Greece Notes

How did geography affect the Ancient Greeks?

• Mountains made land travel hard.

• Travel by sea was easiest since it is on three sides.

• Greeks became excellent sailors.

How did the Greeks govern themselves?

• In city-states.

• A city-state is a town that is its own country.

• Imagine Goshen & some farms around it as its own country.

• Each city-state was independent and citizens were very loyal to their own town.

• The Greek word for city is “polis”.

What sorts of government did the Greeks have?

• At first, kings. This is called monarchy.

• Over time, a smaller group of people took over. This is called aristocracy.

• In some places, tyrants took over. These are dictators…but not always bad ones.

• In one place, Athens, they invented democracy.

What is democracy?

• A form of government where the people rule themselves.

• The word comes from combining the Greek words for “people” and “government”.

Democracy in Athens

• Athens had a direct democracy, which means all people voted on all things.

• Only 40,000 out of 300,000 Athenians were considered full citizens.

• Slaves and women didn’t count.

• We have a representative democracy in the US today.

• Why wouldn’t direct democracy work today?