Politics in modern Greece and the United States influence
1974 was an important year for Greek politics. It was as a year that would change Greece and its politics forever. The year of 1974 may not matter for most countries but for Greece, this was the year the decision was made to switch to democracy.
Before this transition was decided, Greece was not doing well economically. After being attacked many times and loosing soldiers in WW 2, Despite Greece in ruins, they began their own war. Their were many events leading up to this but the first major event was Prime Minister Metaxas's death in 1941. Because of this sudden death, the communist party, for the first time since Mataxas’s ban on communism, the communist took control of the parlament. This meant a communist prime minnister was in power. This is where the trouble starts. Because Greece was so focused on their millitary to win the war, The main focus of everyone was to do their part to win the war against the Axis powers. The communists create an army. The democratic party of course did not want to get left out in credit of help to win the war. And soon they had their army called the Democratic army.
Soon after the war was won, Greece had a tense year of peace where The democratic party took over the parliament after reelection. Greece’s new elected politicians insisted that their elections were “fair”. Even today it unknown if they were fair or not but evidence points that they were not fair. And so with the democratic party in power, “elected” democratic politicians tried to stamp out communism with labor camps.
Outraged by this , war broke out against the democrats. Meanwhile in the USA all aid had been termimated to the USSR starting the Cold War. President Truman a...
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... feared a civil war. The government was losing control at a faster and faster rate and soon, they gave people what they wanted- Freedom and Democracy.
And so, the question you may ask is, “was greece succesfull?” “did all their previous problems go away?” The awnser, sadly is no. Greece is nearly as bad as it was when they transitioned to democracy. The Greeks have 20% of their people unemployed and roumers have started going around this year a new civil war is about to break out. Still, today the question is “will greeks ever be as prosperous as their ancient ancestors?” Only fate can tell us.
Bibleorgraphy www.Marxists.org/archives/40s-50s 2011 Marxists internet archive www.trumanlibray.org/archives 1955 Truman library
Works Cited
www.Marxists.org/archives/40s-50s 2011 Marxists internet archive www.trumanlibray.org/archives 1955 Truman library
Athens was a bastion of Greek democracy, with a foreign policy of regularly intervening to help fellow democratic allies. Spartans, who favored oligarchies like their own, resented and feared the imperialistic and cultural ascendancies of Athens. There were thus constant disdain and rivalry simmering between the two cities.
Athens’ governmental shift in 501 BC was unprecedented and innovative, being the first notable implementation of democracy in an ancient world inundated in monarchy. This form of government, founded by Cleisthenes, has been instrumental in Western Civilization, especially since the modern age. Democracy gave Athens life, providing not only a well functioning governing system, but also enabling the city-state to grow and survive multiple Persian invasions. However, at the dawn of the Athenian empire and the rise of Pericles, democracy began to die, and Greeks lost their love of freedom when they sought power and glory through their military conquests. I argue that Athenian’s rejection of democracy can be seen through their mistreatment of other states and their lust for power and glory.
Athens took over leadership of Greece in 487BC with the Delian League.With Sparta caught up in internal problems in the Peloponnese, and the war with the helots further stretching them, Athenian democracy was continuing to move up.
Greece and Rome had move forward and develop into a civilization by going through political, economic, and social events. Around 300 BCE during the territorial expansion of Rome, the early roman republic was constantly at war because they wanted to ally themselves to valuable territories, to support Rome’s very large population. In 300BCE Rome had successfully allied itself with all of central Italy and began to look farther south, to the wealthy Greek colonies of Sicily. This is one of the political events that is a part of Roman and Greece political history. Another event was the constitution of the Early Republic, during the period of the expansion of Roman
Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.
Ancient Greece during the 4th century B.C. was home to the city-states of Sparta and Athens. These two communities were the superpowers of the region during that time. The peloponnesian war between these two states evolved out of a string of events that would lead to years of conflict.
By the fourth century B.C.E. there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece was not a single political entity it was a collection of about 1500 separate poleis or cities scattered around the Mediterranean and black sea shores. The cities that were not democracies were either oligarchies or monarchies (often times called tyrannies). Of the democracies, the oldest, the most stable, the most long-lived, and the most radical, was Athens.
During the start of the war, the Athenians were led by Perikles, who died at the hand of a great plague in 429 BCE. His death brought a huge degree of discouragement within Athens and they began to use dangerous strategies instead of Perikles’ careful leadership. It’s often thought that democracies seek peace, but that was definitely not the case in Athens. The outcome of the war ends up being a complete disaster for Athens. Even though it was a disaster, the damage was less than normal for a losing Greek city-state. Following defeat, Athens’ democracy was temporarily dissolved. The cultural aspect of Athens was able to remain intact and by the time Aristotle was born, Athens was able to regain its political status.
Ancient Greece today is most known for the culture: the gods, the dramas, how people lived. What most people do not realize is that there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different civilizations spread throughout Greece that all had different forms of government. The three main ones were Athens, Sparta, and Miletus. Each was very different from the other. The most powerful out of all three was Sparta: a military based society. The Spartan government had a strong foundation that was all torn down by one bad leader.
Greece’s Golden Age can be defined as a time of flourishing. Athens made the important decision of splitting itself from Sparta, who they constantly differed with. “It is from this split that the Athenian Empire was created” (Hunt 80). This split illustrates the certainty that the Athenians possessed in terms of creating a better nation. Athens developed an empire because democracy was expensive. In order for democracy to be created, you need an empire to raise money. Both Sparta and Athens created different leagues in an effort to intensify their dominance. The Delian League, which was the league Athens was associated with, continued to thrive. This allowed them the opportunity to create a democratic nation in which the people were provided with the freedom they continuously strived for. The individual that was determined to create a democratic nation was Pericles. He revised and renovated Athenian democracy. It was during his time that the U.S. constitution arises. Pericles lowered the standard of citizenship which meant that more money needs to be made to pay the people. The poor were even capable of being Athenian citizens. In doing so, he also limited citizenship to those who were purely Athenians. He stated that “if an Athenian man married a non-Athenian woman, then his children will not be considered Athenian citizens” (Hunt 83). Pericles did this to secure high value of Athenian citizenship. However, the Athenians understood that citizenship in Athens is a privilege. It is something that should be cherished and not taken advantage of.
However Athenian democracy formed the basic structure of many western societies today and has influenced them significantly. A continuity when comparing modern society’s and Ancient Greeks form of democracy is that the Ancient Greeks had a judicial system much like today people were chosen to sit on juries (What did democracy really mean?, 2015).However there wasn’t a cross examination and imprisonment was not used as a punishment, instead if someone was found guilty they either had to pay a fine or was put to death (ABC, 2003). A major difference is between Athenian democracy and modern day democracy is eligibility in Ancient Greece as only male adults were allowed to vote and had to adhere to strict birth criteria (Cartledge, 2011) this meant only 10-20% of the overall population were allowed to vote (What did democracy really mean?, 2015). Today the voting age varies however there is no discrimination between sexes in modern democratic governments. Another key difference is that Ancient Greece was a direct democracy whereas modern society is a representative democracy. This means that in Athens the whole citizen body would go to assembly and vote on every decision. Today we vote people to represent everyone and to make decisions on behalf of the whole body of
Ancient Greece was made up of individual city states, known as a Polis, which relied heavily on citizen participation in politics. The idea of self-rule was an entirely new way of governing. Citizenship was unheard of at the time. Although still considered citizens not everybody was allowed to participate. In Athens only adult males who had military training were allowed to vote. The majority of the population, namely slaves, children, metics (free noncitizens) and women were excluded from participation in politics. “[Metics] and women were not citizens and did not enjoy any of the privileges of citizenship.”(Sayre, 137) Athenian citizens had to be descended from citizens, excluding the children of Athenian men and foreign women. Individuals could be granted citizenship in to Athens by the assembly this was usually as a reward for some service to the state. Ancient Greece paved the way for the representative democratic style of government that is practiced by many countries today. Much like how voting rights started out in America, originally only the wealthy land owners were allowed to vote and call themselves citizens, but soon all men were allowed to have a vote and a voice in their states politics. Essentially the Greeks were the first to introduce citizen rights and freedom similar to what’s seen today.
Both Athens and Sparta had some positive and negative aspects in their systems. Modern day democracy still supports and adopt some aspects of political system of both Athens and Sparta.
Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, the Peloponnesian War was the only one which changed the course of Greek history forever. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its path. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.
An example of a democratic government in ancient Greece occurred in Athens which has been