Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Veritas Card # 9 (Green) - Greece Colonized, Democracy Begins

Greece Colonized, Democracy Begins

From the time period of around 750 B.C. to 508 B.C., the period of democracy began in Greece. It started with a food shortage and overpopulation in the land. The act of migration was invented out of necessity, and new lands were discovered that provided farming land, while the Greeks were searching for food by exploring the sea. New colonies were formed and trading began. As colonization took place, colonies sprang up around the coasts of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean.
   The society was made up of city-states and were composed of a few rich people. Most of the people did not have wealth and would fight with the rich for control.
   Cleisthenes, of Athens,  introduced a new form of government called 'demokratia' in 508 B.C. The government was made up of an Assembly consisting of all the citizens. It met every ten days to debate proposals from the council, which was a group made up of 500 people who were elected by lot. All the people who were in the Assembly voted on everything. Military leaders were called 'strategoi' and were elected. This is where the roots of democracy came from.

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