ANCIENT GREECE

Empire: Origins to Fall

Bell-ringer
With your table, discuss the following

question: with the Indus River Valley

and Chinese Empire in mind, what
events/circumstances allow for the
emergence of an empire?

Review
What are the 5 main ages/periods of Greek

history?
What were the three largest Greek citystates?
In what period did the Greek Empire begin
to grow and expand beyond its own
borders?

Background: Persia
Ancient Greece & Persia were almost constantly in

conflict
The Persian Wars, 492-449 BC
Series of wars fought between Persia and Greece
United the city-states of Athens, Corinth, and Sparta as

one nation against Persia

Thermopylae and the battle of the 300

Result? The Greeks wanted revenge for all of the

bloodshed

Macedonia
In 359 BC, Philip II became king of Macedonia (city-state

in northern Greece)
Created a Macedonian military machine with infantry and cavalry
Built Macedonian cities and strengthened the city-state
Then went on to conquer the rest of Greece and unite it as one under

Macedonian rule
His end goal? Conquer Persia.

The Emergence of Empire:

After Philip IIs death in 336 BC, his son,
Alexander becomes the king of Macedonia
Wanting to honor his father, he continues the plans for

the invasion of Persia

Invasion of Persia, 334 BC
Fighting alongside his men, Alexander and the Greek
army invade and conquer Persia and Anatolia just two
years after his fathers death
Darius the Great, emperor of Persia, flees

The Greek empire has now more than doubled in size

Allows for more trade, cultural revolution, military security
Persia will no longer threaten the Empire

Expansion cont.
In 332 BC, Alexander conquers Syria and Palestine, thus

entering into Egypt

Governing the Empire

As Alexander expanded the Empire, he established 21

new Greek cities in the newly conquered areas

These were all named Alexandria
The most famous of which was in Egypt

He encouraged his generals and soldiers to intermarry

with the conquered peoples in order to establish a firm

presence across the Empire

Problems within the Empire

Since Alexander was constantly on the move and trying to

set up governors within each conquered territory, he was

never actually in Greece
This upset the Greek people and made him progressively more

unpopular as time went on

Other problems?
Alexander was never satisfied with the size of the empirehe
wanted to keep conquering
Seemingly no end in sight
Upset his soldiers who wanted to return home to their families

Alexander had no children and thus no heirwhat would happen if

he were eliminated?

The Empire divided

In 323 BC, Alexander the Great dies from a fever
Theories? Alcohol poisoning, assassination, typhus
Again, no clear successor
Alexander the Greats top generals take it upon themselves to
divide the Empire in order to make it more manageable
Ptomely (pink)
Seleucus (orange)
Cassander (purple)
Lysimachus (green)

Aftermath?
Alexander the Greats conquests ushered in the final era

of Ancient Greek history: the Hellenistic Period

This was an era of widespread Greek-ness
Since the Empire was so large, much of the world (the new nations now

under the rule of the Greeks) were introduced to Greek cultureart,

theater, government, dress, etc.
Greek cities were continuously established, even after Alexanders
death, science and philosophy advanced, and the empire as a whole
experienced a cultural revolution

John Green, Crash Course World History

#8 Google Forms
As we watch the following video and fill out the questions

(found via Google forms) consider this questions: Was

Alexander the Great truly great?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LsrkWDCvxg