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Nick Lema

Prof. Patrick McDonald

HIST 134

28 April 2023

The Rise of Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great is known to be one of the greatest generals in all of history.

Alexander was born in 356 BCE in a city known as Pella, Macedonia, and his father was King

Philip II. Alexander had a long childhood of learning as he was taught to read and to write, and

he loved to play the lyre. Some of his favorite things to do were reading and making music.

Alexander developed a very strong love of science after a couple years of having Aristotle as his

private tutor, who was hired to be so by his father.

In 336 BC, Alexander the Great's father King Philip was assassinated which succeeded

Alexander to the throne as a young teenager. During just the few years of Alexander the Great

being in control of power, he consolidated Macedonian control on the Greek mainland, and he

then razed the state of Thebes by marching his armies over the Danube river. After doing this, he

proceeded to embark on one of his most famous military missions of all time, which was

invading the Persian empire. At this time, the Persian empire was the superpower and very

strong, so this was a very big thing for Alexander the Great to do. Alexander had a pretty good

panned out attack for the Persians. Sitting at the core of his army were two very important things.

The first component of Alexander's army were the heavy infantry from Macedonia, who were

well trained in fighting in the Phalanx formation. The second component of his army that worked

very well with the heavy infantry was the very strong cavalry, where each person was equipped
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with a 2 meter lance. With this army behind him, Alexander the Great was able to make a ton of

successful victories from 334 to 331 BC. Some of these victories included victories at the River

Granicus, Halicarnassus, and Issus.

Once it reached 331 BC, and after a number of large-scale bloody battles, Alexander the

Great had finally taken over the Persian empire and gained control of their provinces. His forces

were growing and at this time they were commanding most of the Eastern Mediterranean

seaboard, parts of Egypt, and Anatolia. The next plan for Alexander the Great included

continuing east to the heart of the Persian empire and ancient mesopotamia. At the battle of

Guatemala, Alexander was able to defeat the Great Persian King known as Darius III. This

strong win paved the way for Alexander the Great to take control of Babylon, Susa, Persepolis,

and Ecbatana. These were the Persian empire's key administrative centers and Alexander was

very determined to take control of them. With Alexander conquering these lands, he had

successfully taken over the Persian empire around 330 BC which was another one of his greatest

achievements. Even after taking full control of the Persian empire and leaving them to be no

more, Alexander the Great would continue his campaigning and he would lead his army to travel

further east. From the time of 329 to 327 BC, Alexander the Great would experience some of the

hardest military campaigning in his entire life when he was battling in Afghanistan and

Uzbekistan. While he was fighting here, he fought hard to take over the Sogdian army and take

control of their lands. Alexander then decided to marry the daughter of the Sogdian chief and

deposited a garrison on the frontier, and decided to continue moving southeast into the Indian

lands.

From 326 to 325 BC, Alexander the Great expanded the Macedonian Empire along the

banks of the Indus river valley. During his campaign in India, he decided to confront King Porus
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at the battle of the Hydaspes river. However, the struggle continued far beyond this battle for

Alexander as he was seriously wounded. An arrow head had punctured one of his lungs which

had left him in horrible condition. Even though he was wounded and it took a toll on him,

Alexander was able to come out strong and survive it. After reaching the mouth of the Indus

river with his army, he decided that they should turn west and continue to Babylon. By the time

that June 11th, 323 BC came around and Alexander the Great passed away, the empire that he

had grown had expanded from Greece in the west to the Pamir mountains of west India. This

empire he had grown turned out to be one of the largest empires that the world has ever seen. On

some of Alexander's greatest travels and missions, he had founded tons of new cities, naming a

lot of them after himself.

When Alexander the Great had passed away, it caused chaos and problems to arise all

throughout his empire. There was no successor to power after Alexander the Great and this left

his empire empty with a huge power struggle to deal with. With the empire trying to regain

stability and figure out how to have a strong powerfront, the empire began to fall apart because

of the instability. Revolts had started to break out and lead to the first great macedonian civil

war. This led to many dreadful and strugglesome years, as many power hungry individuals tried

to attain as much land and authority as they possibly could. Kingdoms started to emerge such as

the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt, the Seleucid empire in Asia, and the Antigonid kingdom in

Macedonia. Even more kingdoms would continue to emerge from the events that have occurred

such as the Bactrian kingdom in modern day Afghanistan and the Attalid kingdom in western

anatolia. With the emergence of these successor kingdoms and the world continuing to go on,

these empires and kingdoms would soon have to face one of the next greatest powers in the

world, known as Rome.

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Annotated Bibliography

Hughes, Tristan. “The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great's Empire.” History Hit, History

Hit, 24 Oct. 2022, https://www.historyhit.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-alexander-the-greats-

empire/.

The following is an article by History Hit that has very good information about the rise of

Alexander the Great and how he came to power. This article talks about some of his most famous

and important battles and how Alexander expanded his empire west, growing it to be the biggest

empire in the world at the time.

“Alexander the Great.” Education,

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/alexander-great/.

This is an article by National Geographic that goes in depth about the life of Alexander the great

and what his childhood was like. This article talks about how he came to power by being the

successor of his father and some of the important things that he did during his 13 year reign as

the King of Macedonia.

“Alexander the Great.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 31 Mar.

2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-the-Great.

The following article is an article by Encyclopedia Britannica that talks about Alexander the

Great and shares many different and unique facts about him that you might not know. This

article talks about what his life was like growing up and what his family was like. This article
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also goes over the start of his Persian expedition and what he was going to do in order to

complete his tasks.

“Alexander the Great (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy,

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-medieval/alexander-the-

great/a/alexander-the-great.

This is an article by Khan Academy that gives a very good overview of Alexander the Great and

what some of his biggest strengths were, including his very strong military power, and how he

was one of the biggest figures in all of history. This article also provides you with a timeline of

events that occurred from the time he succeeded the power of the empire until he passed away.