Alexander the Great Changed A History
Alexander the Great is a very important piece of ancient history because of the many things that he did in his lifetime. He was one of the most important conquerors and is one of the only ones to change history in the way that he did. He conquered many areas across Europe and Asia and he spread his culture throughout all of these places. If he did not spread his Greek culture throughout all of these places, then the modern world would not be the way that it is today.
Alexander was the son of King Philip II, a powerful warrior that united Macedonia years before. He was born in 356 B.C. and his mother’s name was Olympias. Alexander was fearless ever since the day he was born. According to Bryan Brown, his father told him My son, Macedonia is too small for you,” his father is said to have told him. “Seek out a larger empire worthier of you.” His father is telling him that he needs to go out and conquer more areas so he can create a much larger empire under his control. This seems like the right goal for Alexander since he comes from such a powerful family. King Philip II was a very powerful warrior and his mother, Olympias was known to be the descendent of the great Achilles. He was also physically capable of meeting this goal. He was very athletic, great hunter, and horseback rider, so this goal seems like it would be a piece of cake to him.
Alexander the Great took his father’s advise and created one the largest empires in ancient history. What started Alexanders crusade was the assassination of King Philip II and Alexander taking over the throne. In 334 B.C, he set off on this lifetime journey to create a vast empire, not knowing that he will never return to his home. First, he started to conquer the Persian Empire. Despite being greatly out-numbered, he was very successful. After that, he went on to conquer many other places, including Egypt. When he took over Egypt, he founded the city of Alexandria and was then named pharaoh. There were many other places that he took over. He claims that the reason for his success was because the spirit of Achilles was guiding him through this entire thing.
According to Krzysztof Nawotka, there is also an issue that remains unknown about the success of Alexander the Great. In his book Alexander the Great, he states that Aristotle had a huge impact on Alexander. Aristotle was a member of the classical era and he was a philosopher and scientist. In Western Civilizations history book, it says that Alexander was a student of the great philosopher, Aristotle. Krzysztof states that there was no hard evidence that this theory is true but it is a good possibility that Aristotle had an impact on all of the success that Alexander had throughout his journey.
After all of his success, sadly it did have to end with his death in 323 B.C. at the age of thirty-two. According to James Romm, Alexander fell very ill in 323 B.C. after two years early, survived a pierced lung. Nobody really knows if he died of natural causes or if he was killed up until recent years. There were many theories revolving around this subject but none of them were proven. Ancient historians did not come to any conclusions about what might have killed him until very recently. They always suspected that he got some sort of disease and just gradually died from the symptoms. Recently, historians and scientists have come to the conclusion that he caught the west nile virus that is mostly carried by mosquitos, and he slowly died from this on his way back home to Macedonia.
Alexander the great was very important to look back on and had an amazing impact on ancient history. It is very important to look back at Alexander the great because of all of the success that he had. It is important for people to learn about all of his accomplishments because he was one of the most powerful empires in all of ancient history. To be militarily successful today, people need to understand the history of Alexander the great and what he did to conquer all of those areas.
Alexander is also very important to Greek culture. When he was on his journey to create a vast empire, he conquered most of the Persian empire. While conquering all of these places, he spread his culture all around. He founded many cities and spread the Greek culture of math, literature, philosophy, art, theatre, and many more. If Alexander the great was not a part of ancient history, parts of Europe and Asia would be much different in their cultural and possibly other ways. The Greek language now became the main language throughout this empire because of Alexander’s conquests. This benefitted a lot of people because it allowed them to be able to understand each other throughout trade and commerce. Being able to speak the same language led many people all over the empire to appreciate Greek art, philosophy, and drama.
As mentioned in the paragraph above, he was very important in Greek culture because of the way that he spread it around Europe and Asia. On his conquest, he also founded a many of cities including Alexandria. He would spread his culture and traditions throughout these cities and people did what he wanted them to do. They were forced to adapt to the Greek culture and traditions now that Alexander had conquered their land.
He did not only spread Greek culture, but he also created a stable environment for trade without people having to fear being attacked by any outsiders. Since people were no longer afraid of being invaded they started to become more focused on trade. The empire was very prosperous during this time because of the efficiency of the productivity. They promoted and protected trade which led to the construction of many big roads the stretched across the empire. These roads made it easier to be able to trade with other city states all across the empire ruled by Alexander.
Richard Stoneman says in his book Alexander the Great that he had a considerable impact on moral philosophy. He says that in some ways they viewed him as an incorrigible tyrant, but in other stories he was viewed as a sympathetic figure in some ways. People didn’t really know how to look at him, so they decided to just view him as a tyrant that was overcome with his pride. Even though many people viewed him this way, Markus Stocks states In a way, by seeing him as a Greek, Otto changes Alexander’s function in history, from Orosius’s blood thirsty tyrant in a divinely sanctioned succession of empires, to a predecessor of empire for Rome. What he is saying is that people looked at him as tyrant when the view him as a Macedonian, but when Otto wrote about him as a Greek, people started to look at him as a predecessor.
Alexander the great did not only have a huge impact and be very important to history, but he also changed the way people looked at history and how the world is today. Earlier it states that he had a great impact in history by the way that he spread his Greek culture, but this also changed the way people viewed history. He conquered most of the Persian empire so he taught most of the Persian’s all of the Greek ways.
He also introduced a new way of fighting for the Greeks. It is weird to say that Alexander never lost a single battle even though he was outnumbered by a lot in a few of them. Alexander was brilliant militarily and this is why he was able to win. He used the tactic made by his father called phalanx, which is using the maximum amount of protection while inflicting the maximum amount of damage to the opponent. The Romans later on developed a new kind of fighting that was better than the phalanx style, but this was the best fighting style at this time throughout Alexanders journey. He was very good at cavalry as well and he would change his military tactics throughout the course of the battle.
If it were not for Alexander, the modern world would not be trading as much as they are now. Instead they would all be fighting with each other. Before he became in power in Macedonia, these different places were always fighting with each other. One would conquer this place and another would conquer that place. Even though Alexander conquered many places, after they were a part of his empire, it was very peaceful for them. They no longer built up their military so much that they had to fight constantly, but they focused more on trade and helping each other. In todays time, different countries rely on each other for certain products. For example: The United States relies on China for a lot of its goods. If Alexander did not go on his long journey to conquer all of these places, the modern world might still be fighting instead of trading and depending on each other.
So, Alexander the great was a very important piece of ancient history because of the many things that he did in his lifetime. He was one of the most important conquerors in this time, and no other conqueror or emperor changed history in the way that he did. He spread his culture throughout all of the places that he conquered and founded a many of cities. If he did not go on this conquest to conquer all of these places, the modern world would not be the way that it is today. They would probably not be so advanced in warfare since he was so brilliant in fighting. Also, the world today would probably still be fighting constantly, instead of depending on each other and trading. In conclusion, without Alexander the great this world would be a very different place to live in. Even after all of this success and how he changed the way that people view ancient history, Alexander’s great life unfortunately had to come to an end because of the west nile virus.
