Ancient Greece
In social studies class, we have recently
started learning about Ancient Greece. We’ve been studying the lives of the Spartans,
Athenians, and Mycenaeans. Mycenae had been
the capital of the society in Greece from around 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE. It made
most of its wealth from agriculture, trade, and piracy. They were good
craftspeople. The Mycenaean society had collapsed in 1100 BCE for reasons that
historians aren’t sure of. They believe it may have been fighting between the
rich and the poor, which led to an uprising and a civil war. Another theory is
that invading Dorians from the North used iron weapons to defeat the
Mycenaeans, who used weapons made of bronze.
There is a lot of information known about
the city-states of Sparta and Athens. Sparta and Athens had very different sets
of values that they believed. Sparta had a political system where the state
controlled all parts of people’s lives and people gave up their individual
freedom for the good of the city-state. Athens stood for more of a democracy
and encouraged personal freedom. They would punish people with uncommon beliefs
or people that they believed were a threat to the polis.
We have also learned the story of the
Trojan War. Helen was the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus. Paris, a prince
of Troy, had visited their home. When Menelaus was away, Paris had taken Helen
with the help of the goddess Aphrodite. When Menelaus found out, he called the
chieftains of Greece to help him fight against the Trojans, beginning the
Trojan War. It ended when the Spartans had tricked the Trojans and set the city
on fire while they were peacefully sleeping.
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