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Neha C

Greek achievements and Greek history - 0 views

www3.northern.edu/...greekachievements2007.htm

greece achievements ancient accomplishments

shared by Neha C on 30 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Art (Pathenon, sculptures of Phidias, etc., source of inspiration for Roman and all sorts of sub. art)
  • The Greeks excelled in sculpture.
  • Also impressive: Greek architecture.
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Greek scupture inspired the Romans and (indirectly) the great sculptors of the Renaissance.
  • Elements of Greek architecture have been copied again and again from Roman times onward--and we still see many elements of Greek architecture in at least some of our public buildings today.
  • Sports (Olympic games)
  • The Greeks also are important for the contribution to sports.
  • There are lots of other echoes of the Greeks in our sports tradition of today.
  •   History (first and some of greatest historians, including HERODOTUS, Thucydides, and Xenophon)
  • The Greeks give us the first true historical works, and it was a Greek (Herodotus) that first used the term "history" for what we call history today.  Not only did the Greeks give us our first historical works, they also give us some of  our greatest.
  • The buildings on the Athenian acropolis are a great example.
  • First of all, it is impressive because it moves beyond the mere chronicling of events (something that had been done before) and attempts to explain why certain events happen and what those events means: what lesssons we can learn from history.
  •   Herodotus might be considered, not just the father of history, but the father of cultural anthropology as well.
  • And particular this is so when one looks at Herodotus' central theme: freedom.  A central theme of Herodotus' book is the value of living in a free society (even though it means sacrifice) rather than living under despotism no matter how well-organized and prosperous a society run by a despot might seem.  Herodotus book is one of the sources of the Western love of freedom.
  • Political science Not only do the Greeks give us our first history, they give us also our first political science, the systematic study of human government.  When one studies political science today, one constantly uses Greek terms (monarchy, democracy, etc.). Why?  Because the Greeks were the first to study the various forms of human government and to identify the strengths and weakness of each.
  • Aristotle's Politics and Plato's Republic are still much read in political science/political philosophy classes today, another good example of the lasting influence of the Greeks.
  • Poetry In poetery too, the Greek had a lasting influence.  When we analyze poetry today, we use Greek words (iamb, dactyl, trochee, etc.).  Why?  Because the Greeks were the first to systematically analyze poetry.  Here too Aristotle is a key figure.  His "Poetics" is as influential in literary criticism as his "Politics" is in political science.
  • Among the greatest and most influential of epic poems are the two great poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. 
  • The Greeks also excelled at lyric poetry. 
  • Mathematics Math is another area in which the Greeks made important contributions.  You are all familiar with the Pythagorean theorum, and the Greek reverence for numbers that starts with Pythagoras is certainly an important contribution of the Greeks.
  • Now what's important here is *not* the practical application of geometry.  What's important is the systematic, rigorous thinking process one must go through in coming up with these proofs.  The study of Euclid taught generation after generation to think clearly and logically: and it is a pity that the current geometry texts have drifted away from this.
  •   Science The Greeks also made important contributions to the sciences.  Biology, Physics, Physiology, Zoology: all Greek names, because the Greeks were the first to systematically explore these areas.  Thales, the first Greek philosopher, also is the father of physics, asking a fundamental question: what are all things made of?  The Greeks explored the question, coming up with promising answers.  Ultimately, Greeks like Aristotle believed that the world was made up of four fundamental elements. Other Greeks added the idea that these elements in their turn were made up of invisible, indivisable particles they called atoms.  Now we have a lot more elements than the Greek four, and we believe the atom can be divided into evern more fundamental particles, but note that the Greeks are certainly on the right track.
  • Perhaps most impressive of all was Archimedes
  •   But its not just in literature the Greeks excelled. They produced some of the world's greatest art, the first true science, and some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen.  In fact, of all the ancient peoples, it was the Greeks who contributed the most to subsequent civilization in virtually every field of human endeavor.  What's all the more amazing is that the Greek were able to do all these things despite the fact that they were constantly at war--or maybe because they were constantly at war. Generalization: Greeks made more important contributions to sub. civilization than any other ancient people.  Achievements:
Paige W

BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: The Democratic Experiment - 1 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...greekdemocracy_01.shtml

greece ancientgreece 7thgradehistory democracy athens

shared by Paige W on 29 Sep 15 - Cached
  • Take politics for example: apart from the word itself (from polis, meaning city-state or community) many of the other basic political terms in our everyday vocabulary are borrowed from the ancient Greeks: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and - of course - democracy.
  • demokratia
  • It meant literally 'people-power'
  • ...69 more annotations...
  • The Greek word demos could mean either
  • Was it all the people
  • Or only some of the people
  • There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors.
  • By the time of Aristotle (fourth century BC) there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece in those times was not a single political entity but rather a collection of some 1,500 separate poleis or 'cities' scattered round the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores 'like frogs around a pond', as Plato once charmingly put it.
  • cities that were not democracies
  • power was in the hands of the few richest citizens
  • monarchies, called 'tyrannies' in cases where the sole ruler had usurped power by force rather than inheritanc
  • most stable,
  • most long-lived,
  • most radical, was Athens.
  • origin of the Athenian democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries can be traced back to Solon,
  • flourished
  • 600 BC.
  • was a poet and a wise statesman
  • but not - contrary to later myth - a democrat.
  • Solon's constitutional reform package that laid the basis on which democracy could be pioneered
  • Cleisthenes was the son of an Athenian, but the grandson and namesake of a foreign Greek tyrant
  • also the brother-in-law of the Athenian tyrant, Peisistratus,
  • eized power three times
  • before finally establishing a stable and apparently benevolent dictatorship.
    • Paige W
      Paige W on 29 Sep 15
       
      Interesting insight on the beginning of democracy.
  • nder this political system that Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts of 490 and 480/79
  • victory in turn encouraged the poorest Athenians to demand a greater say in the running of their city
  • Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalisation of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society
  • he democratic Athens that won and lost an empire,
  • built the Parthenon,
  • eschylus, Sophocles,
  • Euripides and Aristophanes
  • laid the foundations of western rational and critical thought
  • was not, of course, without internal critics
  • when Athens had been weakened by the catastrophic Peloponnesian War (431-404) these critics got their chance
  • n 411 and again in 404 Athenian oligarchs led counter-revolutions that replaced democracy with extreme oligarchy
  • oligarchs were supported by Athens's old enemy, Sparta
  • mpossible to maintain themselves in power
  • democracy was restored
  • 'blips' such as the trial of Socrates - the restored Athenian democracy flourished stably and effectively for another 80 years
  • There were no proper population censuses in ancient Athens,
  • total population of fifth-century Athens, including its home territory of Attica, at around 250,000 - men, women and children, free and unfree, enfranchised and disenfranchised. Of those
  • 250,000 some 30,000 on average were fully paid-up citizens -
  • adult males of Athenian birth and full status
  • second key difference is the level of participation.
  • representative
  • we choose politicians to rule for us
  • Athenian
  • democracy
  • was direct
  • and in-your-face.
  • most officials and all jurymen were selected by lot.
  • This was thought to be the democratic way, since election favoured the rich, famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen.
  • mid fifth century, office holders, jurymen, members of the city's main administrative Council of 500, and even Assembly attenders were paid a small sum from public funds to compensate them for time spent on political service away from field or workshop.
  • eligibility
  • adult male citizens need apply for the privileges and duties of democratic government, and a birth criterion of double descent - from an Athenian mother as well as father -
  • Athenian democracy did not happen only in the Assembly and Council. The courts were also essentially political spaces, located symbolically right at the centre of the city.
  • defined the democratic citizen as the man 'who has a share in (legal) judgment and office'.
  • Athenian drama,
  • was a fundamentally political activity as well,
  • One distinctively Athenian democratic practice that aroused the special ire of the system's critics was the practice of ostracism -
  • potsherd
  • rom the Greek word for
  • decide which leading politician should be exiled for ten years
  • on a piece of broken pottery.
  • voters scratched or painted the name of their preferred candidate
  • 6,000 citizens had to 'vote' for an ostracism to be valid,
  • biggest
  • political
  • risked being fried
  • For almost 100 years ostracism fulfilled its function of aborting serious civil unrest or even civil war
  • Power to the people, all the people, especially the poor majority, remained the guiding principle of Athenian democracy.
  • Paige W on 29 Sep 15
     
    About of Greek Democracy
nshore n

Greek Government -- Ancient History Encyclopedia - 1 views

www.ancient.eu.com/Greek_Government

Greek Government Ancient

shared by nshore n on 10 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • The Constitution of the Athenians, one written by Aristotle or one of his pupils and the other attributed (by some) to Xenophon. Other sources which discuss politics and government include Aristotle’s Politics and the historical works of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon.
    • mrs. b.
      mrs. b. on 10 Oct 13
       
      Primary sources for what the government in ancient Greece was like!
  • Athens’ constitution is called a democracy because it respects the interests not of the minority but of the whole people.
  • Any male citizen 18 years or over could speak (at least in theory) and vote in the assembly, usually with a simple show of hands.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • estimated that only 3,000 or so people actively participated in politics. Of this group, perhaps as few as 100 citizens - the wealthiest, most influential, and the best speakers - dominated the political arena both in front of the assembly and behind the scenes in private conspiratorial political meetings (xynomosiai) and groups (hetaireiai).
  • the dēmos could be too easily swayed by a good orator or popular leaders (the demagogues) and get carried away with their emotions.
    • mrs. b.
      mrs. b. on 10 Oct 13
       
      demos- the common people of ancient Greece
  • Issues discussed in the assembly ranged from deciding magistracies to organising and maintaining food supplies to debating military matters
  • There was also a boulē or council of 500 citizens chosen by lot and with a limited term of office, which acted as a kind of executive committee of the assembly. The decrees of the Assembly could also be challenged by the law courts.
  • An oligarchy is a system of political power controlled by a select group of individuals
  • For the Greeks (or more particularly the Athenians) any system which excluded power from the whole citizen-body and was not a tyranny or monarchy was described as an oligarchy. Oligarchies were perhaps the most common form of city-state government and they often occurred when democracy went wrong.
  • An oligarchy is a system of political power controlled by a select group of individuals, sometimes small in number but it could also include large groups. For the Greeks (or more particularly the Athenians) any system which excluded power from the whole citizen-body and was not a tyranny or monarchy was described as an oligarchy. Oligarchies were perhaps the most common form of city-state government and they often occurred when democracy went wrong.
Aman B

Politics of Greece - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Politics_of_Greece

greek history politics

shared by Aman B on 17 Oct 12 - No Cached
    • Gabriela R
      Gabriela R on 17 Oct 12
       
      I found it interesting how voting is not enforced in Greece.
  • models
  • Voting in Greece is compulsory but is not enforced.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The Greek governmental structure is similar to that found in many other Western democracies, and has been described as a compromise between the French and German
  • The politics of Greece takes place in a parliamentary representative democratic republic
  • Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government
  • the party system was dominated by the liberal-conservative New Democracy
  • Aman B on 17 Oct 12
     
    Greece politics
Garth Holman

This dissident poet says elections and the nuclear pact give him hope for Iran | Public... - 0 views

www.pri.org/...and-nuclear-give-him-hope-iran

Inquisition spanish trials iran elections

shared by Garth Holman on 05 May 16 - No Cached
  • The 44-year-old journalist and poet might have ended up dead, like some of his writer friends back home in Iran. Several of them were murdered in a series of political assassinations that began in the late 1990s.
  • freedom of expression, the Islamic Republic of Iran is among the worst of the worst. The country is ranked 169th, out of a total of 180 countries, on the 2016 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.
  • Rafizadeh looks every bit the intellectual — glasses, leather jacket, cigarette. As a child, he would wake up early and recite Persian poetry out loud, annoying his father and his siblings. 
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • “The [Iranian] government intrudes into your personal life no matter who you are. That’s why, after the murders started happening, I decided to write political poems,” he says. 
  • “Other intellectuals were killed, too,” he says. “The Iranian regime was murdering innocent people just because they dared to call for political change and reform.” 
  • afizadeh managed to shine a light on the killings with his writings in the pages of pro-reformist newspapers. But only for a time. Eventually, Rafizadeh was arrested.“I spent 86 days in a cell that was 1.5 meters by 2 meters,” Rafizadeh says. “And I was tortured.” 
  • Even after he was released, pending trial, he says authorities threatened to harm his children if he didn’t make public statements saying he was treated well in prison and that his past writings were false.
  • Rafizadeh says he did what he was being pressured to do. But he adds that, “the Iranian public knew who was lying and who was telling the truth.” “Other journalists besides me wrote about the human rights situation in Iran and we did have an impact,” Rafizadeh says. Nonetheless, he felt he had to leave the country after the courts sentenced him to 20 lashes and nine months in prison. He escaped into Turkey in 2005. Two years later, he got asylum in Canada. 
  • “But, as it happened, there is in Iran what you might call a ‘deep state.’” 
  • None of these political actors are entirely answerable to Iran’s elected government. That enabled the hardliners to launch a brutal crackdown against the pro-reform camp of then-president Mohammad Khatami and his supporters. The crackdown began in in the late '90s and continued into the early 2000s.
  • “You can fight for rights and freedoms in the political space all you like, but if there is not judicial protection of them, that is a fundamental problem,” she says. 
  • Garth Holman on 05 May 16
     
    Dissident and actions in the modern world. 
morgan m

Slavery in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Slavery_in_India

shared by morgan m on 03 Nov 11 - Cached
  • The history of slavery in India is complicated by the presence of factors which relate to the definition, ideological and religious perceptions, difficulties in obtaining and interpreting written sources, and perceptions of political impact of interpretations of written sources.[1] If current scholarly interpretations of various literary sources are accepted, then slavery as forced appropriation of labour, skill or sexual gratification appears to have existed in various forms from the pre-500 BCE period, though never as a legitimate and generally acceptable widespread practice. Historical consensus points to an intensification of slavery under India's Islamic period.[2][3][4][5][6] For instance, K. S. Lal discussed in his work "Muslim Slave System in Medieval India" the import of African slaves to India by Muslims through the Middle East, a trade never undertaken by India's indigenous religions due to limited contact with Africa. Often, claims about slavery in India, and the sources they are based on, need to be analyzed with special attention to context. Some modern scholars appear to treat most claims of slavery by Persian or Arabic chroniclers as propaganda or exaggeration for military and political glorification, whereas similar arguments are not applied to the textual claims of the epics, the Smriti, or other pre-Islamic Indian texts (Levi admits the possibility of exaggeration on the part of Muslim chroniclers but accepts Basham's claims based on Mahabharata without such doubts.[1]) Susan Bayly of Cambridge University noted in her work "Caste, Society and Politics" that India was never a monolithic caste society [7] with noted shifting and fluidity of the caste structures in some parts of India, and its non-existence in others. Irfan Habib notes in his study of the agrarian system of Mughal India, that in many parts of the country, caste barriers were fluid, and the working classes formed a type of vast labour pool, from which specializations were formed as and when needed without consideration of caste.
  • The slave appears to have retained degrees of control over money, property, right to compensation or wage for labour, and had the right of redemption, and deceiving or depriving a slave of these rights is also a punishable offence. Slavery also appears to have been of limited duration or of temporary status, as only specific conditions are given for slavery for life
  • Employing a slave to carry the dead, or to sweep human waste, remnant of meal, stripping or keeping in nudity, hurting or abusing, violating the chastity (of a female slave), causes the forfeiture of the value paid for the slave (although it is not clear whether this earns the slave his or her freedom). In the same paragraph, however, it is stated that the violations of the chastity of nurses, female cooks, or female servants of the class of joint cultivators or of any other category shall at once earn them their liberty. A master’s connections with a nurse or pledged female slave against her will is a punishable offence, (for a stranger the degree of offence is higher), and rape is specifically mentioned as particularly offensive with high penalties as well as forfeiture of sale price.[10] In fact if a child is born to the female slave as a result of sexual union with the master, then the mother and child have to be freed immediately.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • For an Arya, slavery appears to have been
  • limited to the person who has sold himself, and not automatically to his family or offspring, as the status of the offspring as Arya is categorically emphasized. A slave is also guaranteed to not only whatever he has earned without prejudice to his master’s work, but also any inheritance he has received from his father.
  • As for prisoners of war, enslavement does not appear to have been automatic, as it is stated that an Arya who is captured in war can only be ransomed for an amount proportionate to the damage or dangerous work done by the captive at the time of his capture (or half the amount
  • Slavery begins to appear in explicit and extensive reference in surviving historical records following the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century. Many chroniclers claim that his campaign of 1024 in which he sacked Ajmer, Nehrwala, Kathiawar, and Somnath was particularly successful in garnering more than 100,000 Hindu slaves for the Muslim general.
  • The history of slavery in India is complicated by the presence of factors which relate to the definition, ideological and religious perceptions, difficulties in obtaining and interpreting written sources, and perceptions of political impact of interpretations of written sources.[1] If current scholarly interpretations of various literary sources are accepted, then slavery as forced appropriation of labour, skill or sexual gratification appears to have existed in various forms from the pre-500 BCE period, though never as a legitimate and generally acceptable widespread practice. Historical consensus points to an intensification of slavery under India's Islamic period.[2][3][4][5][6] For instance, K. S. Lal discussed in his work "Muslim Slave System in Medieval India" the import of African slaves to India by Muslims through the Middle East, a trade never undertaken by India's indigenous religions due to limited contact with Africa.
  • Brian K. on 03 Nov 11
     
    Slavery in Inida
  • presley f on 16 Nov 11
     
    slavory in india
  • mason m on 17 Nov 11
     
    This descibes the caste system in india
Garth Holman

Socrates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/Socrates

Socrates philosophy read ancientgreece

shared by Garth Holman on 13 Nov 13 - Cached
  • Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method,
  • and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand.
  • Socrates appears to have been a critic of democracy,[15] and some scholars interpret his trial as an expression of political infighting.[16] Claiming loyalty to his city, Socrates clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society.[17] He praises Sparta, archrival to Athens, directly and indirectly in various dialogues. One of Socrates' purported offenses to the city was his position as a social and moral critic. Rather than upholding a status quo and accepting the development of what he perceived as immorality within his region, Socrates questioned the collective notion of "might makes right" that he felt was common in Greece during this period. Plato refers to Socrates as the "gadfly" of the state (as the gadfly stings the horse into action, so Socrates stung various Athenians), insofar as he irritated some people with considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness.[18] His attempts to improve the Athenians' sense of justice may have been the cause of his execution.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Socrates initially earned his living as a master stonecutter.
  • found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety ("not believing in the gods of the state"),[20] and subsequently sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock.
  • Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. He chose to stay for several reasons: He believed such a flight would indicate a fear of death, which he believed no true philosopher has. If he fled Athens his teaching would fare no better in another country, as he would continue questioning all he met and undoubtedly incur their displeasure. Having knowingly agreed to live under the city's laws, he implicitly subjected himself to the possibility of being accused of crimes by its citizens and judged guilty by its jury. To do otherwise would have caused him to break his "social contract" with the state, and so harm the state, an unprincipled act. The full reasoning behind his refusal to flee is the main subject of the Crito.
  • After drinking the poison, he was instructed to walk around until his legs felt numb. After he lay down, the man who administered the poison pinched his foot; Socrates could no longer feel his legs. The numbness slowly crept up his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his death, Socrates speaks his last words to Crito: "Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt."
  • and freedom, of the soul from the body.
  • dialectic method of inquiry, known as the Socratic method or method of "elenchus", which he largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good and Justice. It was first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer a person would seek. The influence of this approach is most strongly felt today in the use of the scientific method, in which hypothesis is the first stage. The development and practice of this method is one of Socrates' most enduring contributions, and is a key factor in earning his mantle as the father of political philosophy, ethics or moral philosophy, and as a figurehead of all the central themes in Western philosophy.
  • One of the best known sayings of Socrates is "I only know that I know nothing". The conventional interpretation of this remark is that Socrates' wisdom was limited to an awareness of his own ignorance. Socrates believed wrongdoing was a consequence of ignorance and those who did wrong knew no better.
  • Socrates believed the best way for people to live was to focus on self-development rather than the pursuit of material wealth.[citation needed] He always invited others to try to concentrate more on friendships and a sense of true community, for Socrates felt this was the best way for people to grow together as a populace
Meghan O

Sparta Politics and Government - 8 views

atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sirrobhitch.suffolk/portland state university greek civilization home page v2/docs/6/paris.htm

Sparta Government Greek history

shared by Meghan O on 02 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Meghan O on 02 Nov 12
     
    This website gives information about Spartan government and politics.
Ivy V

Athenian democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 9 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Athenian_democracy

shared by Ivy V on 01 Nov 11 - Cached
  • Athens is one of the first known democracies.
  • It remains a unique and intriguing experiment in direct democracy where the people do not elect representatives to vote on their behalf but vote on legislation and executive bills in their own right. Participation was by no means open
  • of Athenian freedom. The greatest and longest lasting democratic leader
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Estimates of the population of ancient Athens vary. During the 4th century BC, there may well have been some 250,000–300,000 people in Attica. Citizen families may have amounted to 100,000 people and out of these some 30,000 will have been the adult male citizens entitled to vote in the assembly. In the mid-5th century the number of adult male citizens was perhaps as high as 60,000, but this number fell precipitously during the Peloponnesian War.
    • ed h
      ed h on 03 Nov 11
       
      Population matters to direct democracy
    • arman b
      arman b on 03 Nov 11
       
      what if the greek didn't have many people?
    • erick j
      erick j on 03 Nov 11
       
      If Greeks didn't have as many people, they would get more work done.
  • There were three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6000), the council of 500 (boule) and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, but running at least on some occasions up to 6000). Of these three bodies it is the assembly and the courts that were the true sites of power — although courts, unlike the assembly, were never simply called the demos (the People) as they were manned by a subset of the citizen body, those over thirty.
    • erick j
      erick j on 03 Nov 11
       
      Did wealth matter to your position in government?
    • Mike Pennington
      Mike Pennington on 15 Nov 11
       
      Yes, wealth played a direct role in just how much power you had in ancient Greece. The Patricians, or wealthy, had slightly more power in making decisions and passing laws.
    • glever g
      glever g on 28 Oct 13
       
      Why did wealth affect anything?
  • Only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens. The percentage of the population (of males) that actually participated in the government was about 20%. This excluded a majority of the population, namely slaves, freed slaves, children, women and metics. The women had limited rights and privileges and were not really considered citizens. The restricted movement in public and were very segregated from the men. Also disallowed were citizens whose rights were under suspension (typically for failure to pay a debt to the city: see atimia); for some Athenians this amounted to permanent (and in fact inheritable) disqualification. Still, in contrast with oligarchical societies, there were no real property requirements limiting access
    • molly c
      molly c on 03 Nov 11
       
      It is interesting to learn that Athenian men had to serve in the military.
    • glever g
      glever g on 29 Oct 13
       
      Not really if you were in that position then you would think that that would be sensible.
  • The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly (ἐκκλησία ekklêsia). Unlike a parliament, the assembly's members were not elected, but attended by right when they chose. Greek democracy created at Athens was a direct, not a representative democracy: any adult male citizen of age could take part, and it was a duty to do so. The officials of the democracy were in part elected by the Assembly and in large part chosen by lot. The assembly had four main functions; it made executive pronouncements (decrees, such as deciding to go to war or granting citizenship to a foreigner); it elected some officials; it legislated; and it tried political crimes. As the system evolved these last two functions were shifted to the law courts. The standard format was that of speakers making speeches for and against a position followed by a general vote (usually by show of hands) of yes or no. Though there might be blocs of opinion, sometimes enduring, on crucial issues, there were no political parties and likewise no government or opposition (as in the Westminster system). Voting was by simple majority. In the 5th century at least there were scarcely any limits on the power exercised by the assembly. If the assembly broke the law, the only thing that might happen is that it would punish those who had made the proposal that it had agreed to
    • Garth Holman
      Garth Holman on 03 Nov 11
       
      Here is some great information about the Assembly of ancient Athens
    • Mike Pennington
      Mike Pennington on 15 Nov 11
       
      Yes Matt, the Athenian government eventually fell during the Peloponnesian Wars. It was weakened by the Persian Wars, but as soon as Sparta truly set it's sights on defeating the every-expanding Athenians they were in danger. The war itself indirectly led to the fall of Athens, during the second and third years of fighting, disease broke out in Athens and devastated the population. It took Sparta and its allies nearly 30 years to destroy the city of Athens. The Spartans also used the help of the Persians.
  • matt k on 03 Nov 11
     
    Did the government ever fall or come close to falling?
Zoe K

Ancient Greece - Ancient History - HISTORY.com - 2 views

www.history.com/...ancient-greece

history greece ancient

shared by Zoe K on 29 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Greece refers to the time three centuries before the classical age, between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C.
  • Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but most of all it was the age in which the polis, or city-state, was invented.
  • They developed governments and organized their citizens according to some sort of constitution or set of laws.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • These people monopolized political power.
  • They all had economies that were based on agriculture, not trade
  • (For example, they refused to let ordinary people serve on councils or assemblies.
  • The colonial migrations of the Archaic period had an important effect on its art and literature
  • They also monopolized the best farmland, and some even claimed to be descended from the gods. Because “the poor with their wives and children were enslaved to the rich and had no political rights,”
  • Land was the most important source of wealth in the city-states;
  • And every one of these city-states (known as poleis) was said to be protected by a particular god or goddess, to whom the citizens of the polis owed a great deal of reverence, respect and sacrifice.
  • These leaders were known as tyrants.
  • As time passed and their populations grew, many of these agricultural city-states began to produce consumer goods such as pottery, cloth, wine and metalwork.
  • a relatively sophisticated period in world history.
  • The polis became the defining feature of Greek political life for hundreds of years.
  • During the so-called “Greek Dark Ages” before the Archaic period, people lived scattered throughout Greece in small farming villages. As they grew larger, these villages began to evolve. Some built walls.
  • Each of these poleis was an independent city-state. In this way, the colonies of the Archaic period were different from other colonies we are familiar with: The people who lived there were not ruled by or bound to the city-states from which they came. The new poleis were self-governing and self-sufficient.
  • Between 750 B.C. and 600 B.C., Greek colonies sprang up from the Mediterranean to Asia Minor, from North Africa to the coast of the Black Sea. By the end of the seventh century B.C., there were more than 1,500 colonial poleis.
    • Yang Y
      Yang Y on 29 Sep 15
       
      The oligarchs' power was greater than anyone else's.
  • Zoe K on 30 Sep 15
     
    facts about ancient greece
John Woodbridge

God In America: People: The Roman Catholic Church in Medieval Europe | PBS - 0 views

www.pbs.org/...catholic-church.html

quest 5 Religion

shared by John Woodbridge on 12 Feb 13 - No Cached
    • John Woodbridge
      John Woodbridge on 12 Feb 13
       
      Salvation means admittance to heaven.
  • It was the duty of every political authority -- king, queen, prince or city councilman -- to support, sustain and nurture the church.
  • strong church encouraged social stability and political cohesion
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Jesus of Nazareth founded the church to administer the sacraments, rituals that contain the mystery of grace and the promise of salvation. Salvation comes only through the church; individuals cannot find salvation outside the institution.
mrs. b.

Winged Sandals: History: Athenian Politics and Government - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...history5.htm

Task2- direct democracy

shared by mrs. b. on 28 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Direct Democracy
  • Athens, however, every governmental decision had to be made by a big assembly of all eligible citizens who wanted to take part – in some cases, this had to be at least 6,000 citizens. This is called a "direct democracy".
  • The Athenian assembly – which is the ancestor of a modern day parliament sitting – would meet in a large open-air area on the side of a hill in Athens called the Pnyx. Only male citizens over the age of 20 were allowed to take part. Women, children, slaves and foreigners were not permitted to participate in any part of Athenian democracy. Any member of the assembly could speak and make proposals (at least in theory), and everyone at the assembly voted on each issue by a show of hands. The assembly met at least 40 times a year. Sometimes, the authorities had trouble rounding up enough people to attend the assembly, so they would send out slaves carrying ropes dipped in red dye. Anybody that they hit would be fined, so people would run from the slaves to the Pnyx where they were safe and join the assembly.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The Council of 500 The Athenians also had a council with 500 members (called the "boule"), which prepared the agenda for the assembly and carried out its decisions. This council also administered the state finances and a number of other state affairs. The members were chosen by lottery from the population of citizen men over the age of 30 and served for one year. A man was allowed to be a member only twice in his whole lifetime
  • Juries in ancient Athens were also chosen by lottery drawn from any male citizens over the age of 30 who volunteered at the start of each year. Juries were made up of different numbers depending on the type of case.
  • Witnesses were allowed, but unlike today, there was no cross-examination. Imprisonment was not used as a punishment following a conviction in ancient Athens – usually a person found guilty either had to pay a fine or was put to death.
Andre Harris

Ancient Greece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Ancient_Greece

shared by Andre Harris on 17 Oct 12 - No Cached
    • Andre Harris
      Andre Harris on 17 Oct 12
       
      cool
  • The territory of Greece is mountainous, and as a result, ancient Greece consisted of many smaller regions each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Regionalism and regional conflicts were a prominent feature of ancient Greece. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on coastal plains, and dominated a certain area around them.
  • Thus, the major peculiarities of the ancient Greek political system were; firstly, its fragmentary nature, and that this does not particularly seem to have tribal origin; and secondly the particular focus on urban centres within otherwise tiny states. The peculiarities of the Greek system are further evidenced by the colonies that they set up throughout the Mediterranean Sea, which, though they might count a certain Greek polis as their 'mother' (and remain sympathetic to her), were completely independent of the founding city. Inevitably smaller poleis might be
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Ancient Greece consisted of several hundred more or less independent city-states (poleis). This was a situation unlike that in most other contemporary societies, which were either tribal, or kingdoms ruling over relatively large territories. Undoubtedly the geography of Greece—divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains and rivers—contributed to the fragmentary nature of ancient Greece. On the one hand, the ancient Greeks had no doubt that they were 'one people'; they had the same religion, same basic culture, and same language. Furthermore, the Greeks were very aware of their tribal origins; Herodotus was able to extensively categorise the city-states by tribe. Yet, although these higher-level relationships existed, they seem to have rarely had a major role in Greek politics.
    • Andre Harris
      Andre Harris on 17 Oct 12
       
      awesome 
Swathi S

Reason why the Roman Empire fell - 1 views

www.roman-colosseum.info/...-why-the-roman-empire-fell.htm

roman empire fall decline ancient history

shared by Swathi S on 14 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Political Corruption
  • The people of the conquered lands, most of whom were referred to as Barbarians, hated the Romans
  • At one point the Praetorian Guard sold at auction the throne of the world to the highest bidder
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • elite bodyguards of the emperor, led to political corruption and grew to such an extent that this massive troop of soldiers decided on whether an emperor should be disposed of and who should become the new emperor!
  • Frequent rebellions arose.
  • Constant Wars
  • Swathi S on 14 Dec 11
     
    This site is for the corruption of Ancient Rome.
Kalina P

Cold War - History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts - 0 views

www.history.com/cold-war

cold war history

shared by Kalina P on 20 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • “containment.”
  • President Harry Truman (1884-1972) agreed. “It must be the policy of the United States,” he declared before Congress in 1947, “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation…by outside pressures.”
  • deadly "arms race
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own. In response, President Truman announced
  • that the United States would build an even more destructive atomic weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or "superbomb." Stalin followed suit.
  • the nuclear age could be. It created a 25-square-mile fireball that vaporized an island, blew a huge hole in the ocean floor and had the power to destroy half of Manhattan. Subsequent American and Soviet tests spewed poisonous radioactive waste into the atmosphere.
  • ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation had a great impact on American domestic life as well. People built bomb shelters in their backyards
  • attack drills in schools and other public places
  • Cold War was a constant presence in Americans’ everyday lives.
  • first man-made object to be placed into the Earth's orbit.
  • Sputnik
  • 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army
  • Space Race was underwa
  • creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration, as well as several programs seeking to exploit the military potential of space. Still, the Soviets were one step ahead, launching the first man into space in April 1961.
  • U.S. would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. His prediction came true on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, became the first man to set food on the moon, effectively winning the Space Race for the Americans.
  • hearings designed to show that communist subversion in the United States was alive and well.
  • forced hundreds of people who worked in the movie industry to renounce left-wing political beliefs and testify against one another. More than 500 people lost their jobs. Many of these "blacklisted" writers, directors, actors and others were unable to work again for more than a decade
  • include anyone who worked in the federal government. Thousands of federal employees were investigated, fired and even prosecuted. As this anticommunist hysteria spread throughout the 1950s, liberal college professors lost their jobs, people were asked to testify against colleagues and "loyalty oaths" became commonplace.
  • military action of the Cold War began when the Soviet-backed North Korean People’s Army invaded its pro-Western neighbor to the south
  • but the war dragged to a stalemate and ended in 1953.
  • . The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis the following year seemed to prove that the real communist threat now lay in the unstable, postcolonial "Third World" Nowhere was this more apparent than in Vietnam, where the collapse of the French colonial regime had led to a struggle between the American-backed nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem in the south and the communist nationalist Ho Chi Minh in the north. Since the 1950s, the United States had been committed to the survival of an anticommunist government in the re
  • new approach to international relations.
  • Cold War heated up again under President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004). Like many leaders of his generation, Reagan believed that the spread of communism anywhere threatened freedom everywher
  • nstead of viewing the world as a hostile, "bi-polar" place, he suggested, why not use diplomacy instead of military action to create more poles? To that end, he encouraged the United Nations to recognize the communist Chinese government and, after a trip there in 1972, began to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing. At the same time, he adopted a policy of "détente"–"relaxation"–toward the Soviet Union. In 1972, he and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982) signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which prohibited the manufacture of nuclear missiles by both sides and took a step toward reducing the decades-old threat of nuclear war.
  • , he worked to provide financial and military aid to anticommunist governments and insurgencies around the worl
  • redefined Russia's relationship to the rest of the world: "glasnost," or political openness, and "perestroika," or economic reform
  • the Berlin Wall–the most visible symbol of the decades-long Cold War–was finally destroyed, just over two years after Reagan had challenged the Soviet premier in a speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." By 1991, the Soviet Union itself had fallen apart. The Cold War was over.
dschnee d

Government and Politics - About Greece - 0 views

www.mfa.gr/...government-and-politics

greece government

shared by dschnee d on 10 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Greece (Ελλάδα, Hellada or Hellas), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia) is a Parliamentary Republic
  • The President, elected by Parliament every five years, is Head of State. The Prime Minister is Head of Government
  • General elections are normally held every four years unless the Parliament is dissolved earlier. The electorate consists of all Greek citizens who are 18 years of age. Each new Government, after a general election or after the previous government’s resignation, has to appear before Parliament and request a vote of confidence.
Martin M

Ancient Greece - 0 views

www.cedarville.edu/...greece1.htm

AncientGreece

shared by Martin M on 15 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • The art of the ancient Greeks is often reffered to as "classical art." It is simple and geometric and placed a great emphasis on the beauty of the human body. They usually used their ideas of the ideal human or of the gods as the subject of their art, rather than actual people. The Greek people used thier artistic talent to create beautiful sculptures, vases, paintings, jewelry, and reliefs. Many of these pieces still exist today. Sculpting is probably what the Greeks are most know for, however. Many museums around the world house ancient Greek sculptures or copies of those sculptures.
    • Martin M
      Martin M on 16 Oct 12
       
      They made nice architectural designs!
  • Doric
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Greek architecture was big, beautiful, and symmetrical. Temples were the most common form of architecture, however they were used for politics as well as worship. There were three orders, or styles, of architecture in Ancient Greece. The Doric and Ionic orders were the most common, and the Corinthian order, while seen more in Roman architecture, was sometimes used also. Below you can see examples of the columns that were commonly used on Greek architecture. Each of them is from a different style and gives you a general idea of the characteristics of each style of achitecture.
  • Doric
  • The Doric style was simple and sturdy with a plain top.IonicThe Ionic style was more elegant and thin with a curled top.CorinthianThe Corinthian style was very ornate with a top that looked like leaves.
Kalina P

The Thomas Paine Society - Common Sense - 1 views

www.thomaspainesociety.org/common_sense.html

thomas paine Common Sense American Revolution

shared by Kalina P on 26 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • e most important piece of writing of the American Revolution
  • , there was still talk of reconciliation among the colonists.
  • against the monarchy and British domination spread like wildfire throughout the colonies and turned the public tide toward independence. General George Washington wrote to a friend in Massachusetts: "I find that Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men. Few pamphlets have had so dramatic an effect on political events."
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • write in plain language
  • accessible to colonists rich and poor.
  • powerful, dramatic and often scathing -- especially when describing the monarchy. Paine described the kings of England as mere usurpers who, like criminals, had seized power by force:
  • sold over one hundred fifty thousand copies in its first printing
  • profits instead turning his share over to the American cause. *
  • irrefutable argument for separation from England
  • revolution as not only achievable but inevitable.
  •   The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure is.
Kalina P

Common Sense: The Rhetoric of Popular Democracy | EDSITEment - 0 views

edsitement.neh.gov/...nse-rhetoric-popular-democracy

independence paine

shared by Kalina P on 26 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • first comprehensive, public call for independence, advancing arguments that far exceeded previous critiques of English rule in their radicalism and scope.
  • mass audience, extending beyond the literate public as colonists read it aloud in a wide variety of settings. George Washington, for example, was so affected by Common Sense that he relinquished all personal hop
  • of mending fences with England and ordered the pamphlet to be distributed to his troops.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • clear case for independence
  • directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it.
  • British rule was responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society
  • Challenging the King's paternal authority in the harshest terms, he mocked royal actions in America and declared that "even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their own families."
  • unified action.
  • only be resolved by colonial independence.
  • in the most graphic, compelling and recognizable terms the suffering that the colonies had endured, reminding his readers of the torment and trauma that British policy had inflicted upon them.
  • resonated with their firm belief in liberty and determined opposition to injustice
  • blunt language that colonists of different backgrounds could understand.
John Woodbridge

The Renaissance - 0 views

www.shsu.edu/Renn.html

Quest10

shared by John Woodbridge on 12 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • new enthusiasm for classical literature, learning, and art which sprang up in Italy towards the close of the Middle Ages, and which during the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave a new culture to Europe.
  • Renaissance was essentially an intellectual movement
  • secular, inquiring, self-reliant spirit which characterized the life and culture of classical antiquity
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • vernacular literatures.
    • John Woodbridge
      John Woodbridge on 12 Mar 13
       
      Vernacular means locally spoken language. Literature the stories that are written so this whole phrase means stories written in the local language about local topics.
  • The atmosphere of these bustling, trafficking cities called into existence a practical commercial spirit, a many-sided, independent, secular life which in many respects was directly opposed to medieval teachings and ideals.
  • So far-reaching and transforming was the influence of the old world of culture upon the nations of Western Europe that the Renaissance, viewed as the transition from the mediaeval to the modern age, may properly be regarded as beginning with its discovery, or rediscovery, and the appropriation of its riches by the Italian scholars.
  • It was a political, intellectual, and artistic life like that of the cities of ancient Greece.
  • Florence, for example, became a second Athens
  • Italy the birthplace of the Renaissance was the fact that in Italy the break between the old and the new civilization was not so complete as it was in the other countries of Western Europe.
  • Italians were closer in language and in blood to the old Romans than were the other new-forming nations
  • direct descendants and heirs of the old conquerors of the world
  • first task of the Italian scholars the recovery and appropriation of the culture of antiquity.
  • existence in the peninsula of so many monuments of the civilization and the grandeur of ancient Rome
  • -a recovery and appropriation by the Italians of the long-neglected heritage of Graeco-Roman civilization.
  • The movement here consisted of two distinct yet closely related phases, namely, the revival of classical literature and learning, and the revival of classical art
  • intellectual and literary phase of the movement
  • "Humanism,
  • study of the classics, the literae humaniores, or the "more human letters," in opposition to the diviner letters, that is, theology, which made up the old education.
  • Petrarch, the First of the Humanists.-- [Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374
  • He was the first scholar of the mediaeval time who fully realized and appreciated the supreme excellence and beauty of the classical literature and its value as a means of culture.
  • He could not read Greek, yet he gathered Greek as well as Latin manuscripts
  • During all the mediaeval centuries, until the dawn of the intellectual revival, the ruins of Rome were merely a quarry. The monuments of the Caesars were torn down for building material, the sculptured marbles were burned into lime for mortar.
  • John Woodbridge on 12 Mar 13
     
    Effects of the Renaissance on development of Western culture
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