Greek Empire - Empire, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic, Culture Greek Empire Empire, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic, Culture Ancient Greece Unit

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Greek Empire - empire, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic, culture Greek Empire empire, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic, culture Ancient Greece Unit

This article is brought to you by the years 356 B.C.E to 323 B.C.E.

What would you need to do in order for people to add "the great" to the end of your name? Get straight A's? No, that's not good enough. Make a new kind of phone? No . . . they don't call him Steve Jobs the Great. What then? How about take over all of the city-states around you and then expand your empire across nearly 3,000 miles and across different continents? Now we're talking. It's time to meet Alexander . . . the Great.

Today, we have cities and states and countries that are ruled by a government. Many years ago, things looked very different. People lived in cities that acted like very small countries, called city states. Today, countries stay in one place, but two thousand years ago there was a lot more change. Instead of each city state being always a part of one county, they were constantly taken over by different leaders. If someone with a big army came through, you might have a new leader! An empire is a group of states or countries under one ruler. Greece was just a collection of city-states and colonies until a leader named Philip II fought away many of their enemies and brought them all together. They started to grow into something more. Of course, in order to become something really big, an empire needs a brave leader . . . Or one that's willing to fight, at least.

This is where the "Great" part comes in. In 336 B.C.E., Phillip II was killed and a new leader would rise. He was only 12 at the time, but he brought his country together and took over most of the world around him. Alexander the Great was the emperor of ancient Greece who built a large empire. He did this by taking over the city-states near him first. He then took over other lands around the Mediterranean, West Asia, and North Africa. He never lost a fight. He cut his way through Persia and kept marching into India . . . when his soldiers quit. They wanted to go back to Greece and did not want to fight any longer. Little did he know that all this fighting and taking over of other people changed the world for many years to come.

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Alexander was not looking to bring people together. He just wanted the glory of war. He tore down many buildings and did not build many new ones in their place. Still, as he cut across the world, he ended up spreading the art and ideas of his people. Culture is the beliefs, values, and attitudes shared by a group of people. This is who we are, what we do, and why we do things. As Alexander made Greece's borders bigger, he and his soldiers did not force people to take on their ideas. They allowed the cities they took over to keep their art and ways of living. To make sure he could keep control, he placed his people in places of power and they began to spread their way of life. This changed the way people saw the world from Europe across North Africa and far into Asia. People started reading the same things, speaking the same languages, and shared the same ideas. This brought a big part of the world together in a way that had never happened before.

Alexander grew sick and died when he was only thirty-two. But he left a changed world behind him. The lands he had taken over came together to share the culture of Greece. Hellenistic means "Greek-like"• and it is a time period where we see governments and ideas from Greece all around the world. Each place would mix their own ideas with those from the Greeks. In this way, these city states grew into something bigger and the world became a little bit smaller. The word is used to explain they way that ideas from Greece changed the world for almost 300 years after Alexander died.

What makes someone "Great"? If someone is the head of an empire, they have a lot of power, but does that make them Great? Alexander the Great was one of Greece's most famous leaders who took over much of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. He only wanted the glory of war, but he ended up bringing a big piece of the world together by having them speak the same language and look at the same art--this is also known as culture. After Alexander died, the Hellenistic time began, where many countries spoke Greek and shared the same ideas. So what made Alexander "Great"? Was it because he was strong in war? Was it that he brought Greek ideas to many other people, something he did not mean to do? Just because he has the word "Great" in his name does not mean he was a great person. You can read the stories of Alexander and decide if he was great or not.

References:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Rise of Macedonia and the Conquests of Alexander the Great" metmuseum.org, 2004.

History for Kids. "Alexander the Great" historyforkids.org, 2012.

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