Day 2: More on Greece

On the second class of human geography, we basically went over most of the notes about Greece, here is some new facts I got:

In Greece, the culture was heavily driven by their surroundings. For instance, since they were located near multiple bodies of water, they took the opportunity to trade with nearby civilizations. This made up by their poor amount of natural resources.

Greek people only had a limited access to farming because farming in the mountains was a bit complicated. From the small selection of crops they grew: there were grapes, grains, and other things. This made the majority of the Greek diet, which is known today to be really healthy.

Greek people were also really competitive. This is why they started the Olympics, it gave anyone the chance to prove how good they are at a wide range of physical activities.

The Greeks were also really interested on literature, and they wrote epics and myths, describing ancient stories and talking about their gods.

Day 1: Start Over

In Western Civilization, I get to start fresh on a new blog. Here are the notes that I took today:

Geography shaped the Greek Life

People say that the geography around Greece really impacted their society in many different ways.

• The Sea
• Greeks lived around the sea.
• They used the sea to travel and trade with other nations, which compensated for the fact that Greece had little natural resources.
• The Land
• Mountains divided Greece into regions, which affected it politically.
• The mountains covered 3/4 of Greece.
• and the Climate

Land forms might have played an important role in Greek history. but the roots of Greek culture are based on 3 cultures. The interactions of the Mycenaean, Minoan, and Dorian were really important for the cultural development of Greece.

The Mycenaean were located in southern Greece, surrounded by a protective wall. They started trading with the Minoans, and also adapted to some of their abilities, such as their writing style. The Mycenaean were the ones who fought in the Trojan war.

Another important thing in the reading was that Homer was a blind storyteller, who would write epics, which were narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds. Finally, a Greek myth is a traditional story about the gods.