How did geography contribute to greece's development as individual city-states?

Answer 1

The geography of Greece led to the rise of city-states in a multitude of ways. This list is not exhaustive:

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 2

The geography of Greece led to city-states over a united empire in a multitude of ways. This list is not exhaustive, but mentions several important ways that the geography affected the creation of city-states:

1) Fiercely Independent Will: The Greeks did not see themselves as one nation with different regional customs but as distinct nations. Sparta had one grounding ideology, Corinth another, Athens still another. They each felt that the other Greek city-states did not properly represent virtue as it should be understood, prompting a cultural propensity for independence.

2) 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.

3) 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.) These navies could effectively prevent other city states from invading and conquering them.

4) 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.)

The geography of Greece had led to the development of many separate city - states by the mountains separating them. Also, when they made their own laws and traditions.

Answer 3

The area in which Greece was placed in was centered in the Aegean Sea. The Greeks developed a civilization that grew to control the ancient world. Many people settled in a peninsula called the Peloponnesus, other people settled in numerous islands throughout the Aegean. The mountains, bays and inlets of seas divided Greece into many small and isolated regions, plateaus and small valleys. The people who settled in each region had their own community that was formed of close people. These communities would trade things like soil and stones. Sometimes, a community from a region might grow bitter of its neighboring community and they became enemies. Sometimes these rivalries would erupt into war. The Aegean Sea connected the people who soon became known as the Greeks. As a result, the sea became the Greeks link to others people, products and ideas.

Answer 4

The land was split by mountains, rivers, lakes and seas.