Greece and Persia Review

Explore Ancient Greece & Persia! Review city-states, democracy, empires, and early human rights.

Fill in the continents and oceans. Yes, spelling counts South America North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Antarctica Australia Asia Africa Europe Indian Ocean Arctic Ocean Greece is a modern country in Europe. In the Ancient World, Greece was divided into many small city-states. A city-state is a state that has its own government and consists of a city and the area around it. Two examples of city-states were Athens and Sparta.Why did Ancient Greece divide into city-states instead of a large empire (like Ancient Rome)? In large part, the reasons are geographic. There are many mountains inside Greece, and these mountains prevented people from uniting the many city-states into one large empire.At first, Athens was ruled by wealthy men in a very small version of democracy. Later on, it became a wider democracy where all male citizens could vote. This is incredibly important because this was the invention of democracy. However, Athens also had negatives. Women had no rights, 50% of people were slaves, and only 10% of the population could vote. Athens was known for education and learning. Even today, most people who go to college study the ideas of the great philosophers (thinkers) of Ancient Athens. Athens was also known for trade. Similar to Rome, Athenians used the Mediterranean Sea for trading.Sparta was known for war and fighting. Boys were taken at age seven to begin training and lived in military barracks until they were thirty. Women's main job was to give birth to strong soldiers. Babies who were weak were left to die. Women in Sparta had more rights than women in Ancient Athens. Conquered people known as helots were forced to do the farming for Spartans so that the Spartans could focus on their military.Persia was a nearby empire. It began in what is now Iran but spread over much of the Middle East as well as parts of North Africa and Europe. Iran had an emperor who had complete and total control over what went on. There was definitely no voting in Persia! However, Persia was known for its tolerance and diversity. Many other empires at the time required the people it conquered to worship the emperor or to change their cultures. However, Persia let people keep their religions and cultures as long as everyone paid their taxes. A Persian emperor also wrote the first human rights laws.