Preview

Environmental Determinism Related to Ancient Greece, Rome and Medieval Times

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2789 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Environmental Determinism Related to Ancient Greece, Rome and Medieval Times
Environmental determinism essentially means where you live has a direct correlation with how you live. Countries that need to focus on hunting and gathering cannot focus on other aspects of their society like military power, religion, technology and education. Geographic luck is another factor of environmental determinism. Geographic luck means that people have strong advantages to their lives because of where they currently live. Environmental determinism allowed countries to grow their military power and allowed them to enhance their weaponry, which was shown during the Peloponnesian War, the Punic Wars and the Viking Invasions. During the period of Ancient Greece, the Peloponnesian War showed military changes because of environmental determinism. After the Persian War, the Persian Empire was very weak ("Peloponnesian War."). The Athenians saw this as a great opportunity to attack and take control of some very important land. Some of the land that they wanted to capture was called the Fertile Crescent and was very rich with many resources such as very rich soil which is opportune for growing crops, as well as large rivers of water for drinking ("Fertile Crescent."). The Athenians were able to attack the Fertile Crescent because of environmental determinism. The land the Athenians were on allowed them to create a strong civilization early, which allowed them to grow their military power, which in turn also allowed them to defeat the Persians in the Persian War. Environmental determinism also allowed the Athenians focus on upgrading their navy to a high enough level that they could travel the long distance of attacking the weakened Persian Empire.
Environmental determinism also factored into the primary reason the Peloponnesian War started. When the city states divided up between the Delian League and the Athenians, and the Peloponnesian League and the Spartans, in the agreement it stated that each side was to not get involved with the opposite sides affairs


Bibliography: "Ancient Greece Map." Map. Plato-dialogues.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. "Ancient Rome Map." Map. Bible-History.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. Baker, Ryan, Mr. "Peloponnesian War." History Lecture. Hillfield Stathallan College, Hamilton. 13 Nov. 2012. Lecture. Baker, Ryan, Mr. "Punic Wars." History Lecture. Hillfield Stathallan College, Hamilton. 6 Feb. 2013. Lecture. Gill, N.S. "Fertile Crescent." About.com Ancient / Classical History. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. "Medieval Information." Viking Invasions to Europe. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. "Medieval Maritime Culture." Wikipedia.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. "Viking Timeline." Viking Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013.
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    LOL Smil
    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages

    LOL Smil

    23. What was the next major Greek-influenced power to rise after the exhausting Peloponnesian Wars?…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pacificus & Helvidius Debates
    • 3723 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Pacificus & Helvidius Debates

    This was written on Notepad then converted into a Word Document. The purpose of this document is to be supplemental to reading the Pacificus & Helvidius Debates, this was written side by side while reading the debates, therefore, if this is the first time you are reading the Pacificus and Helvidius Debates these notes will provide more of a curse then a blessing.…

    • 3723 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Year 11 Ancient History, Historical Investigation- Troy.
    • 1949 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Year 11 Ancient History, Historical Investigation- Troy.

    Bibliography: Barry Strauss, ‘The Trojan War: A New History’, Simon & Schuster, New York, September 12, 2006.…

    • 1949 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Spartans Vs. Athenians: The Peloponnesian War
    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Spartans Vs. Athenians: The Peloponnesian War

    Can you imagine four-thousand spartans charging down a hill while three-thousand Athenians ready their bows and release them all simultaneously while the string whips in the hard rain? The Peloponnesian War was one of the most fierce wars in Greece because many people fell in battle. From the South were the Spartans. Their forces had never been stronger with a reformed, military-based government. From the North was the Athenians who had just been through a war that had been won, and were still armed and battle ready, holding fortresses across Greece. The interactions that these two city states made against, with, and without them were so intense that even the fierce kings, Leonidas of Sparta and King Pericles Cleon Nicias of Athens, fell to each other's armies.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Sparta Vs. Athens: Peloponnesian War
    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Sparta Vs. Athens: Peloponnesian War

    Allies from their existence, Athens and Sparta had fought side by side for centuries. These two Greek city-states fought together in the Greco-Persian war, but when the Persians retreated, tension rose. Athens gained more power than they needed, plunging the two cities into nearly three decades of war. The outcome was devastating. Although Sparta won, they were extremely demoralized. Athens was bankrupt and exhausted, and neither city regained the military strength they once had. This infamous conflict came to be known as the Peloponnesian War.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Classical Greek Civilization: How People Interacted With The Environment
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Classical Greek Civilization: How People Interacted With The Environment

    1: In classical Greek civilization, people interacted with the environment. People used the Mediterranean basin in many different ways. One reason was for irrigation, which produced fertile soil throughout the land and made agriculture great in this society. Some of the plants they grew were olives and grapes. These were soon turned into olive oil and wine, which was a very popular item to trade. This basin was also used as a travel route, which did spread cultures around the areas.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Was The Peloponnesian War Inevitable
    • 170 Words
    • 1 Page

    Was The Peloponnesian War Inevitable

    What were the causes of the Peloponnesian war, and was war inevitable? One of the main causes of war is the disagreement between states on many subjects, and because of this many conflicts between these countries arise, war is something unpredictable, due to how unpredictable it is, it must be studied carefully based on individual circumstances, actions taken by both sides, and the reactions. To prevent war, one must examine the causes of a conflict, they must evaluate the outcome of the conflict, and determine other peaceful alternatives to prevent the conflict. The Peloponnesian war provides an excellent example to be evaluated.…

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    World History Study Guide
    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages

    World History Study Guide

    9. Who was involved in the three Punic wars and what were the results of each war?…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The History Of The Peloponnesian Wars
    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The History Of The Peloponnesian Wars

    Before the Peloponnesian Wars, wars lasted only a few hours, and the losing side was treated with dignity. The losers were rarely, if ever, chased down and stabbed in the back. Prisoners were treated with respect and released. Thucydides warns us in his histories that the longer wars go, the more violent, and less civilized they become. During the Peloponnesian Wars, prisoners were hunted down, tortured, thrown into pits to die of thirst and starvation, and cast into the waters to drown at sea. Innocent school children were murdered, and whole cities were destroyed. These wars turned very personal, as both Athens and Sparta felt that their way of life was being threatened by the other…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Trojan War Analysis
    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Trojan War Analysis

    The epic story told in Trojan War is considered by many to be a starting foundation of Greek mythology and to other modern stories we still tell today. It is a story of envy, disloyalty, cleverness, and persistence that few stories can challenge. Greek myths such as The War on Troy tell of epic tales of gods and goddesses working together and even feuding among each other in order to create a more desirable world for themselves. They are the stories of people dealing with and overcoming personal and cultural issues as represented by the gods in a society where history and storytelling go hand in hand. These so called myths…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    melian dialogue
    • 3061 Words
    • 13 Pages

    melian dialogue

    THE next summer Alcibiades sailed with twenty ships to Argos and seized the suspected persons still left of the Lacedaemonian faction to the number of three hundred, whom the Athenians forthwith lodged in the neighbouring islands of their empire. The Athenians also made an expedition against the isle of Melos with thirty ships of their own, six Chian, and two Lesbian vessels, sixteen hundred heavy infantry, three hundred archers, and twenty mounted archers from Athens, and about fifteen hundred heavy infantry from the allies and the islanders. The Melians are a colony of Lacedaemon that would not submit to the Athenians like the other islanders, and at first remained neutral and took no part in the struggle, but afterwards upon the Athenians using violence and plundering their territory, assumed an attitude of open hostility. Cleomedes, son of Lycomedes, and Tisias, son of Tisimachus, the generals, encamping in their territory with the above armament, before doing any harm to their land, sent envoys to negotiate. These the Melians did not bring before the people, but bade them state the object of their mission to the magistrates and the few; upon which the Athenian envoys spoke as follows:…

    • 3061 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Classical Athens Vs Sparta
    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Classical Athens Vs Sparta

    By the middle of the 5th century B.C. Athens and Sparta, the two most powerful Greek city-states, found themselves on the brink of a full-scale war. According to Thucydides, at the beginning of the war both Athens and Sparta were at the pick of their might and flourishing and could trade and cooperate to each other’s benefit; instead, they got involved into an armed confrontation, in which the rest of the Greek cities participated, on one side or on the other.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hippocrates And Ratzel: Environmental Determinism
    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Hippocrates And Ratzel: Environmental Determinism

    Under environmental determinism, the statement that due to the weather being warm it has the ability to cause people to act a certain way, which for warm temperatures causes people to be lazy. I believe this to be true because I am someone who lives in Arizona and I have lived here my entire life. In the summer, Arizona can get excessively warm, which causes me and I am sure many other individuals to not to want to do anything but stay inside and enjoy the invention of the air conditioner. Another example of environmental determinism would be the fact that people tend to migrate towards water or live along coastlines because deserts are so inhospitable. To elaborate, as of 2001, “more than 8 in 10 Australians (85%) lived within 50 kilometers of the coastline” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). I think my first example of warm temperatures causing people to be lazy is an environmental determinism because it goes along with Hippocrates linking climate, landscape, physique, and temperature together. My second example of people living near coastal regions is more of an environmental possibilism because people chose to move near the coast because of it benefiting their lifestyle rather than it being something that is forced upon…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Environmental Determinism and Possibilism
    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Environmental Determinism and Possibilism

    Possibilism and Environmental Determinism, both completely different in theory, and yet so very linked in purpose. Environmental Determinism is the idea that the environment shapes its inhabitants, and will --or will not-- provide for them to accomplish their goals. While Possibilism is the idea that mankind –for this example it will be routinely mankind and not another species—can accomplish their goal(s) because it is possible or could become possible with assistance, such as training, tools, equipment, specialized environmental gear, etc. These two ideas can be almost as conflict-ridden as Creationism and Evolution, with both sides of the fight drawing lines in the sand and rallying behind them. Hopefully the reader of this essay will find that Environmental determinism and Possibilism may have different theories, but are not so different when considered towards a problems beginning and ultimately its end.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Environmental Determinism
    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Environmental Determinism

    Naturally, you don’t expect that the early people who lived in the far north of the globe to be black skin color or the people who lived near the equator to be white skin color. As well as sea people to be skilled hunters and people living in the woodlands to be skilled fishers. Our social and cultural development is affected by the weather that surrounds us and also the geographical position that we live in, this is this belief is called environmental determinism. Although environmental determinism has been acclaimed throughout history, it has been lately declining; it has also been divided into various subsets including, climate, economic growth and many more.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics