KeiKei Baugh

In today's class, we learned about Cleisthenes and democracy. Cleisthenes was a member of the elite and was very rich. Additionally, he was insulated from the "hoi polloi", and he was a crafty politician.  He saw the value of tapping into the talents, intelligence, and energies of the non-aristocrats (middle class citizens). And he did not include the ideas from women or slaves. Then, a new form of government formed... Democracy! What Cleisthenes did was a huge step forward- getting "regular folks" involved in governing. But this first democracy had its limits. Citizens could participate- but only one-fifth of Athenians were citizens (free adult male property owners born in Athens). After several years, Athenians practiced direct democracy. Which consisted of the citizens voting on issues/conflicts occurring in their city or town. Therefore, we furthered our knowledge on Cleisthenes and Greek government by taking notes in class.

In class today, we continued our notes on the politics in Greece and those who ran the government. Draco ruled in 621 BCE, which gave meaning to the term "draconian". All of the athenians (rich or poor) became equal under the law, but death was the punishment for many crimes. Draco also said that debt slavery was okay. Under Solon, he outlawed debt slavery, made citizens able to speak at the assembly, and made it so that citizens can press charges against wrongdoers. Next in office, was Cleisthenes which made the government look even more like a democracy (but not there yet). Before Cleisthenes ruled, a harsh aristocrat named Hippias ruled, but was later ostracized. Once Hippias was gone, Cleisthenes and Isagoras engaged in a power struggle. Isagoras won, but the athenian citizens didn't want him to rule (he was a tyrant), so they trapped him on the acropolis and banished him. Thus, in 508 BCE, the athenian citizens became the first people in history to overthrow their le...

In Friday's class, we discussed the Greek government and the "warring city-states". The essential government terms we learned were polis, monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, and tyranny. During the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, aristocrats (rich rulers) ran the show in most of Greece. Back then, rich people wielded much more influence in society, and held much more governmental power, than the middle class or the poor. Aristocrats were members of the ruling class whom attended symposium meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry and other entertainment, while discussing politics. Politics was an exclusive club... There were no women, middle class, slaves, and sometimes even aristocrats who didn't have the right connections or fell out of favor were excluded. We also discussed tyrants and how the Greek definition differs from modern day's definition. In Greece, aristocrats would sometimes form alliances with hoplites (well-armed soldiers), and set up...

Today in Western Civilization, we took notes on the Trojan War and Homer. Additionally, we listened to a story composed by Homer about Cyclops' on a remote island. We wrote in our notes that the Greeks fought in many wars over time. The Trojan War was fought in the 12th or 13th century BCE, however, many historians believed it was fictional because it included gods and goddesses. Goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera were given the "apple of discord". Next, we learned about the "sea people" or the Dorians. Around 1200 BCE, these people began to invade Mycenae. The Dorians moved into the war-torn region dominated from 1150-750 BCE (the Greek Dark Ages). Then, for 400 years, writing disappeared, and culture was in decline. At the end of the "Dark Ages", enters Homer the bard (storyteller). Homer composed epics of the Trojan War and was described to be a blind old man. It was believed he memorized two stories in his head and "composed" the ...

I was absent today.

Today in class, we finished taking notes on Ancient Greece and went through the PowerPoint again. While looking at the PowerPoint, we discussed how geography impacted the Greeks. When taking my notes, I answered the questions and identified where the bodies of water and land masses were located. The PowerPoint said, Greece was a mountainous peninsula; the mountains cover three-quarters of Greece. There are approximately 2,000 islands in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. And this combination shaped Greece's culture: the Greeks had many skilled sailors and shipbuilders, farmers, metalworkers, weavers, and potters. But, the Greeks had poor and limited natural resources, so they needed to trade. Additionally, it was difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the rough terrain. So, they developed small, independent communities (city-states) to be loyal to. All in all, this was the Greece material, we continued to cover in Western Civilization class today.

In Friday's class, we took notes on Ancient Greece from the textbook on pages 118-126 and looked over the "Ancient Greece" powerpoint. On the powerpoint, maps and facts about Greece were shown. In the textbook, we took notes on Greece's government, culture, and their geography. I read and took notes that Greece was surrounded by mountains, which created natural barriers from enemies and its located in the Mediterranean Sea which made transportation and trading goods easy. Ancient Greece had introduced a new government called Democracy, which means "ran by the people". Greece also had as many as 1400 islands and they were very dependent on the land to survive. We were told that the Greeks didn't know that the world was any larger than their area, so they believed the world was flat. In conclusion, we learned key facts about Greece's geography, culture, and government.

In class today, we were introduced to Western Civilization. Mr. Schick went over what we will be doing in Western Civilization and helped us set up our blogs. I have a different teacher than last semester and will be learning about a different topic. Mr. Schick also went over what materials we need for class, such as setting up a new blog and a composition book. An Ancient World History textbook was also given to us but we did not look in it due to the lack of time from our 2-hour delay. We were supposed to read pages 118-126 about Classical Greece but we ran out of time and it was said we will continue the introduction of western civilization and exploration of this class. In conclusion, this is what we were introduced to in Mr. Schick’s Western Civilization class.