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reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority

The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe

Ancient Greece was not a unified nation, but a collection of poli. Poli is the plural of polis, a word often translated as city, but a polis is much more. When we think of a city, we generally think of a place. A Greek polis consisted of a small walled area that was generally no larger than a few city blocks, the farmland that surrounded it, and most importantly, the people who lived there. Today we think of the people who live in a place as citizens, but to the ancient Greeks the people were as much of the poli as the land or the buildings. The word politics is derived from the Greek polis.

Each polis was a nation of its own, but the poli of ancient Greece had many things in common. The Greek poli developed independently of one another because they were isolated by rugged mountains or were located on small islands, but the poli spoke a common language. The poli were also small and often had to depend on one another to survive. Further, the poli met every year at a great athletic contest known as the Olympics.

The earliest Greek civilizations thrived nearly 4,000 years ago. The Ancient Greeks lived in Greece and the countries that we now call Bulgaria and Turkey.

Government in Athens         Pericles was the leader of Athens for thirty years.  He was not a monarch or despot. The people of Athens elected him year after year.  He declared that Athens was a democracy.  In Athens, power was “in the hands of many rather than the few.”  Pericles was correct about saying that Athens was a democracy at that time.  Compared to other ancient governments, Athens was democratic, but it does not seem that way today.  When he spoke of government by the people, he should have said government by the citizens.       Citizens had more rights in Greeks cities than any of the others.  They could do almost anything they wanted to do.  They could own property, take part in politics and the law.  Most of the men in Greece were citizens, but women, slaves, and foreigners could not be.

n Sparta only rich men were citizens. Citizenship was like a family.  It depended on birth.  Only children of citizens could be citizens themselves.  Children that lived in Athens all of their lives were not citizens if their parents came from other places.  Athens seems undemocratic to us because women had no voice in government.       Slaves were normally captured prisoners of wars.  They were sold to people and whoever bought them owned them.  Some slaves lived good lives with their owners.  Others lived in terrible conditions or toiled in mines until death.  Unlike slaves in America, slaves in Greece got paid and if they saved their money they might be able to buy their own freedom. 

Greece (Greek: Ελλάς, Hellas) [1] is a country in Southern Europe, on the southernmost tip of the Balkan peninsula, with extensive coastlines and islands in the Aegean, Ionian, and Mediterranean Seas. It shares borders in the north with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria, and Turkey. It has an ancient culture that has had a significant influence on the arts, language, philosophy, politics, and sports of western society, including the genres of comedy and drama, western alphabets, Platonic ideals and the Socratic method, democracies and republics, and the Olympics. Furthermore it's a geographically appealing place to visit, with a mountainous mainland and idyllic island beaches.

Classical Period (500-336 BC)

In this period Athens reached its greatest political and cultural heights: the full development of the democratic system of government under the Athenian statesman Pericles; the building of the Parthenon on the Acropolis; the creation of the tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides; and the founding of the philosophical schools of Socrates and Plato.

Classical

The Spanish Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons. Spain is a nation-state that was born out of religious struggle between numerous different belief systems including Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Judaism.

refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world

Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it,

silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes. Some of the other goods traded included luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware, and even rhubarb, as well as slaves.[4] China traded silk, teas, and porcelain; while India traded spices, ivory, textiles, precious stones, and pepper; and the Roman Empire exported gold, silver, fine glassware, wine, carpets, and jewels.

Rome was engaged in border skirmishes with the tribes north of the great European rivers

Strong emperors occasionally extended the empire over the rivers while weak emperors tended to lose those land

The largest organised rival of the Romans was the Persian Empire to the east, occupying modern Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Persians were the political descendants of the Parthians who had revolted away from Greek rule following Alexander's conquests and, thereafter, successfully resisted Roman invasions.

Traditionally, in north Indian society, the political power usually lay with the Kshatriyas, the economic power with the Vaishyas and Shudras, while the Brahmins, as custodians and interpreters of Dharma, enjoyed much prestige and were given many advantages by society, even though they were economically poor. Practicing Brahmins, were in fact prohibited from owning wealth

The Indian caste system is a system of social stratification and social restriction in India in which communities are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups called Jātis.

The caste system played an influential role in shaping economic activities,[16] where it functioned much like medieval European guilds, ensuring the division of labour, providing for the training of apprentices, development and protection of intellectual property and, in some cases, allowing manufacturers to achieve narrow specialisation and global monopoly. For instance, producing each variety of cloth was the specialty of a particular sub-caste, but the weavers of Dhaka produced the renowned muslin that was in demand internationally. It has been suggested that the majority of people tend to be comfortable in stratified endogamous groups, as they have always been, since ancient times.[17]

Mind Your Manors   In the days of decentralized government, a fief was like its own mini country that produced pretty much everything that was needed from food to weapons to tools. At the heart of a lord's fief was the manor-large estates. The manor was where the lord's family, servants, and his knights lived. At first they began as large houses, but over the years became full castles as walls, towers, and moats were added for protection. Manors were always in the country and surrounded by farmland and woods. Some of the wealthier lords even had more than one manor.   A manor was the center of the community. Not only did it serve as a place for peasants to run to in times of war, but was the political center as well. When he wasn't out fighting for his Lord, the lord of a fief would act as a judge in settling disputes. He also appointed officials who would collect taxes and rent from the peasants and townspeople. Large manors had their own churches complete with their own clergy, as well as a marketplace where locals could buy and sell goods. At any time one time, hundreds of people from priests, knights, squires, entertainers, merchants, peasants, and visiting nobles would head to the manor.   For the Lady of the manor her day was spent overseeing servants & caring for the children. When her husband was away (or killed in battle) the Lady of the manor assumed the same roles her husband did, appointing officials and acting as judge. In the early Middle Ages a woman owning property was not all that uncommon.

Living in a castle might sound romantic but it's not all that it was cracked up to be. Medieval manors were built of wood and stone and built on a large scale. Glass was rare and extremely expensive so windows often were either left open or covered with cloth during the winter. The only means of heating a manor was the fireplace. Each major room had its own. The Great Room, which as its name implies was the center of manor life.  The Great Room was heated and lit by an enormous fireplace, big enough to stand in. The Great Room was where all of the eating, drinking, debating, politicking, and merry making and other business was conducted. Speaking of doing business, how did medieval people use the bathroom? All manor houses had privies either outside or inside the castle. The ones inside were nothing more than a seat that emptied directly into the moat. ​ To modern observers manors would have been filthy places. Fleas were common and the smell of hundreds of unwashed people (who often only bathed once a week) would have pervaded. Rats and mice also would have been running around as food was thrown directly on the floor during meal times. At night the servants swept the floor and rushes (dried river reeds) would be spread on the floor and all minor visitors and knights would bed down. The manor was often dark, cold, and smoky. To liven things up a bit, tapestries would be commissioned to decorate the walls.

Two kings ruled the city, but a 28-member 'council of elders' limited their powers.

the highest social class, the aristocratic Spartiates

Spartiates were a class of military professionals who lived most of their lives in communal barracks

was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe

In politics, the Renaissance contributed the development of the conventions of diplomacy, and in science an increased reliance on observation

There is a consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century