Lesson video

Hello there.

Welcome to this history lesson.

I'm Ms. Roberts and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson, which is all about Ancient Greece.

Together, we are going to find out where Ancient Greece was and we are going to look at some key points in the history of the Ancient Greek civilization.

You're going to hear some new words today and lots of new interesting information, but don't worry if you aren't too sure of anything at first because I'll be guiding you through the lesson step by step.

So let's begin our journey about Ancient Greece.

By the end of the lesson today, you will be able to describe where Ancient Greece was located and you'll be able to briefly outline some key points in its history.

I'm going to start now by showing you four key words.

These are important words that you'll hear a lot in today's lesson.

I'll show you the words first and then we can look at the meanings together.

Our first key word is barrier.

Can you say barrier? Well done.

Our second key word is something that's quite specific and very important about Ancient Greece.

This word is actually one word made of two words put together.

It's city-state.

Can you say city-state? Good job.

Our next word.

Again, this is also something very specific and important about Ancient Greece, colony.

Can you say colony? Great, now our last key word for today is a proper noun.

So it's a name, and it's the name of another civilization, the Romans.

Can you say Romans? Well done.

Okay, so let's take a look together at what these words mean.

A barrier is something that blocks the way or stop something from happening.

Barriers can be natural features like rivers or they can be human made features like walls.

Ancient Greece was split into areas called city-states.

A city-state is a city that rules itself and the land surrounding it.

A colony is a place where people settle or live where they are away from, but still under the control of their home country.

The Romans were the people of another civilization that was based in and grew from Italy.

Now they grew and dominated the whole Mediterranean region where Ancient Greece was, and later we'll consider the impact that that had on the Ancient Greeks.

Today's lesson has two parts, and in the first part of the lesson today, we are going to investigate the question, where was Ancient Greece located? Later we will be looking at a timeline of the history of the Ancient Greek civilization.

So shall we get started with the first half of this lesson? Let's go.

Here is a map of the modern day country of Greece.

Greece still exists today.

It is a country located in Europe.

The modern day city of Greece is smaller than Ancient Greece was, because Ancient Greece included places that are parts of other countries today.

The size and the location of Ancient Greece changed over the course of the time that the civilization existed.

Look at the map.

What countries can you name that share a border with Greece today? Well done; you can see here that Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria all share land borders with Greece and that Turkey has a land border and a sea border.

I am going to show you another map now.

This is a map of where the Ancient Greek civilization was located at its peak, so that's when it was at its biggest.

You can see the area that covers the modern day country of Greece is the biggest orange shaded area in around the centre of the map.

This map shows us that the Ancient Greek civilization grew outwards from the mainland of the modern day country.

The Ancient Greek civilization spread as far as parts of other countries in Europe, as well as parts of North Africa and Asia Minor.

Asia Minor is a small area in the west of Asia.

The modern day country of Turkey is in Asia minor.

Have you been listening closely to all of that information? Let's see by trying a multiple choice question.

Can you tell me which three continents did Ancient Greece spread to? Here we have the options, A, Africa, B, Europe, C, North America, and D Asia.

Which three of those continents did the Ancient Greek civilization spread to? Have a think now and make your choice.

Have you decided? Let's check the answers together.

The Ancient Greek civilization spread to Africa, Europe, and Asia.

It didn't spread to North America.

North America was very far away across a large ocean.

Great job.

Well done.

Let's continue now and think some more about why the Ancient Greek civilization developed in the way that it did.

The physical geography of Greece can explain the way it developed over time.

Greece has lots of mountains with many very rugged areas and high peaks.

The highest mountain in Greece is Mount Olympus.

The photograph shows Mount Olympus towering high over the surrounding coastline.

Mountains create a type of natural barrier because they are difficult to travel around and they are extremely difficult places to try to build settlements.

As well as the mountains, Greece is also made up of thousands of small islands that are separated from the mainland by the surrounding seas.

That's right, Izzy.

There are over 6,000 Greek islands in total, although some of them are very, very, very small.

To reach an island, you have to cross a body of water, such as a sea, and this creates another type of natural barrier preventing communication and growth.

I'm going to show you another map of Greece now.

This time there are three places marked on the map.

These three places were important cities in Ancient Greece.

The cities are Athens, Corinth, and Sparta.

Those natural barriers that exist in Greece, the mountains and the seas surrounding the islands led to the development of areas called city-states.

You heard the word city-state as one of our keywords earlier.

There were more than a hundred city-states in Ancient Greece.

The most important of the city-states was Athens because it was a centre for trade.

Corinth and Sparta were both other important states for different reasons.

Let's have a quick check on our learnings so far.

This is a true or false situation.

Think about everything you have heard to help you answer this question.

I want you to decide if the next statement I read is true or if it is false.

The statement says that city-states developed in Ancient Greece because there were natural barriers separating them.

Is that true or false? Have a think now and make your choice.

Have you decided? Do you agree that this is true? Good.

This is definitely true.

City-states developed in Ancient Greece because there were natural barriers that separated them.

Now to do our job as a historian, whenever we make a statement like this, we need to provide some extra information or some evidence to explain how we know what we are saying.

So I'm going to give you two more sentences now and I want you to choose which of these sentences is the most helpful to explain how we know this about city-states.

Listen carefully now.

Option A says that Greece has lots of mountains and thousands of small islands, both of which are natural barriers.

Sentence B says that there were no planes in Ancient Greece, so people could not easily travel between the city-states.

Which of those two sentences is the most helpful to explain the statements above? Make your choice now.

I have chosen option A.

Option A is most helpful because it explains what the barriers are that we are talking about.

Greece has lots of mountains and thousands of small islands, which are natural barriers.

So this explains how we know that city-states developed in Ancient Greece because of the natural barriers that separated them.

Option B is certainly true.

There were no planes in Ancient Greece and it wasn't easy to travel between the city-states.

But that doesn't help us to explain why city-states developed.

Great work.

Now let's put our new learning about Ancient Greece to use by completing another activity.

You've seen this map already.

What I would like you to do now is name the locations on the map numbered one to six.

Remember that the orange shading shows the lands that the Ancient Greek civilization spread to.

The locations you can choose from are Africa, Asia, Europe, Athens, and Sparta.

Match each location to the correct number on the map.

I have already identified number four, the Mediterranean Sea for you.

Pause the video now while you complete the rest of the labels.

All done? Good job.

Let's have a look at the answers together.

Okay, let's start with the number one.

You can see the number one is there in the west of the map and the number one is located in the continent of Europe.

Number two is located on the east of the map.

That's the right hand side.

That is the continent of Asia.

You might recall in particular that this area of Asia is known as Asia Minor.

Number three can you see that located there in the south of the map? That's the bottom half.

That's the continent of Africa.

Number four I already provided for you.

And then five and six are both important cities of Ancient Greece.

City number five is Athens and city number six is Sparta.

Did you identify all those places? Good job.

Let's continue and move into the second half, where we are going to explore a timeline of key points in the history of the Ancient Greek civilization.

Okay, let's go.

Let's start at the beginning.

The Ancient Greek civilization is believed to have started around 900 BCE.

That's before the Common Era or before the Year One, when people believe that Jesus was born.

This places the Ancient Greeks after other ancient civilizations, including the Sumerians, Ancient Egyptians, the Indus Valley, and the Shang civilizations.

The Ancient Greek civilization came to an end in around 31 BCE.

Yes, that's right Sofia.

The Ancient Greek civilization lasted for around 900 years.

The Ancient Greek civilization was beginning to grow at around the same time as the Ancient Egyptian civilization was becoming less powerful.

An Ancient Greek known as Alexander the Great became the ruler over Egypt in the year 332 BCE.

Andeep has made a very good observation here.

He says that if he draws a timeline, then the Ancient Greek civilization will start at the same time that the Ancient Egyptian civilization ends.

Well done Andeep.

Now let's check our learning so far with a quick question.

Aisha, Jun, and Sam have been talking about the history of the Ancient Greek civilization.

They're talking about where it sits in time compared to other ancient civilizations that they know about, but only one of them is correct.

I would like you to decide who.

Listen carefully and then make your choice.

Aisha says that the ancient Egyptians lived after the Ancient Greeks.

Jun says that the Ancient Greeks lived after the Shang civilization, and Sam says that the Ancient Greeks lived before the Indus Valley civilization.

Who is correct? Have you chosen? Have you made a decision? Good.

Let's think about these statements together.

Now do you think Aisha is correct? No, I'm not convinced that Aisha is correct because I think that's the other way round.

The Ancient Greeks lived after the Ancient Egyptians.

How about Jun? Jun says that the Ancient Greeks lived after the Shang civilization.

Yes, that is right Jun.

Well done.

I think Sam has the two civilizations the wrong way round on her timeline as well.

The Ancient Greeks came after the Indus Valley civilization.

Well done everyone.

Let's continue our journey along this timeline of Ancient Greece now.

After Ancient Greece had existed for around 250 years, by the year 750 BC, they had spread into other parts of Europe and Asia.

At its peak, at its biggest, Ancient Greece had colonies as far away as the modern day countries of Spain and Turkey, and there were important colonies in the country of Italy and on the island of Sicily.

Colonies were not the same as city-states.

Colonies were located in other countries that were not part of the mainland of Greece, and although they were far away from the mainland, they were still ruled by one of the city-states.

Look at the map.

The orange area shows the lands of Ancient Greece that were once part of a city-state.

The green areas on the map show lands where Ancient Greeks settled.

These were the Ancient Greek colonies.

What do you notice about the locations of the colonies? Pause the video now and have a chat with a partner to share your ideas.

Did you notice that the colonies are all in coastal areas? Well spotted.

The colonies formed in coastal areas because those places were good for trade by seafaring.

So the Ancient Greeks could exchange goods and import food by ship easily from their colonies.

At around the time that Ancient Greek was at its peak, another civilization was beginning to grow in Europe.

This was the Roman civilization and they began to grow from Italy.

The Roman empire grew rapidly and prevented the Ancient Greeks from expanding any further than the colonies that they had.

Eventually, the Ancient Greek civilization ceased to exist in around the year 31 BC as a result of the rise of the Roman Empire.

By the year 117, the Romans ruled everywhere that had once been part of Ancient Greece.

The red areas on the map show where the Roman Empire spread to.

This tells us that all of the land that was once part of Ancient Greece, including the mainland, the islands, and all of the colonies eventually became part of the Roman Empire.

Alex and Lucas are talking about Ancient Greece.

Who do you agree with and why? Alex says that the Ancient Greeks had city-states in Italy that were taken over by the Romans.

Lucas says that the Ancient Greeks had colonies in Italy that were eventually taken over by the Romans.

Who is correct? And can you say why? Pause the video now and share your ideas with a partner.

Finished? Great work.

Did you agree with Alex or with Lucas? I agree with Lucas.

Did you? The lands where the Ancient Greeks lived that were part of Italy, were not city-states.

They were colonies.

So Lucas is correct here.

Well done Lucas, and well done you.

Now let's use what we know about the history of Ancient Greece to help us to complete another activity.

We have been talking a lot about a timeline, so this is your chance to complete a timeline now about Ancient Greece.

Here we have a timeline that spans the Ancient Greek civilization from 900 BCE to 31 BCE.

Your task is to complete the timeline by adding some information about the Ancient Greek civilization at various points in its history.

Three points have been added to the timeline to help you.

They are 900 BCE, 750 BCE, and 31 BCE.

Pause the video now while you complete your timeline.

When you finish, you could share and compare your timeline with a partner.

Have you finished? You have some great ideas.

Well done.

I'm going to share my timeline with you now.

You may have included notes like these on your timeline.

Starting in 900 BCE, this is when Ancient Greece began, then moving to 750 BCE.

This was the peak of the Ancient Greek civilization.

It is when it was at its biggest.

Greece had hundreds of city-states and colonies in Europe and in Asia.

By 31 BCE, the Roman Empire was growing rapidly throughout Europe and eventually the Ancient Greek civilization ceased to exist.

Well done, so this brings us to the end of this lesson about the location and history of Ancient Greece.

We've covered an awful lot, so let's review what we now know.

We know that the Ancient Greek civilization began around 900 BCE and lasted until around 31 BCE.

We know that Greece has lots of mountains and thousands of islands, which acted as natural barriers and led to the development of separate city-states in Ancient Greece.

We know that Ancient Greece was larger than the modern day country of Greece, and at its peak, there were Ancient Greek colonies in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

We also know that the Roman Empire began in around 750 BCE, and the Roman Empire prevented the Ancient Greeks from expanding any further.

What a lot of history we have covered today.

It was very interesting exploring how the Ancient Greek civilization developed.

I hope you found it interesting as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again for another history lesson about Ancient Greece.

Bye for now.