Question

How did geography impact the history of Ancient Greece?

Answer 1

Hint: Greece started to emerge from the Dark Ages that followed the fall of Mycenaean civilization in the 8th century BC. The Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, changing it to construct the Greek alphabet, after literacy had been lost and the Mycenaean script had been forgotten.

Western philosophy (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle), literature (Homer and Hesiod), mathematics (Pythagoras and Euclid), history (Herodotus), drama (Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes), the Olympic Games, and democracy all originated in Ancient Greece.

Complete answer:
Geography impacts the history of Ancient Greece -
There was no great river in Greece that carried layers of fertile silt to create rich farmland. Instead of being surrounded by a river valley, ancient Greeks were forced to live on a peninsula, a piece of land almost entirely surrounded by the sea and with a rugged landscape that had little natural resources.
Ancient Greece was situated on the mainland of southern Europe. The modern-day nation of Greece is made up of hundreds of islands in addition to the mainland. Crete, located south of the mainland, is the largest of these islands. Another big island to the northeast of Crete is Rhodes.

Almost three-fourths of Greece cover mountains and hills. The most mountainous of these is Western Greece, and it is very difficult to travel on land. The land is not very fruitful, too, but on rugged hillsides farmers stock goats and sheep.

Eastern Greece has more land for agriculture. Some of these farms are located on the Attica peninsula. Attica also has good natural ports or sheltered spots for ships. Peloponnesus is a mountainous area with a slim region of fertile soil, and a large southwestern peninsula of Attica. Several rivers can be found here, but in the summer those rivers dry up, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The climate in Greece posed a threat to early farmers as well. The summers were hot and dry, while the winters were cold and windy. Ancient Greeks cultivated crops and animals that were well-suited to their surroundings. Wheat and barley were grown, as well as olives and grapes. The numerous hills and mountains provided shrubs for the sheep, goats, and cattle herds.

The Greeks came to rely on the sea because farming did not yield large surpluses and travel across the terrain was difficult. Fishermen, fishermen, and traders grew up in the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Ionian Seas. Greece's position in the eastern Mediterranean made it an ideal location for trade. Greek sailors were highly skilled and traded their wares as far as ancient Egypt. Traders from other Mediterranean cultures competed with Greeks. The Phoenicians were one of these civilizations. Traders from all over the world came to Greece to trade their products for olive oil, wool, and wine.

Note: The Romans were the last opponents of ancient Greeks. First in Southern Italy, then in Sicily until 212 BCE (Late 4th-Early 3rd century), and finally in Continental Greece (146 BCE). After that date, the Greek world is thought to have been passed over by the Romans.

Their greatest enemy were the Persians coming from a contemporary Iranian region. Sometimes between 490 to 449 BC, the Persian kings attempted to conquer Greece, but the Greeks succeeded in combating them.