The History of Graphic Reading
Observe the physical and geographical environment of Greece carefully and contact the content of Unit 1. What do you think are the characteristics of the geographical environment in Greece? What influence did this environment have on the development of ancient Greek civilization?
Map of ancient Greece
Aegean civilization is the beginning of ancient Greek civilization. Crete and Mycenae are two centers of the development of Aegean civilization, representing two stages of Aegean civilization. About12nd century BC, the Dorian invasion led to the destruction of Mycenae civilization and the end of Aegean civilization.
From 1 1 century BC to the 9th century BC, the distribution pattern of Greeks in Greece and the surrounding areas of the Aegean Sea was basically stereotyped, and Greek society gradually changed from primitive society to class society.
The formation of Greek city-states
From the 8th century BC to the 6th century BC, the ancient Greek city-state system began to take shape. On the basis of the gradual disintegration of clan social organizations, more than 200 city-states have formed in various parts of Greece.
The ancient Greek city-states were generally centered on a city and surrounded by rural independent countries. The basic characteristics were small countries and few people. Their land area is generally only 100 square kilometers with a population of tens of thousands. The largest city-state has a land area of more than 8,000 square kilometers with a population of several hundred thousand.
At the beginning of the formation of the ancient Greek city-state, the political power was generally controlled by the original clan nobles. The Presbyterian church, which was originally composed of clan nobles, was transformed into the aristocratic meeting of the city-state, which held the power to decide the affairs of the city-state. The tribal military leader evolved into the consul of the polis, responsible for handling the administrative affairs of the polis. The tribal people's assembly was transformed into the citizens' assembly of the city-state, which formally reserved the right to vote on the proposals of the aristocratic assembly. This form of polis is called aristocratic politics.
Due to the differences in social and historical conditions and the comparison of their respective strengths, the political forms of each city-state have undergone different changes. Some city-states evolved from aristocratic politics to democratic politics, while others maintained aristocratic politics for a long time.
The formation and development of ancient Greek city-state system was the result of social and economic development and cultural progress in Greece at that time, which in turn promoted the further prosperity of social economy and culture. The city-state system and the social development of Greece at that time complemented each other.
On the basis of inheriting the historical heritage of Mycenae civilization, the Greeks learned to use iron, completed the industrial division of labor, and ushered in the great economic development earlier. At the same time, they also initially germinated the identity consciousness of "Greece".
The Greeks have had the same language since ancient times, and have created a complete alphabet since the 10 century BC. The biggest difference between Greek characters and other ancient letters is the invention of vowels. This is of great significance to the evolution of writing and the development of Greek culture. It promoted the communication between Greeks and strengthened their sense of national identity and belonging.
Pottery bottle reflecting the social life of ancient Greece
From the 8th century BC to the 6th century BC, the ancient Greeks set off a large-scale wave of overseas migration. Greek immigrants established colonial city-states in overseas settlements according to the model of their home country, and maintained close economic and cultural ties with their home country, but they were politically independent. The migration movement involves the whole Mediterranean region and the Black Sea coastal area, which not only promotes the interactive economic development of the whole region, but also promotes the popularization of Greek city-state system overseas and expands the influence of Greek culture.
From the 5th century BC to the first half of the 4th century BC, it was a "classical era" in the history of ancient Greece. This is a prosperous period with high socio-economic, political and cultural development, and it is also the heyday of the ancient Greek city-state system.
The prosperity of Greek economy in this period not only came from the long-term accumulation of its own productivity progress, but also directly benefited from the victory of the Greek-Persian war. The victory of the Sino-Greek war was the result of the United struggle of all Greeks. It defended the national independence of Greece, expanded the economic ties between the Greek Peninsula and Asia Minor and the Black Sea coast, ensured the political superiority and commercial hegemony of the Greeks in the Eastern Mediterranean, enhanced their national self-confidence and patriotic enthusiasm, and consolidated the foundation of the city-state society.
After the Greek-Persian War, the Greek world gradually formed a political pattern of hegemony, and fell into a long-term internal dispute, which led to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War [2], and the ancient Greek city-state system began to decline from prosperity.
the athens democracy
Among the many city-states established by the ancient Greeks, Athens is the most influential and representative one. Athens city-state is famous for its democratic politics, developed economy and prosperous culture.
Athens city-state is located in Attica Peninsula in central Greece, and its main residents are Ionians and Akayans. The territory is mountainous, rich in minerals, with winding coastline and many good ports, but it lacks fertile land, which is suitable for the development of navigation and industry and commerce, and is not conducive to agricultural development. In the 8th century BC, Attica began to form a unified city-state centered on Athens.
The citizens of Athens were composed of nobles and civilians. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, aristocratic politics was practiced, and the original clan nobles held political and economic privileges. With the increasing economic strength of the emerging industrial and commercial class, the desire to break the monopoly of clan nobles on political power is becoming stronger and stronger. Together with other civilians, they launched a struggle to seize power from the gentry and nobles, and the result of the struggle made the Athens city-state embark on the road of ancient democratic politics.
Portrait of Solon
The democratic politics of Athens city-state is centered on the direct participation of all citizens. It was gradually formed and established in the process of the struggle between the broad masses of civilians and the clan aristocracy 100 years, and it was the result that the civilians gradually defeated the clan aristocracy in the struggle. Solon's reform in 594 BC and Christini's reform in 508 BC are two milestones in the process of establishing democratic politics.
Solon's reform aims at breaking the blood clan and readjusting the interests of citizens of different classes. Its main contents are as follows: (1) Abolish all debts mortgaged by citizens of the polis; Reclassify the citizens of the polis according to the amount of property; Establish a 400-person conference and jury court as the highest administrative and judicial organ. This reform weakened the power of the aristocratic meeting, expanded the social foundation of city-state politics, and created the precedent of Athenian democratic politics.
Cristini's reform aims to further eliminate the influence of blood relationship and property on city-state politics. Its main contents are as follows: according to geographical principles, all citizens are re-divided and combined; Replace the 400-person meeting with the 500-person meeting, and its authority has been expanded; Create a "fifty-member team" to handle daily administrative affairs; Set up the Committee of Ten Generals and formulate the exile law of pottery pieces. This reform completely eliminated the remnants of the clan system, basically eliminated the obstacles for all citizens to participate in the political life of the city-state, and marked the final establishment of Athenian democracy.
A piece of pottery used to carry out exile
After the 5th century BC, especially after the Greek-Persian War, the ancient democracy in Athens ushered in its heyday. From 443 BC to 429 BC, Pericles was successively elected as the chief general of the Committee of Ten Generals in Athens, which opened the "Pericles era" in Athens history.
The picture shows Pericles giving a speech at the funeral. In the winter of 43 1 BC, the Athenians held a funeral for the soldiers who died in the Peloponnesian War. In his speech, Pericles called on the Athenians to fight for democracy.
During Pericles's administration, on the basis of retaining the original institutions, he supplemented and adjusted the political system in Athens from three aspects: first, all public offices in public institutions were open to all citizens except the members of the Committee of Ten Generals, and were selected by lottery; Second, expand the size and authority of the jury court and make it the highest judicial and supervisory organ; Third, implement the system of public office allowance to ensure that everyone can hold public office.
The democratic politics of Athens, represented by Perikles, is an advanced political system of the ancient Greek polis, which is conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm and creativity of the citizens of the polis and promoting social, economic and cultural progress. But it is only democracy within the citizens of the city-state. Only adult male citizens really enjoy democratic rights, and women and foreigners are excluded.
The high prosperity of Greek classical culture is the product of the full development of ancient Greek city-state system.
Under the city-state system, people generally have a strong sense of political participation, active thoughts and attach importance to personality development, thus creating a social atmosphere conducive to the free development of spiritual culture. The development of productive forces and the accumulation of social wealth in the city-state era also provided material guarantee for the development of culture, while the division of labor between mental and physical labor provided a professional foundation for the development of culture and art.
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