scythia (part of the former USSR), Mesopotamia, and Phoenicia.

Two City-States: Sparta & Athens

Sparta

Athens

Government

	Sparta's government was basically an oligarchy, which is a government controlled by a small group of people. In this case power was in the hands of a few aristocrats. Often times at meetings the group that was able to shout the loudest would be the ones who won a vote or had their policy accepted.
	The Spartan government was mostly concerned with ensuring that the city-state had a powerful military machine to protect itself from outside invasion and to conquer others.
	The government also forbade its citizen to travel abroad and did not often accept visitors. They feared that outside contact would weaken the discipline of the population.

	Eventually the Athenian government developed into a direct democracy. In a direct democracy all citizens vote on major issues instead of electing representatives to do it for them.
	As a result, this governmental system required frequent meetings of the Athenians to vote on important issues. These meetings often entailed debates among the citizens over policy decisions, such as going to war against another city-state.
	Athens' direct democracy served as an important step toward individual freedom and the involvement of individuals in the decision-making process of the government. However, only males over the age of 18 could vote.

Values

	Above all, the Spartans valued strength and virility. Babies that did not appear strong were often discarded.
	Since strength was valued over intellect and academic achievement the Spartans made few cultural contributions to Western Civilization.

	Cultural advancement, balance, order, education, and debate were all very important as was citizen-participation in the government.
	However, even though Athens was a democracy there were slaves and women could not vote, hold office, or inherit property.

Conflict