Chapter 8 - Ancient Greece

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Peninsula in southern Europe.

Mountain ranges run-up to the coast in many places = travel and farming are difficult.

Home to some of the ancient world's greatest civilizations.

Land of rugged mountains, rocky coastlines, and beautiful islands.

Olives were popular. Grown by early Greeks for food and oil.

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Greeks lived on rocky, mountainous lands surrounded by water. Mainland is a peninsula that is very irregular because it is made of smaller peninsulas.

Land and sea intertwine, and there are many islands. This is why a map of Greece has rugged coastlines.

Peninsulas and islands were dominated by mountains that ran almost to the sea.

A few small valleys and coastal plains provided enough flat land for farming and villages.

Because mountains cover much of Greece, there are very few flat areas left for farming.

People settled in flat areas along the coast and in river valleys.

People lived in villages and towns that were separated by mountains and seas.

Travel across geographical factors was difficult, so communities were isolated.

People created their own way of life and government.

Greek communities saw themselves as separate countries even though they spoke the same language.

Since travel inland across the mountains was difficult, early Greeks used the seas.

On the south was the Mediterranean sea, to the west was the Ionian sea, and to the east was the Aegean Sea.

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Early Greeks used the sea as a source of food and as a way to trade.

Greeks became skilled shipbuilders and sailors as their ships sailed to Asia Minor, or Turkey, Egypt, and to the islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

They found sources of food and other products. They also exchanged ideas.

Two of the earliest cultures that developed in Greece included the Minoans and the Mycenaeans

By 2000, BCE, Minoans built an advanced society on the island of Crete. It was in the south of the Aegean in the eastern Mediterranean.

Mycenaeans built towns on the mainland.

These civilizations influenced the Aegean region and helped shape later cultures in Greece.

Minoans spent a lot of time at sea.

They were among the best shipbuilders of the era.

Minoan ships carried wood, olive oil, and pottery all around the eastern Mediterranean. They traded for copper, gold, silver, and jewels.

Crete's geography had dangers included volcanic eruptions even though its locate was perfect for traders.

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Historians don't consider the Minoans to be Greek even though they influenced Greece.

Minoans didn't speak Greek. The first people to speak and be considered Greek were the Mycenaeans.

The Mycenaeans built fortresses all over the mainland. The largest and most powerful fortress was Mycenae.

By the mid-1400s, Minoan society declined, allowing the Mycenaeans to take over Crete and become major traders in the eastern Mediterranean.

They set up colonies in northern Greece and Italy. They shipped goods to markets around the Mediterranean and Black seas here.

Mycenaeans didn't think trade had to be peaceful. They often attacked kingdoms.

Some believe that the Mycenaeans attacked Troy city, starting the Trojan War.

Society fell in 1200s BCE when invaders from Europe swept into Greece. Earthquakes also helped the decline because they destroyed many cities.

As Mycenaean civilization crumbled, Greece slid into a period of warfare and disorder, known as the Dark Age.