Mr. Driskell

SOL WH1.5c

World History I

Map of Ancient Greece

A. Athens was the world’s first democracy, where they made decisions by voting. However, most people did not have the right to vote.

B. The only people who had the right to vote were free adult males. Slaves, women, and children were all excluded from the voting process. Women and foreigners had no political rights. They were not even allowed to defend themselves in court if they were accused of something. Instead, a native Athenianhad to defend them.

After reading the last slide what conclusion can you come to regarding Athenian society? Specifically gender roles.

C. Even though it was a weak and flawed form of democracy, the democracy of ancient Athens is still valuable, because it influenced later democracies, like the one we now enjoy in the United States.

A. Athens wasn’t always a democracy. It started out as a monarchy, with a king for a ruler. After the king was overthrown, it became an aristocracy, where it was ruled by a small group of wealthy people.

Eventually, tyrants came to power out of the aristocracy, and each tyrant became the one and only ruler of Athens.

B. Two of the most important tyrants were Draco and Solon. Even though they had absolute power, they worked to make life better for the Athenian people, and so they contributed towards Athens eventually becoming a democracy.

SOLON

DRACO

C. When Athens eventually became a democracy, it worked under some strange rules. When there was a trial, everyone who could come would show up and listen to the debate. Then, at the end, they would each be handed a rock, called a lot.

Those who thought the defendant was innocent tossed their lots in one pile, and those who thought the defendant was guilty tossed their rocks in another pile. Whichever pile was bigger would be the winning decision.

A. Unlike Athens, which was a democracy, Sparta was an oligarchy. An oligarchy is very similar to an aristocracy, because it is rule by a small group.

B. In Sparta, the rulers were two kings. If a war broke out, one king would lead Sparta’s warriors off into battle while the other king stayed home to defend the city. One of the most famous kings of Sparta was Leonidas, the king from the movie “300.”

A. Sparta had a very rigidand militaristic society. Young boys entered military training when they were very young, and even the Spartan women had extensive military training.

Why do you think Sparta wanted their women to have military training?

The Spartans had gyms, and spent a lot of their free time there bulking up. They were fierce warriors in combat, generally considered to be the best of the ancient world.

B. The Spartans had a good reason to be so militaristic. The Spartans kept thousands of slaves called Helots. There were many more Helots than there were Spartans, and the Spartanswere always afraid that the Helots would rebel. Thus, the Spartans always kept an excellent army so they could put down a Helot rebellion if need be.