The Greek peninsula has been culturally linked with the Aegean Islands, and the west coast of Asia Minor since the Neolithic Age. The numerous natural harbors and close-lying islands lead to a unified, maritime civilization. However cultural unity did not produce political unity. Mountain ranges and deep valleys separated the peninsula into small economic and political units. Constant feuding between cities and surrounding empires for political power made Greece the sight of many battles.

Prehistoric Period Archeological evidence shows that a primitive Mediterranean people, losely related to races of northern Africa, lived in the southern Aegean area as far back as the Neolithic Age. A cultural progression from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age started about 3000 BC. This civilization, during the Bronze Age was divided into two main cultures. One on these, called Cretan or Minoan was centered on the island of Crete. The other culture, Helladic (who became Mycenaean) populated mainland Greece.

The Minoan culture dominated trade until 1500 BC when the Mycenaeans took control. During the third millennium BC a series of invasions from the north began. The most prominent of the early invaders, who were called the Achaeans, had, in all probability, been forced to migrate by other invaders. They overran southern Greece and established themselves on the Peloponnesus. Many other, vaguely defined tribes, were assimilated in the Helladic culture. Ancient Greece Gradually, in the last period of Bronze Age Greece, the Minoan civilization fused with the mainland.

By 1400 BC the Achaeans were in possession of the island itself, and soon afterward gained control of the mainland. The Trojan War, described by Homer in the Iliad, began about 1200 BC nd was probably one of a series of wars waged during the 12th and 13th centuries BC. It may have been connected with the last and most important of the invasions which happened at about the same time and brought the Iron Age to Greece. The Dorians left the mountains of Epirus and pushed their way down to Peloponnesus and Crete, using iron weapons to conquer the people of those regions.

The Invading Dorians overthrew Achaean kings and settled in the southern and eastern part of the peninsula. The Hellenic Period After the great migrations in the Aegean, the Greek developed a proud racial consciousness. They Called themselves Hellenes. The term Greeks, used by foreign peoples, was derived from Graecia, the Latin for a small Hellenic tribe of Epirus, the first Hellenes that the Romans had dealings with. Out of the mythology that became the basis of an intricate religion, the Hellenes developed a genealogy that traced their ancestry to semidivine heroes.

Age of Tyrants The age of Greek tyrants was notable for advances made in Hellenic civilization. The title of tyrant was used on people who had gained political power illegally. Generally the tyrants were wise and popular. Trade and industry flourished. In the wake of political and economic strength came a lowering of Hellenic culture, especially in Ionia, where Greek philosophy began with the speculations of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenies. The development of cultural pursuits common to all the Hellenic cities was one of the factors that united ancient Greece.

Another Factor was the Greek language, the many dialects of which were readily understandable in any part of the country. The third factor was Greek religion, which held the Hellenes together, and the sanctuary of Delphi, with its oracle, became the greatest national shrine. In addition to their religion, the Greeks held four national festivals, called amesthe Olympian, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemean. Monarchy to Democracy Some unification of the city-states took place. Between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, Athens and Sparta became the two dominant cities of Greece.

Each of these great states united its weaker neighbors into a league or confederacy under its control. Sparta, a completely militarized and aristocratic state, established its leadership mainly by conquest, and kept its subject states under strict rule. The unification of Attica was, however, carried on by mutual and peaceful agreement under the leadership of Athens, and the inhabitants of maller cities were given Athenian citizenship. The hereditary kingship of Athens was abolished in 683 BC by the nobles, or Eupatridae, who ruled Athens until the mid 6th century BC.

The Eupatridae kept complete authority by their supreme power to dispense justice. In 621 BC statesman Draco codified and published the Athenian law, their by limiting the judiciary power of the nobles. A second major blow to the hereditary power of the Eupatride was the code of the Athenian statesman and legislator Solon in 594 BC, which reformed the Draconian code and gave citizenship to the lower classes. During the rule of the tyrant Pisistratus, the forms of government began to take on the elements of democracy.

Hippias and Hipparchus, sons of Pisistratus, inherited their fathers power, but they were considerably more despicable. Hippias, who survived Hipparchus, was expelled by a popular uprising in 510 BC. In the resulting political strife, the supporters of democracy, under the statesman Cleisthenes, won a complete victory, and a new constitution, based on democratic principles, took effect about 502 BC. The beginning of democratic rule was the dawn of the greatest period of Athenian history and, to me personally this signifies the end of Ancient Greece.