Ancient Greece

Essay by lilmikey112High School, 10th grade March 2006

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What is meant by the statement, "Ancient Greece is often referred to as the cradle of western civilization"? Give three examples of how Greek civilization shaped western society.

The reason that the Greeks are often called the cradle of western civilization is because many of the things that western civilizations value and use to this day were created by the Greeks. One example would be that western nations use democracy. Democracy was undoubtedly created by the Greeks because they wanted to spread power equally among themselves rather than being ruled by a king. We owe a lot of our political principles to the Greeks for this.

Another example would be that we use there method of creating and constructing buildings. The columns and the shape of the roof most if not all modern courthouses use this method. Since the Greeks did not have cement they had to base the way they built their buildings on mathematics and symmetry.

The most important invention of all time is without question the alphabet. It revolutionized the way we communicate. It made everything much easier and everyone was able to make written records of important events so that we can study today.