The origins of the Greek civilization
The Greek civilization is the oldest in the European continent, as it began since the third millennium BC on the island of Crete, and is called the Minoan civilization. The collapse of the civilizations of the Late Bronze Age, due to the invasion of the so-called sea peoples and other natural factors, and the Greek civilization was strong in a way that allowed it to expand and spread only within the limits of the fifth century BC.
Since the end of the sixth century BC, the Greek civilization began to progress greatly at all levels, despite the fact that it fought many internal wars between the regions of Macedonia, i.e. the city of Lydia, the city of Alexander the Great, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the cities of the shores of present-day Turkey. The Arab Mashreq was clearly defined by trade, and within a hundred years the Greek civilization, which became known as the Hellenistic civilization in Greece and the Hellenistic civilization in the East, emerged.
geography of greek civilization
The Greek civilization extended geographically within Greece and the islands in the Mediterranean and the Aegean, and expanded to include the shores of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, and eastward to the interior of Egypt and southern Syria in Palestine and Jordan. Mesopotamia and the city of the Sumerians and Babylonians, and Babylon was considered the most prestigious city of that time, from which most of Mesopotamia and natural Syria were controlled, which includes the Euphrates Island, present-day southern Turkey and parts of Armenia.
Culturally, Greece reached Yemen, the Arabian Sea, India, the Indus Valley, Persia and its environs. For example, the making of Greek pottery and architectural systems spread to most regions of the Asian continent, part of the north of the African continent, and all of southern Europe. This cultural control contributed to the fall of most empires. In the east from Babylon to Memphis and Thebes, competition remained on the political level between Greece and Persia only, until the arrival of the Romans during the first century BC.
Politics and Society in Greek Civilization
The city-state system dominated the political and social life. The difficult geography of Greece, given the large number of mountains, valleys and offshore islands, was an important factor in the development of this political system, in addition to the multiplicity of origins of tribes and human groups in Greece. This system is characterized by the complete independence of cities or their dependence on cities Larger and stronger than them, such as Athens and Sparta, and this system affected the power of Greece in times of war, in reference to the Persian occupation of Greece, despite its defeat in the end, but the number of cities that allied against the Persians was less than the cities that remained on the fence or stood with clicker.
Greek society consisted of multiple layers, including masters and slaves. The gentlemen's class was divided into more than one class between peasants, landowners, officers, statesmen and nobles. As for the slave class, it was divided according to the individual's job with his master or according to the city to which he belonged. The Greek society was of an agricultural and commercial nature. Mostly, with the presence of educated craftsmen, musicians, actors, and other people of various professions, Greek civilization was generally harmonious with each other despite the political and economic separation between its many cities east and west.
Greek civilization achievements
Did the ancient Greeks make achievements in the scientific and intellectual fields? The achievements of the Greek civilization are numerous in all fields, and it is the main and oldest link between East and West and the mainstay of modern European civilization along with the ancient Roman civilization. The East and its developer, as they excelled in the types of social and political management and organization, and contributed to building their cross-sea civilization, which is recorded as the first European civilization in the East and the first European empire that invaded the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean
The relationship of the Greek civilization to the Egyptian civilization
Some point out that the relationship between the Greek islands, the Egyptians and the Phoenicians is the civilizational basis on which the ancient Greek civilization was built, given the nature of the social division in ancient Greece and the religious systems on which ancient Greek beliefs were built, and apart from these propositions, trade between the Pharaohs and Greece was striking In ancient times, and the basis for many crafts and industries in Egypt and Greece, at the end of the third millennium BC and the beginning of the second millennium BC, global trade was active in the Mediterranean regions.
Trade formed the strongest link between Greece and Egypt, from pottery to women’s accessories, ornaments and jewels, to gold, copper and foodstuffs such as salted fish. Ships were anchored in the ports of the cities of these civilizations on a daily basis. The Greek occupation of Egypt during the campaigns of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC was a reason for the exchange of cultures, as evidenced by the libraries of Alexandria in the city of Alexandria in Egypt, as well as its philosophers, such as the philosopher Hypatia, as the civilizational superiority of the Egyptians contributed to the development of Greece Later, they benefited greatly from this civilization.
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January 17, 2022
