Chapter 7.

1
Ancient Greece
Goal: To understand how
the physical geography of
Greece influenced the
culture of the Ancient
Greeks
.
 Chapter 7.1 Objectives
• 7.1 Objectives • Essential Question for
chapter 7:
• Describe the
effect of • What factors shaped
mountains on government in
Greek life Greece?
• What big ideas have we
• Explain how the
learned about so far in
sea unified 7.1 that can help us to
Greece and answer this question by
brought new the end of the week?
ideas • Land divided by mountains
• Summarize the • Travel and trade by sea
beginnings of • Use of alphabet and coins
Greek culture
Connect to what you know
 BEFORE YOU LEARNED (in 6th
grade)
 The geography of China
influenced the ancient cultures
that developed there
 NOW YOU WILL LEARN
 The geography of Greece led to
sea travel and trade, which
helped to influence Greek
culture.
 3 Key Questions
How many Key Questions in 7.1?

 How did
mountains
effect life in
Greece?
 How did the sea

affect the
economy of
Greece?
 How did trade

influence Greek
culture?
 Vocabulary
Phoenicians
• an early Greek Civilization founded in 2500 BC,
• they among the most successful traders of their time.
• Created the first alphabet
 Vocabulary
 Peninsula

• A piece of land that sticks out into a body of water

• surrounded by water on 3 sides
 Vocabulary
Isthmus

A thin strip of land connecting two large areas

across a body of water
 Vocabulary
Peloponnesus

A large peninsula linked to the northern territory of

Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth.
 Vocabulary
1. peninsula- body of land nearly
surrounded by water

2. Peloponnesus- peninsula that

forms the southern part of Greece

3. isthmus- strips of land that

connects to landmasses

4. Phoenicians- people of
southwest Asia who began to
trade around 1100 BC and from
who the Greeks got the idea for
their alphabet.
 Vocabulary
 5. alphabet-
 system of symbols representing
sounds

 6. mainland-
 main part of a country or territory

 7. rugged-
 having a rough, jagged, or uneven
surface

 8. founded-
 created or established

 9. collapsed-
Geography Shapes Ancient Greek Life

Landscape and Climate

Greece is Characterized by
mountains and rocky rugged land
with no major rivers

Difficult to travel
Isolated Cities
Difficult to unite under one
government

Few major resources

Need to trade for resources

Warm climate
Encouraged outdoor life.
Athletics

What does this lead to?

 Geography Shapes Ancient Greek Life

Why is so much land

used for grazing?

Too rocky or infertile

for crops
Geography Shapes Ancient Greek Life

Agriculture
 Many parts of the land are rocky.
 Fewer people could own enough

farm land to support themselves.

 These people could afford to buy

armor and defend their homeland.

 What effect did this have on society?
 LANDOWNERS had a higher place in

society than merchants or poor

people who could not fight in the
military or grow their own food.
 What did many people do in order

to become land owners when land

for farming was scarce where they
lived?
 They searched out and colonized

other areas around them that had

farm land
Geography Shapes Ancient Greek Life
 Resources- Greece also
did not have many natural
resources like:
 Precious metals to make
armor, weapons and tools
 How did they have to make
up for this?
 Without a lot of farm land,
Greece traded the few
resources they did have
like stone for building and
let people use their
harbors to trade for goods.
Trade Helps Greece Prosper
 How did the geography
of Greece make trade
easier if the land made
it hard to travel?
 Highways of water
linked most parts of
Greece
 On these waters, they
developed good ships
for trading and war
 What did they trade
that they had a surplus
of? :
 Stone, olive oil, wine,
wool, and pottery for
grain and wheat.
 Sea Trade
• How might the position of Greece help trade?

• Central location and seafaring culture is

perfect for trading.
The Earliest Greeks

 The Mycenaeans were traders and became

very good at it which made them very rich
with luxury items like expensive houses and
gold cups. Their civilization fell around
1200 BC because of invaders.
The Earliest Greeks

 The Mycenaeans
◦ Lived on the Peloponnesus
◦ Known for trading and their wealth (gold, jewelry, etc.)
◦ Their civilization fell c.1200 BC because of invaders
What did the Greeks learn from the Phoenicians?
Why
Newdoes it matter?
Advances in Greek Culture

 Trade
◦ Phoenicians
◦ Exchange goods and ideas
◦ Greeks borrow the ideas:
 the Phoenician alphabet
 a currency (money) using coins

 Why does this matter?

 Greek letters influence modern English
New Advances in Greek Culture
 Phoenicians made an alphabet to use for
writing. How did it help both them and the
Greeks with trade?
 It gave them a way to record trade
transactions clearly and quickly

 This alphabet helped create the coins for

currency or money. Greek letters even
influence the English alphabet we use today.

 How might this new ability to record language

and hold value in coins for easy transfer help
the Greeks in other ways?
 These skills helped the Greeks to develop
literature, new ways of governing, and a
strong economy.
 3 Key questions
• How did the mountains affect life in Greece?

• Greece was divided into regions; little farm land led to

colonizing so they had better land to farm. They were
forced to trade for things that the land could not give
them and that they could not grow.

• How did the sea affect the economy of Greece?

• Building cities by the sea linked different parts of Greece;
encouraged shipbuilding and navigation technology and
trade for things they did not have. Greeks traded stone,
fish, wine, wool, and pottery for other goods
• How did trade influence Greek culture?
• Greece came in contact with Phoenicians, adopting the
alphabet and coins. Greeks became wealthy traders.