2/27/13

Today in western civ we watched a video about Greece. A lot of the stuff in the video we already knew because we are such a smart class but we still took notes. Later Mr Schick paused the video so we could make fun of the weird guys voice which was pretty funny. Farther into the video we learned about a guy named something beginning with a P that I was trying too write in my notes but missed the last few letters when Mr Schick was telling Holly. His story was really funny because he was a tyrant who took over by telling the people that the tall pretty woman he was with was Athena. she told them to make him their new leader and for some crazy reason they went along with it. Mr. Schick said he would tell everyone that a random guy with him is Jesus and that he needs to be the new pope. I think this is a great idea.

2/26/13

Today we worked on a timeline while Tona took the test that she missed. Before he assigned this Mr. Schick let me go to the bathroom. While I was out of the room he also let me get my stylus. When I came back I realized I forgot my stylus. Then I had to go all the way back to my locker to get it. Finally after all of this I started to work on the assignment. First i was just looking in the book because I didn't realize the link with some of the dates was right at the top of the paper. I ended up finishing all of the dates on the timeline in class today and barely started to work on the definitions at the bottom. I will probably finish them in class tomorrow because we were told we didn't have to finish it for homework.

2/25/13

Today all we did was take a test.

2/20/13

First we sang Mikhenzie happy birthday and the Mr. Schick showed us his very boring outline. Once he started explaining things it wasn't so bad though. Also I learned that I am suppose to read his blog everyday which I haven't been doing and I missed an assignment! Also Mr. Schick threatened to throw a chair at me for every time I disrupt class which is a lot so i will try to stop talking so much, today I was worse than usual because Grace decided to it next to me. During Mr. Schick's presentation of the outline we took notes for the test Monday. The information basically just summed up our powerpoints and covered the things that we didn't. This is the boring overview/outline that Mr. Schick showed us today in class. Definately could have added some color......

Chapter 3 Outline

 

I. The European Barbarians (LO1)
        A. The Earliest Europeans
                    1. by 4000BC, farming and village life had spread throughout the                                    continent
                    2. by 3500BC, increased population and wealth led to complex religious                          structures
                               
        B. The Barbarian Way of Life
                    1. common way  of life as result of migrations of Indo-European nomads                         (c.2500BC onward) from the steppes that bordered Europe on the east
                    2. languages
                                a. ancestor languages of Greek and Latin
                    3. elites of warriors
                    4. farming and village life
                    5. In this way, Europe came to be inhabited by peoples who spoke mostly                       Indo-European languages; who were skilled in farming, metalworking, trade, and warfare; and who were fairly well organized on the local level, but had no cities, written records, or fixed structures of government
                    6. c.2000BC-1000AD these barbarians came into contact with civilization
                    7. the first such European barbarian people to make contact with                                      civilization were the Greeks - their civilization, the first to emerge in Europe, was the first to definitively be labeled “Western”

II. The Aegean Encounter (LO2)
        A. Minoan Civilization
                    1. c.2200BC a distinct civilization known as Minoan arose on the Aegean                        island of Crete
                    2. Minoans drew wealth from control of the seas and trade with eastern                       Mediterranean lands, especially Egypt
        B. The Arrival of the Greeks: Mycenaean Civilization
                    1. when the Greeks made their way to the Aegean, they seem to have been                      a European barbarian people much like any other
                    2. eventually they came under the influence of nearby Crete
                    3. by c.1600BC Greek chieftains had established settlements along the                            mainland’s southern shore and on some islands
                    4. Mycenaean Greeks
                    5. struggles between Mycenaeans and Minoans for control of the                                     commerce of the eastern Mediterranean lasted until c.1400BC, with the                                destruction of Minoan towns, perhaps as a result of Mycenaean conquest
                               
        C. The “Dark Ages”
                    1. Mycenaean civilization lasted until shortly after 1200BC due to the conquest of the Sea Peoples
                    2. c.1150 BC Myceneae was sacked and all settlements deserted - in addition, the population dropped, and writing fell out of use
                    3. this led to the eclipse of civilization for almost 400 years, known as the                        Dark Ages (1150 - 750 BC)
                    4. but the Greeks themselves survived and even expanded their territory
                               
        D. The Renewal of Greek Civilization
                    1. c.800 BC the Aegean region recovered
                    2. population expansion led to founding of colonies, c.800-600 BC
                    3. the Greeks joined the Phoenicians as the leading commercial and                                  seafaring nation of the Mediterranean
                    4. a common religion
                    5. new developments
                                a. use of iron tools and weapons
                                b. coined money
                                c. borrowing of Phoenician shipbuilding and warfare techniques
                                d. writing and the alphabet formed the Greek language

III. Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-States (LO3)
        A. City-States and Citizens
                    1. notion of citizenship seems to have originated partly in geography
                    2. hoplites: Greek infantrymen equipped with bronze helmets and armor,                                    round shields, long spears, and short swords
                    3. city-state, citizens, tradition, and myth

        B. Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, Democracy
                    1. in the earliest times, communities were ruled by kings
                    2. monarchy then gave way to new forms of government that distributed                         power more widely among male citizens
                                a. oligarchy:  a minority of citizens dominated the government, and the                                                      power of the majority was limited in various ways
                    3. but other city-states gave more power to the majority (particularly those           that developed into large commercial centers)
                                a. in these city-states the common people were too numerous and                                 active to ignore,                                 
                                b. in these cities, social conflicts sometimes led to the emergence                                      of tyranny (rule by a dictator)
                                c. but tyranny was often only a passing phase on the way to                                         democracy (all government decisions were made by the majority                                      of male citizens)
                    4. although Greek city-states had many features in common, each was                             individual in character

        C. Sparta: The Military Ideal
                    1. Spartans were descendants of Greeks who had conquered part of the                           Southern mainland: Laconia
                    2. by 800BC they were a minority of landholders ruling over a majority of                       helots (noncitizens forced to work for landholders)
                    3. Messenian helots, however, frequently rebelled
                                a. this forced Spartans to accept a governmental system that put                                   them under almost total domination by a few among themselves
                    4. by 500BC, policy decisions had been taken over by a council of elders
                    5. thus the Spartan government was a leading example of oligarchy
                    6. Spartan male life was dedicated entirely to the service of the state
                    7. the relative freedom of Spartan women aroused both admiration and                           disapproval among other Greeks
                    8. to protect this way of life, Spartans tried to seal off their city-state from                              outside influences

        D. Athens: Freedom and Power
                    1. c.800BC many old-established communities in the Attica peninsula                              merged to form a single city-state that was known by the name of the most              important community: Athens
                    2. over the next 300 years, Athens grew to become the wealthiest and one                       of the most powerful city-states, largely as a result of overseas trade
                                a. produced and exported wine and oil
                                b. workshops produced weapons, pottery, and articles of silver,                                    lead, and marble
                                c. these were trade overseas for metal, timber, and grain
                    3. with a rising population and greater wealth came social and political                             conflicts
                                a. usually between aristocrats and increasingly numerous dēmos
                                b. in conflicts with the aristocracy, the dēmos could generally find                               aristocrats to lead them whom they respected and who wanted their                                support
                    4. as a result, Athens passed through several stages of political growth,                            beginning with monarchy and including both oligarchy and tyranny
                                a. eventually political power was extended to all adult male                                          citizens, with aristocrats becoming leaders instead of rulers
                    5. The Persian Wars
                                a. in the sixth century BC, the Persians had conquered a realm that                               stretched from the border of India to the Nile and the Aegean
                                b. now the empire was within striking distance of the Greeks, and                                Persia conquered the Greek city-states in western Asia Minor
                                c. when Athens aided a rebellion by these city-states, Persian king                                Darius sought to extend his empire into mainland Greece, c.494BC
                                d. the Persians lost the decisive battle of Marathon in 490BC
                                e. then in 480BC, the Athenian navy crushed the Persians at                                         Salamis, and the Spartans faced the Persians on land at Thermopylae and            then at Platea
                    6. when final peace was made with Persia in 445 BC, Athens was the                              controlling power of the Aegean Sea
                    7. after Persia’s defeat, Athenian democracy entered a “Golden Age”
                    8. the workings of democracy
                                a. a Council of Five Hundred and roughly one thousand public                                     officials were chosen annually by lot
                                b. chief military officers, the Ten Generals, were chosen each year                                    by vote of the male citizens
                                   c. adult male citizens were a minority of the population of Athens
                                            i. the rest of the population was composed of adult female                                            citizens, adult noncitizens, and children
                                            ii. adult male citizens probably made up no more than one-                                            fifth of the total adult population
                                            iii. the remaining four-fifths had no say in government
                    9. men and women in  Athens
                                a. women were highly visible in religious affairs
                                b. not much is known of women’s life lower down the social scale                                    or outside the city
                    10. slaves
                                a. were a diverse group; not all of them lived lives of total                                             subjection and powerlessness
                                b. most slaves were non-Greeks, or the descendants of non-Greeks
                   

2/19/13

Today in class we were asked to present our projects but many people did not have theirs finished. Then a group volunteered including Alex, Rachel, Mikenzhie, and Sydney. They had a good slide show with alot of important information. Although they didn't finish today they probably will tomorrow. These powerpoints are probably going to take an extremely long time to get through! Mr. Schick had to stop sometimes to point out important details that we will need to know for the test Monday so i took notes. I learned that Peloponnese is a peninsula that Athens and Sparta are located and it is basically an island but has a small strip of land connecting it to the rest of the country. we also learned some geography about the island of Crete located below Greece where the Minoans settled. This gave them great access to the sea making them excellent sailors and gave them great control over trading. they mainly trade with Egypt. Another thing we talked about was government like monarchies, oligarchies, and tyranny. We didn't get too democracies today but I believe we will cover that tomorrow. We then ended class with a great pigeon story told by Mr. Schick.

2/13/13

           Today Mr. Schick was not our teacher and we had a sub. Our group finished the second part of the slideshow by the end of class, but we still have to add pictures and maybe an extra slide.I was assigned to the part about the Minoan people and the Aegean encounter. The Minoans were a group of people who arose on the Aegean island of Crete. They were wealthy because of their control over the land and sea making it possible for them to trade.

2/12/13

Today in class we got into our groups and worked on the slide show assignment again. In the beginning we had some problems and had to get rid of Drew, but eventually he came back. We added 3 slides to our slideshow even though they are just pictures do don't really have anything to do with the rest of slides. One is a picture of a barbarian because one of our slides is titled barbarian way of life. The barbarians were people who centered their lives around farming, warfare, and tribal unity. They developed these tribes based on farming, tradition, and religion. Also they developed Stonehenge showing they were organized enough to build megaliths.

2/11/13

Today in western civ we began class by taking notes about the Early Europeans and barbarians. We talked about Stonehenge too, which is a giant structure in England that was made of 160 huge stones that each weigh over a ton. This is pretty amazing because the people had no modern technology to lift the stones. The structure shows that they were organized enough to build a megalith. Scientists do not understand how they did this and it is also impressive how it is lined up with the stars and can be used as a calendar. Later we got into groups of 4 and made a slideshow through our gmail accounts which is cool because we can work on it at the same time.

1/8/13

 Friday I was not in school because I Went to Wisp to go snowboarding.

2/6/13

Today in western civ we talked more about Egyptian life. I learned about the occupations people had and where they stood in society. The upper class was made up of the pharaoh, priests, and engineers. Other people were servants, artisians, soliders, and farmers. We then began to watch another crash course video which is helpful because it sums everything up so fast, but the guy is pretty annoying. Also i heard that i have to do the assignment that i missed yesterday that I heard was very hard. The reason I was not at school was because i was watching the ravens parade. Although i have alot of makeup work it was worth it because i made eye contact with Ray Lewis! Before this I couldn't see so i climbed up a tree but the mean security guards made me come down. Later my friend let me sit on her shoulders so i could see.