World History S.4

· Athens was not completely democratic. · Women could not vote or hold office. · Foreigners, even if they came from another Greek city-state, could not be a citizen. · Slaves had no rights. · Athens did not have rule by all the people, but they included far more people in government.

A Limited Democracy

· The main political body of Athens was the assembly, which all free adult makes citizens had the right to attend. · Meeting took place 40 times a year. · Everyone who attended had the right to speak. · A 500-person council, known as the boule, was the second key component of the Athenian government. · The council helped decide which issues should come before the assembly. · Members of the council were chosen by lot, or at random, from among the citizens. · This meant that every male citizen had a chance of serving on the council.

Athenian Democracy at Work

· Isagoras and the Spartans feared the new political trends in Athens. · They wanted to keep the government in the hands of the aristocrats. · This type of government was called an oligarchy where political power is held by a small group of people. Oligarchies were usually headed by a council of leaders who belonged to the aristocracy.

Before Democracy

· Athenian democracy depended on active citizen involvement. · A political system in which citizens participate directly in decision making is called a direct democracy. · Direct democracy worked in Athens because the population of the city-state was small because of the commitment and hard work of its citizens. · Direct democracy is less practical in countries like the US because it is too large and citizens live too far apart to meet. · Because of this. Most democracies today are representative democracies.

Direct Democracy

· Today the word Spartan means highly disciplined or lacking in comfort. · Spartans valued military discipline. · Spartans did not value luxury goods or beautiful buildings like Athens.

Disciplined Society

· One of the aristocratic leaders was a lawyer named Draco. · He created a legal code that specified the harsh punishment of all crimes.· Today people use the word "draconian" to describe laws that seem unnecessarily harsh or severe.

Draco

· When, boys were taken from home at 7 years old, they lived together in barracks, or military housing. · They did not receive a well-rounded education. · They spent most of their time exercising, hunting, and training with weapons. · They were taught to obey orders rather than to think for themselves. · At 18, they began a 2-year training to become part of the phalanx. · During this time, they could marry but they were allowed little time for a life at home. · At 30, when they left the military, they still spent most of their time with the men they grew up with.

Education

· Education helped promote the growth of democracy in Athens. · The education students received was designed to produce well-rounded citizens who could take part in public life. · Although some girls could probably read and write, most education was reserved for boys.

Education for Democracy

· The center of Sparta was inland, and Sparta was not a sea power. · Sparta was ruled by two kings. · The kings served as military leaders. · The kings headed Sparta's governing body, the council of elders. · The council included 28 men over the age of 60. · The members were elected for life. This oligarchy was the true government of Sparta. · Sparta did have a democratic assembly made up of some free adult males, but it had only about 9,000 citizens compared to 45,000 in Athens. · They had less power than the one in Athens. They could pass laws but the council had to approve them. · They did elect 5 ephors who were responsible for the day to day operation of the government. They made sure that the kings and council acted within Spartan law and could remove a king who broke the law.·

Government in Sparta

· Boys-The state would take you from your family at the age of 7. You would spend more than 20 years training for and serving in the professional army. · Girls- You would be raised for the sole purpose of bearing strong children for the state.

Life in Sparta

· The Spartan conquered the neighboring city-state of Messenia. · Some of the conquered Messenians became helot. · They belonged not to individuals but to the polis as a whole. · They were forced to farm the land and turn over half of the food the food they raised to Sparta. · Helots were treated harshly. · Because the helots raised enough food for the Spartans, the men were free to become professional warriors.

Military Conquests

· The Spartans chose to become a military state. · They also decided to control the helots through terror. · Every year, the ephors declared war on the helots. · This gave Spartan the right to kill any helot without fear of punishment.

Military State

· Some Greek city-states moved toward rule by the many. · Greeks call this form of government democracy, which means rule by the people. · In 594BC, the aristocrats of Athens chose Solon to lead the polis. · He ended the practice of selling into slavery poor people who could not pay their debts. · He also gave some non-aristocratic men the right to vote for officials. · In 508BC, a leader named Cleisthenes gained power in Athens. · He reduced the power of the rich. · By increasing the number of citizens who could vote, he brought in new voters from the lower class. · In 451BC, Athens created citizen juries. · A jury is a group of people who hear evidence and decide a court case. This new system put legal decisions in the hands of the people.

Power of the People

· In a representative democracy citizen elect others to represent them in government. · They make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people.

Representative Democracy

· In many city-states, power began to shift into the hands of some more people. · This may have sparked changes in the way Greek armies were organized. · The phalanx was a formation of heavily armed foot soldiers who moved together as a unit. · Before these citizen-soldiers lined up to form a row of overlapping shields. Each man's shield helped protect his neighbor. · A well-trained phalanx could overcome almost any other force. · Fighters in a phalanx did not need to have money to buy a horse. More men could afford the necessary weapons and armor. · As city-states cam to depend on them for defense, citizen-soldiers may have gained more political power. · Some historians believe this gave more men a voice in government.

Rise of the Phalanx

· Spartan women were raised to be strong and vigorous. · They participated in sports. · By staying fit, they could have healthy babies who could grow into good soldiers. · Spartan women had a good deal of freedom and responsibility because their husbands spent almost their entire lives away at military camps.

Role of Women

· When they left the school system, they had to gain entry to a men's club of soldiers to become citizens. · If they failed, they became inferiors who would never gain citizenship and would live as outcasts. · Those who gained access to the club were known as "equals" and had full citizen rights. · They were members of the assembly and had the rights to a piece of state-owned land to be farmed by helots.

Social Class

· The discipline and training of Spartan Life created a powerful army and a stable government. But Spartan society feared individual differences and change. · Athenians valued individual expression and new ideas. As a result, Athens was open to change. Athenian democracy evolved over time. · Sparta's rigid oligarchy and society changed very little. · A Greek historian Thucydides said Athenians were "addicted to innovation" and Spartans had a "genius for keeping what you have got" · The opposing values of Athens and Sparta helped create tensions between the two and their rivalry eventually led to war.

Sparta and Athens

· The government in Sparta was an odd mix of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy. · Instead of using coins, they used iron rods as money. · The people of Athens were amused by their strange customs but frightened by their growing power.

Spartan State

· Pericles started to pay citizens for participating in jury service and other civic duties. · These payments helped poor people take part in government. · One factor that encouraged democracy in Athens was the idea of citizenship.· Citizenship gives people both rights and responsibilities.

The Age of Pericles

· The third key component was the court system. · Athens had many different courts, each of which decided different types of cases. · Juries made up of citizens decided cases based on majority vote. · Many people, from several hundred to several thousand might serve on a single jury. · Additional laws were passed to discourage bribery.

The Courts

· In the early 400BCs, the helots launched a violent revolt. · Spartans put down the revolt but they lived in fear of further unrest because the helots outnumbered them. · They had to choose between giving up the control of the helots and the food they produced or they could become a military state. · A military is a society organized for the purpose of waging war.

The Helot Revolts

· At first, tyrants, or strong leaders, emerged to fight for the interests of ordinary citizens. · By promising land and other benefits to the poor, they won popular support. · Then they were able to set up tyrannies, or governments run by a strong ruler. · Tyrants did not allow others to play a significant role in the government. · Greek tyrants were not always bad rulers. Some governed fairly and worked to improve life for ordinary people. · Many tyrants found that they could not fulfill their promises. · Other tyrants ruled harshly. · Eventually, other forms of government replaced tyrannies.

Tyranny