How did geography influence the Greek city-states?

Answer 1

The mountainous terrain of Greece made it so that the city-states were separated In which case made it so that they didn't have the same form of governments.

Answer 2

Greece had a crossroad of cultures. It was in Europe but also close to Egypt and the East, therefore causing a learning of traditions from 3 different continents. It has a big exchange of ideas and philosophy, it developed science and trade. The Greek city-states were surrounded by sea, which made them develop maritime skills. The cities weren't protected by big walls and such because Greece was a so-called peninsula, the cities were protected by the navy military. The land was rocky and had a lot of mountains around it, this caused it to be limited fertile. The Greeks spread out all over the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea to look for fertile land.

Answer 3

Answer 1

The mountains helped develop the city-states by separating them. The bays provided harbors for ships, and the coast was fertile, so they could farm. They used the seas for trade and transportation.

Answer 2

One effect was that because of the land features, the island chains and mountainous areas, it was sometimes difficult to travel from city to city (this is one reason they had city states in the first place) Therefore, after time the cities began to make their own laws and traditions, and they had rivalries with other city-states.

Answer 3

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 united 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 4

The geography of Ancient 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.

Answer 5

The geography affected the city states because it forced them to develop independently.