Effect of Geographic Features

Throughout history, geographic features have had an impact on historical and cultural growth of civilizations, empires, and regions of the world. This statement is proven with many civilizations, including the Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians, which were all very prosperous and successful. Many of the accomplishments of the empires above had a lot to do with their location and surroundings of their region.
Due to the mountains in Greece, a unified empire could not be formed, therefore many city-states or polis’ were created. The isolation from the rest of Greece caused each city-state to form their own character, goals, laws and customs. This is evident when you compare Athens and Sparta. The Spartan culture focuses on military training from the young age, while the Athenians encourages individualism and a focus in the arts. However the creation of city –states, as opposed to one unified empire caused many rivalries amongst one another. One of the better well-known civil wars was The Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens. Because of the isolation from other city-states, many citizens considered themselves as a citizen of that certain polis, as opposed to a part of the Greek empire. Another aspect that shaped their culture and contributed to the formation of city-states was the sea surrounding them. It enabled them to trade and communicate with other cultures as well as intertwine ideas of the foreigners in their city-state.
The Phoenician civilization was located right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; this enabled a lot of trade and communication to be done. The narrow coastal land was very fertile, therefore suitable for farming. However, the Phoenicians are greatly remembered for manufacturing and trade as well as the invention of the phonetic alphabet, as opposed to farming. The creation of the alphabet was in result of a quick and simple way to keep records and transactions when trading. Thus said, the phonetic alphabet was introduced,