Why did independent Greek city-states develop?

Answer 1

The Greek city-states developed independently because of the terrain of Greece. The land is very mountainous which meant that groups of people were isolated and had no way to easily develop together as a country.

Answer 2

Independent city-states tend to develop in areas with mountains and poor transportation between areas. Larger kingdoms develop in flatter terrain where it is easier to go between areas. Thus Egypt and Mesopotamia developed kingdoms. The mountainous parts of Greece developed city states. When transportation by boat developed, Athens branched out and became more powerful and turned into a larger nation. Macedonia had a different topography and became a kingdom.

Answer 3

The Greek city states (polis) were formed out of the Homeric period because of the iron age and Greece's impossible terrain.

During the Homeric period the Mycenaean Greeks were in control of most of Greece's vast areas since their kings had bronze weapons. When iron was discovered that enabled anyone to make weapons, the kings lost their empires and the people began to form communities according to Greece's natural borders. These became city states and developed different political systems emerging from the Homeric period.

Some of the states, like Macedonia (which was born out of the kingdom of Argos), Epirus and Thessaly kept the Homeric style kingdoms, others like Sparta were a diarchy with two kings and a senate of elders (gerousia), some became Oligarchies like Megara and Thebes, some tyrannies like Cypselus at Corinth and Orthagoras at Sicyon and of course the other, the democracy of Athens.

Each tribal group established farming areas. They built religious sanctuaries on hills (acropolis) which also served as a refuge when under attack.

The harsh terrain and then later the different political systems made it difficult to get together as a country and so they developed their cities within boundaries protecting the borders against other cities who wanted to extend their own land. Their city and it's territory gave them what they needed. Anything further was obtained by trade.

The ancient Greeks certainly thought of themselves as 'one people' - they had the same religion, language and culture although politically they were independent of each other . As an ethnic group they allied themselves temporarily against common enemies and came together particularly for religious activities, such as the Olympic Games, Isthmian Games etc, and had a council which oversaw joint religious and cultural activities. Politically, however, Ancient Greece was divided amongst several hundred independent city states and colonies, (poleis). "like frogs round a pond" said Plato.

Answer 4

Answer 1

There more independent communities helped foster participation in political affairs, which gave them their own laws and military power.

Answer 2

The geography of Greece affected the city-states in a multitude of ways. This list is not exhaustive, but mentions several important ways that the geography affected the City-States:

1) Minimal Land Travel: The Greek Mainland (Thrace, Epirus, Boetia, Attica, and the Peloponnesus) is among the most mountainous and hilly land in all of Europe, making land travel between the city-state minimal. It also directed their efforts away from expanding their influence primarily over land and explains why non-coastal regions of Greece took the longest to develop.

2) Marine Travel and Naval Strength: Most of the city-states were relatively close to the water, especially those found on Crete, Cyprus, the Dodecanese Islands, or Cycladic Islands. Greek city-states favored marine travel which was more reliable and cost-effective than land travel. As a result, many city-states had strong navies as opposed to having strong armies. (Sparta is the one major exception to that rule.)

3) Chronic Disunity: Because of the prevalence of strong navies, the difficulty of land travel, and the presence of many invasion choke-points (the most famous being Thermopylae), the Greek city-states were never completely unified until Alexander the great conquered them all. (Sparta did defeat Athens in the Peloponnesian War, but only held onto that victory for a very short time. In addition, Sparta never expanded its power into Boetia or over the Cycladic Islands - which would have been the next logical places to expand.)

4) Pastoralism and Fishing: The mountainous terrain made growing crops very difficult. The two crops that the Greeks were able to cultivate were olives and wheat, but wheat was much more difficult to maintain than the olives. This forced Greeks to resort to pastoralism (primarily animal-based agriculture) and they raised goats, sheep, and pigs. As a result, there was a lot of dairy and meat in the Greek diet relative to contemporaneous civilizations (although significantly less than today). In addition, because of the access to the sea, Greek cuisine included vast amounts of shellfish, mollusks, and proper fishes.

The mountains separated the city states, the bays provided fertile land for farming, and the sea provided fishing and trading of sea food.

Answer 5

I am sorry but I don’t know I am only in year 3

Answer 6

Donno