Research Project on World Civilizations

Joelle Cohen

1V

May 2, 2015

Research Project on World Civilizations

During its reign (1750 B.C. – 133 B.C.), Ancient Greece was a powerful, innovative, and important civilization that contributed cultural, intellectual, and technological achievements to later civilizations and global history. A civilization, according to Mirriam-Webbster, is “a relatively high level of cultural and technological development; specifically:  the stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained”. The eight main features of any civilization are cities, organized governments, complex religions, public works, social classes, writing, job specialization, and lastly art and architecture (Bierstadt, Robert. "Indices of Civilization." American Journal of Sociology 71.5 (1966). Ancient Greece was a very strong civilization, and proof of this is how they strongly displayed these characteristics. In this essay I will be discussing Grecian organized government, writing, and arts and architecture.

The first cultural achievement takes place in the Greek city-state Athens. Athens was situated in Attica, and had a strong and clear emphasis on educating the youth, and a government of the people due to Athens being the founder of democracy. Athens started out as a monarchy before 682 B.C., then became an aristocracy from 682 – 560 B.C., and then the government became a tyranny from 560-508 B.C., until finally the Athenian government became the world’s first democracy after 508 B.C. The definition of a democracy according to thisnation.com is, “a form of government in which the people decide policy matters directly--through town hall meetings or by voting on ballot initiatives and referendums.” In an Athenian government, to participate in government you must be a landowning male, which is why although it was a democracy it was a limited one. The Athenian government was made up of the Assembly, the Council of Five Hundred, and the Popular Courts. Two of the influential men in Athens, who changed democracy were Solon who introduced reforms, and Pericles who instated direct democracy, and Cleisthenes who created the Council of 500. “Though democratic ideals and processes did not survive in ancient Greece, they have been influencing politicians and governments ever since.” ("Ancient Greek Democracy." History.com. A&E Television Networks, Web. 03 May 2015.) This is very true in terms of our own government, while we are not a democracy the U.S.A. is a republic. The difference, in a republic we elect people to make decisions on our behalf. A democracy is one of the most influential achievement created by the ancient Greeks.

The second intellectual achievement was a two-part contribution that has continued to effect the world today- writing! A man by the name of Herodotus was the world’s first historian. Around the year 425 B.C. Herodotus published the world’s first thorough historical account on the Greco-Persian wars. He made “personal inquiries” and collected various stories to make sure that what happened would be recorded. He took down legends, myths, and oral tales. In contrast, Thucydides only wrote down facts and even criticized Herodotus for intermixing facts and fiction to enhance the story. Despite the fact they disagreed with each other, these two men first took down history and in doing so- made history! They have a lasting impact on historians today. Another huge impact, from the Greeks is the written alphabet. While, the Phoenicians wrote the first alphabet down, English and Spanish today is more commonly associated with the Grecian alphabet.

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