0
The geography of Athens and Greece in general strongly affected the development of a city located in Athens:
1) Prime Location: The Greek Mainland (Thrace, Epirus, Boetia, Attica, and the Peloponnesus) is among the most mountainous and hilly land in all of Europe, making land travel between the city-state minimal. However, the area nearly Athens is less mountainous, making it much easier to build a historical city. It had a central position, north of the Peleponnesus and south of Boetia in Attica, which allowed them to easily trade with Corinth and Sparta in the south and Delphi in the north. It was also very close to the natural port of the Piraeus, giving it an outlet to the sea and prime access to the Aegean.
2) Marine Travel and Naval Strength: Most of the city-states were relatively close to the water, especially those found on Crete, Cyprus, the Dodecanese Islands, or Cycladic Islands. Greek city-states favored marine travel which was more reliable and cost-effective than land travel. As a result, many city-states had strong navies as opposed to having strong armies. Athens under Themistocles had the largest navy of any Greek city-state as well as having the vassalage of several Greek island-states.
3) Chronic Disunity: Because of the prevalence of strong navies, the difficulty of land travel, and the presence of many invasion choke-points (the most famous being Thermopylae), the Greek city-states were never completely unified until Alexander the great conquered them all. (Sparta did defeat Athens in the Peloponnesian War, but only held onto that victory for a very short time. In addition, Sparta never expanded its power into Boetia or over the Cycladic Islands - which would have been the next logical places to expand.)
4) Pastoralism and Fishing: The mountainous terrain made growing crops very difficult. The two crops that the Greeks were able to cultivate were olives and wheat, but wheat was much more difficult to maintain than the olives. This forced Greeks to resort to pastoralism (primarily animal-based agriculture) and they raised goats, sheep, and pigs. As a result, there was a lot of dairy and meat in the Greek diet relative to contemporaneous civilizations (although significantly less than today). In addition, because of the access to the sea, Greek cuisine included vast amounts of shellfish, mollusks, and proper fishes.
The mountains separated the city states, the bays provided fertile land for farming, and the sea provided fishing and trading of sea food.
The Peloponnesian states led by Sparta defeated Athens and its empire after a devastating 27-year war.
Athens was stripped of its empire and became a second rate power.
Sparta was temporarily dominant, but its cumulative manpower losses saw it also slide to to second rank power.
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
What affect of the Persian wars have role of the Athens in the Greek world?
Athens converted the Delian League which it had led in the later phase of the war with the Persian Empire into an empire of its own, and after peace with the Persians it used this power to interfere in the rest of the Greek world, resulting in the devastating 27-year Peloponnesian War.
How did the Battle of Salamis affect the future?
The naval Battle of Salamis won a victory for the Greek allies, primarily Athens. It, in effect, stranded the Persian Army in Greece, forcing it to make a fighting retreat home, leading to its defeat at Plataea. After the war, Athens formed a naval defense league to prevent any further Persian incursions. Athens became he leading cultural center of its time, leading the world in architecture, sculpture, and theater. In time, Athens began to use the treasury of the league as its personal resource, and behaved as an imperial power, bringing it into conflict with its former ally, Sparta, and sparking the Peloponnesian War, which eventually led to Athens' defeat and the fall of democracy in Ancient Greece.
How did democracy affect Ancient Greece?
It allowed Athens to flourish. (music,arts,poems,etc.)
How did the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars affect the development and cooperation of the Greek poleis?
The Persian Wars lasted for fifty years, and brought the Persians to accept that the Greek city-states would be independent. The legacy of the Persian War was that Athens, having led a league of Ionian-Greek city-states against Persia for the second half of the Persian Wars, converted this league of apparently freed cities into an empire of its own. Athens used this Empire to finance its own benefit, and back aggression against the Peloponnesian League of Dorian-Greek city-states led by Sparta. This led to the Peloponnesian War between the two groups, which Athens lost, and was stripped of it's empire. Persia supported the Peloponnesian League during that war, and after that league defeated the Athenian league, and fighting still persisted between the Greek cities, took the opportunity to reclaim the Greek city-states in Asia Minor to its own empire.
How does the leadership of Pericles affect the government and culture of Athens?
As First Citizen after arranging the expulsion of opposition leader Thucydides son of Melesias, he manipulated the democracy, feeding them the spoils of the empire he created out of the redundant anti-Persian (Delian) league of a couple of hundred Greek cities, bringing the treasury from Delos to Athens. He continued to extort the annual defence contributions for Athens' private use, to rebuild and glorify the city, subsidise the arts and science, and put half the populace on the public payroll - effectively turning those other cities into an empire of Athens. By fostering a hardline approach to Greek cities outside the empire he let/led Athens fall into war with the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League confident that the walls of Athens and the offensive fleet subsidised by the Delian League would enable Athens to outlast and overcome that opposition. He died of plague three years into the ensuing war, and the leadership fell to opportunists who did not stick to his policies. We don't know whether, if he had lived, he could have avoided Athens' eventual defeat and loss of its empire.
What was the blockade used for after the peloponessian war?
it was used to stop shipments of food and supplies from coming into Athens. After the blockades affect on Athens, Athens had to surrender to Sparta so they could live on for a tiny bit longer instead of starving to death. P.S- The war was called the Peloponnesian War
How did the results of this war affect both athens and sparata?
The Athens ended the war. The Sparta started the war.
How did the Persian war affect the balance of power among the greek city-states?
Athens turned the Delian League it had led against Persia into an empire of its own and, in using it to try to dominated the other Greek city-states, came into conflict with the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, resulting in the devastating 27-year Peloponnesian War.
What affect of the Persian wars have role of the Athens in the Greek world?
Athens converted the Delian League which it had led in the later phase of the war with the Persian Empire into an empire of its own, and after peace with the Persians it used this power to interfere in the rest of the Greek world, resulting in the devastating 27-year Peloponnesian War.
Affect the Persian Wars had on the economy and political makeup of Athens and Sparta?
The wars did not affect the political make up -Sparta continued as a limited democracy and Athens developed a radical democracy of their own making. Economically, Sparta continued to live on the serf population which gave half their produce to Sparta, Athens converted the Delian League it had led against Persia in the latter stages of the war, into an empire of its own, and lived high on the proceeds mulcted from those city-states.
How did the Persian war affect Greece?
They provided the impetus to form an anti-Persian alliance headed by Athens. When peace was made with Persia after 50 years of intermittent fighting, Athens converted this league into an empire of its own, and its expansionary tendencies brought it into confrontation with the Peloponnesian League, resulting in the 27-year Peloponnesian War which devastated the Greek world from Sicily to Asia Minor.
How did the Persian war affect city states?
It left Athens in control of the league of cities, which it turned into an empire to benefit itself, keeping them in check and paying tribute to it with its dominant navy. The other Greek city-states formed the Peloponnesian League and the two sides ended up in a devastating Peloponnesian War.
How did the outcome of the war between the Athens and Sparta affect the lives of the Greek people?
Most of the military and militia strategies we use today are based on the fighting strategies they use back then.
How did the Battle of Salamis affect the future?
The naval Battle of Salamis won a victory for the Greek allies, primarily Athens. It, in effect, stranded the Persian Army in Greece, forcing it to make a fighting retreat home, leading to its defeat at Plataea. After the war, Athens formed a naval defense league to prevent any further Persian incursions. Athens became he leading cultural center of its time, leading the world in architecture, sculpture, and theater. In time, Athens began to use the treasury of the league as its personal resource, and behaved as an imperial power, bringing it into conflict with its former ally, Sparta, and sparking the Peloponnesian War, which eventually led to Athens' defeat and the fall of democracy in Ancient Greece.
How does geography affect the developments of Athens and Sparta?
The geography of Athens influenced its focus on trade and maritime activities due to its location near the sea, leading to the development of a strong navy and a mercantile economy. In contrast, Sparta's location in a more rugged, landlocked region shaped its emphasis on agriculture and military training, resulting in a society focused on warfare and discipline.
How did the military affect the progress of Sparta?
By its startergise.
What was famous about the Spartans?
They were famous as warriors because they were moist and spent their life training and were mostly victorious in battle. The city allotted each warrior land and serfs to work the land to allow them to practise military skills.They were also conservative and cautious about entering war. They avoided getting mixed up in conflicts which did not directly affect their own territory. Even as the leader of one side in the 27-year Peloponnesian war, they had to be pushed by their allies into it and tried to get opponent Athens to compromise short of war.They were well known for brevity in speech - we use the word laconic today (Laconia was the Spartan territory). One famous story is that after Athens surrendered to Lysander at the end of the Peloponnesian War, he sent a message to Sparta saying 'Athens is taken'. He got back a reply from the magistrates 'Taken would have been sufficient'.
