The Social Dimension Of Western Civilization
For this paper, western civilization is tackled in four ways which are the classical Greece, Roman civilization, middle ages and the renaissance. These factors portray western civilization in a better way from its birth to the present times or the current Europe.
Research Questions
1. How did civilization start?
2. Who were the main players of this civilization by countries and by people?
3. Is there any future or further development that is expected.
Western Civilization
Western civilization involved great men that are philosophers and many other ambitious leaders. The main players were great thinkers like Aristotle, Socrates and ambitious leaders like Alexander the Great. Two nations at that time that were strong were Greece and Italy or the Roman Empire which most of time shaped the present Europe. The Romans conquered other kingdoms to the North, South, West and East to expand their rule and make other nations and people their subjects. They successfully conquered and captured many people because they had organized and ferocious armies with superior weapons of that time. Some kingdoms surrendered before they were subjected to captivity.
The classical Greece
Classical Greek history dates back to the fifth century when great thinkers or philosophers existed among them Socrates who is renowned for his brilliance which included political and social perspectives. This is the period in history that many discoveries and amazing achievements were born and this is the reason the period is known as classical. Historians like Herodotus and art masters like Sophocles existed during this period. At the same time, during this time, the region experienced conflicts and wars; Greece was under attack from other kingdoms. This is the time King Darius expanded his empire throughout Asia Minor which consisted of Greece but the king died before he captured more territories of which some were still under the Greek control.
Through the great philosophers, historians and dramatists’ discoveries were realized and the origins of all these were from Greeks among them Aristotle and Socrates. In the year 479 B.C. the Greeks conquered the Persian forces and established a strong economical and political government. From this time, they established democracy which is a reflection of today’s democracy in almost the entire Europe. Commerce and or trade began to grow throughout the Mediterranean region which later extended to other parts of Europe. Ideal political and economical norms started extending throughout the Asia Minor and Europe Greece being the epicenter of this extension. Education standards were measured by the Greeks because this is where the great philosophers were born and later these standards were being used by the entire kingdom which was under the Greek rule. This is a clear indication that even education was part and parcel of civilization and that is why the Greeks valued it.
One great leader called Pericles set the pace on how a ruler or a leader may manage the people and not the people to manage the ruler. Pericles was a great leader who managed to interlude democracy and soft form of tyranny. This form of leadership has been safely and peacefully used by modern European leaders. The nature of governance was as simple as providing people with jobs and other main basic needs and in turn they supported the ruler no matter how forceful he was. From the Greek context, wars shaped the western civilization because they enabled the government of Greece to know what they need to do to stop conflicts and more especially armed conflicts. There are many areas that the Greeks set pace and these areas have been very ideal for the present society. These areas included, science, democracy, philosophy history and in particular the government. Even though the Greeks for a time could not respect human rights at that time because the enslaved and killed many people, their system of government was of the highest order, respected and later emulated by many other later dynasties in the greater Europe. The Greeks had copied this form of government after Aristotle gave light about the nature of human beings in trying to organize themselves socially and establish their own governments. In agreement with the best philosophy of the Greeks, Perry, Chase, Jacob, et al (2006) concur that, “the Greeks created political freedom concept which was accepted that a state is a community of free citizens who made laws to bring order and govern them.” The Greeks believed in a form of democracy that man was able to govern himself which later extended to the entire Europe and in general the western civilization.
