Chapter 17 Section 3 Greece

Chapter 17 Section 3
Greece
Greece does not fit into any single regional group, but best fits with Mediterranean Europe.
Greece has geographical and historical ties to the Mediterranean
Greece is the birthplace of a culture that reached full expression in Western Europe
Greece
Greece includes about 2,000 islands
The northern mountains are extensions of the Dinaric Alps
Southern Greece is product of tectonic forces
Where Eurasian tectonic plate meets the African Plate
Major faults thrust some lands up and caused some to sink
Grabens – areas of land that have dropped down between faults and were flooded
The Aegean Sea to the east of Greek mainland occupies a graben
Economic Activities
Greece is covered by mountains and rocky soil
The tallest peak is Mount Olympus at 9,570 feet
Parallel ranges make travel difficult
Narrow coastal plains
Grow wheat and other grains
Olive and citrus groves
Agriculture is important economic activity
On rugged slopes frames graze sheep and goats
Overgrazing has caused soil erosion

Athens
Greek capitol
Located in part of country called Sterea Hellas
The Acropolis has stood on the hill that overlooks Athens for thousands of years
1/3 of the population of Greece live around Athens
Population of Greece is 10.5 million
Shipping
Five miles south of Athens is the Port of Piraeus
No point is Greece is more than 85 miles from the sea
The port has one of the world’s largest commercial shipping fleets
Shipbuilding is a major industries

The sea allows Greece to maintain contact with its many islands most in the Aegean Sea
The largest island is Crete – south of the mainland in the Mediterranean Sea
Less than 200 of the islands are inhabitable
Tourism continues to grow as a major economic activity
Understanding the Past
Greece’s appeal to visitors is in its rich history
Crete holds many mysteries
3,500 years ago it was the center of Greece’s flourishing Bronze Age culture
The culture was the Minoan after Minos the legendary king of Crete
The Minoans traveled and traded throughout the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas
Around 1,500 B.C. Minoan culture fell in to decline
There are several theories to what happened to them
Earthquakes
Attacks
Tsunamis
And fires
Cultural Influences
Cultural Convergence
Greece may be considered a Western nation because its culture has so many roots in ancient Greece
Western ideas about democratic government are based on Greek ideals
The Iliad and Odyssey are Homer’s epic pomes about The Trojan War and fall of Troy
Cooperation and Conflict
Other cultures put their stamp on Greece usually through military conquest
2nd century B.C. to 5th A.D. Greece was part of the Roman Empire
As it declined Greece became part of the Byzantine Empire
The next thousand years Greece was invaded from all sides
Slavs, Albanians, and Bulgarians came from the north
Arabs from the south
Normans and Venetians from the west
1453 Turks conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) and ruled Greece for four centuries
Greece gained its independence from Turkey in 1829