History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0477/04775.txt

Text File | 1992-10-12 | 2KB | 41 lines

$Unique_ID{how04775}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{World Civilizations: The Classical Period In World History
Introduction}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{civilization

}
$Date{1992}
$Log{}
Title:       World Civilizations: The Classical Period In World History
Book:        Chapter 6: Classical Greece And The Hellenistic World
Author:      Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date:        1992

Introduction

     Beginning about A.D. 800 on the peninsula and islands of Greece and
surrounding territory in the eastern Mediterranean, a second center of
classical civilization began to emerge. As in China, classical Greek
civilization built on earlier regional civilizations, which had constructed
elaborate monuments, developed a form of writing, and produced strong
monarchies. Influenced by cultures in the Middle East and Egypt, civilization
on the island of Crete and around Mycenae on the Greek mainland had flourished
for several centuries around 2000 B.C. These regional civilizations were able
to assimilate initial Indo-European invaders who spoke the language that came
to be known as Greek.

     Internal warfare, however, plus a second wave of Indo-European invasions
by a Greek-speaking people called the Dorians, virtually ended the first phase
of civilization in this part of the Mediterranean by about 1100 B.C. Rich
capital cities, including Mycenae itself, were abandoned. For a time
agriculture itself deteriorated as some Greeks turned to nomadic life and
purely local governments predominated. Greek-speaking people spread around the
Aegean Sea, setting the basis for a culture that could include important parts
of modern Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, but a new civilization emerged only
after 800 B.C.