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Alphonso Wilson

                                                                                                                  AP World History 9/25/07

 

How did geography, environment, and contacts with other peoples shape the institutions and values of Persians and Greeks?

 

     In both ancient Persia and Greece, societies originated in areas of land with poor resources. Ancient Iran was an arid, harsh land with little water, and so a strong central authority was required to organize the resources and manpower to adapt to the environment. The Persians gained their power and eventually their empire through the overthrowing of a Median monarch. The Greeks, however, were located on a peninsula and had easy access to foreign peoples and markets abroad over the Aegean Sea. Their interaction and trade with other cultures exposed them to new ideas and stimulated the formation of a Greek identity, and an interest in knowledge. The institutions and values of Persia and Greece were both fundamentally altered through their interaction with other peoples, which came about because of their geographic location and environmental conditions.

 

     Ancient Iran was a harsh, arid land with few natural resources, and early humans living there had to find ways to use limited water resources. Royal authority was developed to organize the resources and manpower to construct underground irrigation channels. This type of government was used for the duration of the Persian Empire. The Greek culture, however, came into being only because of trade with foreign peoples. They were located on lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and thus used the broad expanse of water to transport people and goods faster and cheaper. The sea also exposed early Greeks to foreign cultures.

 

     Iranians in 550 B.C.E. existed in a warrior environment, with their king being the most “illustrious” warrior. Unsurprisingly, the king Cyrus went to war in western Asia, redrawing the map, probably because of those warrior values. The environment in Greece developed because of the destruction of the palace-states. Greece was left in an isolated “dark age”, with each region developing as independent states until the contact with Phoenicians. During this time, domesticating was the main lifestyle. The trade with new peoples probably stimulated the intellectual growth of the Greeks. Greek government was separated into many different independent city-states.

 

     Contact with foreign peoples was probably the main shaping factor for Greek civilization. When the Greeks moved and spread throughout the Mediterranean, they encountered many different practices and beliefs of other cultures. This led to the formation of a Greek identity and the selfness of Greek culture. Because of contacts with other cultures, Greeks began to value the quest for knowledge, and become larger alliance states. The peoples of Persia actually gained their empire through contact with another people. This led to the formation of the political institution using satraps, or governors.

 

     The values and institutions of the Persians and Greeks were shaped through both cultures’ respective interactions with foreign cultures, each culture adapting to its own environment, and the physical location of each culture in regards to the availability of resources and distance from other cultures. Both Persians and Greeks were able to adapt to their environments and locations, and dominate other peoples, becoming vast empires that ruled for hundreds of years.

 

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