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media type="custom" key="29527347" align="right" =**Explain how the geographical location of ancient Athens and other city-states contributed to their role in maritime trade, their colonies in the Mediterranean, and the expansion of their cultural influences.**=

//Focus Question: How did the geography of the Mediterranean and surrounding areas influence the Greek outlook on the world?//

 * This page examines the role of geography in the development of trade and the expansion of culture in ancient Greece. **


 * Topics include: **

** Naval Power **

 * ** Greek Trireme **

** Teaching Resources **
An interactive site about adventures in Ancient Greece.

Geography


Imagine that you live in a land where you are rarely more than 60km from the sea. Maybe you live on the coast, or even an Island. Water is everywhere.

Most likely boats would be the central means of travel. For the Greeks, this often meant that travel, trade, visiting, and war were common. All of these things brought different people in contact with each other, and through this contact they exchanged ideas and customs.

This is known as **cultural exchange**. (It is interesting to note, however, that Sparta didn’t want their people to be influenced by others—therefore they didn’t allow trade with people from other places.)

See [|British Museum for information about geography in ancient Greece].

An Interesting Article Detailing the Influence of Trade on Art

For further background, see [|Troy], an educational website from the University of Cincinnati.



**Naval Power**
Athens possessed the strongest navy in the world and this power helped to create a powerful state and a maritime empire based on trade and commerce, and democracy in Athens.

**The trireme was a fast ship that enabled control of the sea.**
 * The Greek Navy Maintains a Reconstruction of an Ancient Athenian Trireme, The HS Olympias
 * For more, click to The Athenian Navy
 * Remains of Ancient Greek Naval Base Discovered Near Athens.

Sea Trials of the Trireme Olympias

Trade
Each community in Ancient Greece was able to be self-sufficient and grow its own food. Therefore, usually only specialized items were traded.
 * The invention of the standardized coin made trade easier and also more advanced—it is said to have moved Greece out of the Dark Ages.

Because of its location and the natural harbors that it possessed, Greece was able to conduct trade with all of the major civilizations that flourished around the Mediterranean. They could trade with the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Gauls. Also, many commodities were traded from inland Germanic cultures to the north.

Click here for a short video about the [|basics of Greek trade.]

Click here for an encyclopedic link about Greek Trade. Spices Papyrus Metal Ship Building materials such as ................ timber, linen, pitch || Olive Oil Wine Pottery Marble Silver ||
 * ** Greeks Imported ** ................... || ** Greeks Exported ** ................... ||
 * Wheat

Click here for a comparison of Greek and Egyptian Trade. A video explaining Ancient Greece's utilization of the sea for trade.

Free Powerpoints about Ancient Greece (the Quiz PPT format: Ancient Greece was located on a peninsula is especially helpful in understanding trade, money, and colonial expansion in Ancient Greece)

[[image:http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/262/268312/art/figures/KISH_04_77.gif width="504" height="334" align="right"]]
Trade in Ancient Greece.

Greek Colonization
The Greeks expanded and set up different colonies for 2 reasons:
 * 1) First, they needed to set up new city-states when old ones became too big or when they needed to find new land to grow crops.
 * 2) Second, colonial expansion became an important way to expand their region of influence.

Click here for a video about the collapse of Mycenae colonial expansion.

Expansion was largely conducted by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. [|This map] shows how where the Phoenicians and Greeks set up colonies.

Colonial expansion had a lasting effect on the regions that Greece spread to.
 * The current African country of Libya is one example. Cities further inland were either left alone or had a greater degree of autonomy.
 * The city of Cyrene got its current name from the Greeks.
 * For the Greeks, colonization was a divine mission bestowed by the oracle Apollo at Delphi. For those living there, it was just a military conquest.
 * The Greeks ultimately established five colonies in Libya: Cyrene, Apollonia, Ptolemais, Taucheira and Berenice.
 * [|Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and Their Influence on Greek Art] from Metropolitan Museum of Art
 * [|Greek Colonization Defined] from Ancient History Encyclopedia.

Click [|here] for an interactive visual timeline on Greek colonization.

Expanding Cultural Influences

 * [[image:https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/07/12/16/51/art-151360_960_720.png width="80" height="43" link="Ancient Mediterranean, 3500 BCE - 300 CE"]]Link to AP Art History, Ancient Mediterranean**



Teaching Resources
While the Greeks were always looking outward and thinking of exploring, their geographic location also made them accessible from the outside. Overview of Ancient Greek economy as well as book for different ages of students to read to learn more
 * Sometimes this left them vulnerable, like when the Persians attacked.
 * At other times they benefited greatly from it, like when they came in contact with the Phoenicians who introduced them to the alphabet.
 * The Greeks adapted the alphabet for their own use.

Role of Africans in Ancient Greek art Role of Women, Children, and Slaves.

Lesson from Plan National Geographic: Using Geography to learn about the World: How geography impacted daily life, warfare and trade in Ancient Greece.

An article about the Pillars of Hercules



Sources:

Nosotro, Rit (2000). Athens and Sparta. Retrieved February 13, 2007, from HyperHistory.Net Web site: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw4athensspartap2dz.htm

Roberts, J.M. (1997). //The Penguin History of Europe//. London: Penguin Books

Gombrich, E.H. (1985). //A Little History of the World//. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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