Europe - SAT Subject Test in World History

The Ancient Greeks are often credited by historians with developing the world’s first representative democracy - particularly in the city state of Athens, where philosophy and democracy most prominently flourished. The Ancient Greek city-state was called a polis.

Pericles is remebered as a champion of Athenian democracy in the fifth Century BCE. He led the Athenian democracy throughout much of its conflict with Sparta.

The Peloponnesian Wars were fought between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century BCE. The Greek city states had grown powerful and wealthy after defeating the invading Persians in the Persian Wars. Athens began to emerge as a hegemonic power in the region and worried Sparta with its expansionist tendencies. The two city-states went to war. The war ended in victory for the Sparta, destruction of Athens, and the disunity of the Greek city-states.

In the years after the Peloponnesian War, as the influence of the Greek city-states waned, the power of Macedon (to the north of Greece) rose spectacularly. Phillip of Macedon expanded Macedonian power greatly, and then his son Alexander the Great incorporated Greece into Macedonian control and proceeded to conquer much of the known world, reaching as far east as India.

Spartan society, as you probably know, was famous for its extreme militarization and organization. The Spartan army was the most accomplished in Ancient Greece and was victorious in numerous conflicts. These conflicts led to an influx of captured prisoners who were enslaved and used to work the fields and provide for the agricultural growth of Spartan society. They were called Helots.

Solon and Draco are two notable political reformers in Ancient Athenian society. Before Solon democracy in Athens was virtually non-existent (indeed Solon himself was essentially a tyrannical figure). Solon instituted reforms to provide for direct democracy for many members of Athenian society. He also forbade debt-slavery. Draco is famous for instituting a code of laws in Athenian society - these laws were considered harsh, but just.

In response to the continuous threat of Persian invasion in the fifth century B.C.E. Athens formed the extensive Delian League with dozens of islands and city-states dotted around the Aegean Sea and Asia Minor. The original purpose of the Delian League was to provide for a shared navy to protect against Persian invasion, but as the threat of Persian invasion waned Athens began to use the Delian League for its own purposes. This led to an outbreak of war with Sparta (and Sparta's Peloponnesian League) in 431 B.C.E.

Prior to the Fall of Rome, the Roman Empire had fractured into a Western Roman Empire and an Eastern Roman Empire around 280 CE. The Western Roman Empire crumbled under the difficulties of administering such a diverse empire and was practically defeated in the fifth century after being subjected to a wave of barbarian attacks on Rome, most notably attacks by the Visigoths and the Vandals (from whom we get the word "vandalism"). The Eastern Roman Empire would be persevered for another thousand years and has come to be called the Byzantine Empire by posterity.

From the time period mentioned, you can infer that this question is primarily referring to the downfall of the Roman Empire, which occurred (depending on who you ask) from about 300 CE to 550 CE. What most historians agree upon is that by 475 CE, the Roman political, military, and economic institutions were weakened beyond repair and much of the Western Roman Empire had been conquered by barbarians. The capital city of Rome was sacked numerous times during this time period, first in 410 CE by Alaric the Visigoth, then in 455 CE by the Vandals, then in 546 CE by the Ostrogoths.

The Punic Wars were fought between Rome and Carthage in the Third Century BCE. The wars resulted in victory for the Roman Empire and established Rome as the dominant power in the Mediterranean for the next several hundred years.

The Roman Empire lasted for almost a thousand years as the preemiment military and political power in Europe. At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from Scotland to Syria, Spain to Eastern Europe, and throughout North Africa; however, from about the fourth century CE onwards, Roman power was in decline. There are a myriad of reasons why the Roman Empire fell, and each historian has his or her own theory, but the most important reasons are as follows: barbarian invasions, as Germanic tribes sacked Rome and other imperial cities; economic stagnation, as Romans became overreliant on slave labor; weak leadership from a series of poor and ineffectual emperors; the rise of Christianity eroding traditional Roman values and systems of power; and overexpansion, as the empire simply became too vast to effectively maintain and police.

The Fall of Rome led directly to the political and social fragmentation of much of Europe. Western Europe, and the Mediterranean area in particular, had been unified under the Roman Empire for several centuries. Once the Empire fell to barbarian invasion, the economic, social, and political life of Europe changed dramatically with small pockets of warring tribes appearing everywhere. It would be several centuries before Europe would be as comparably “developed” again.

The Fall of the Roman Empire occurred in the 5th Century and was a protracted event. Rome had been declining in power for several decades before the city of Rome finally fell completely. It had suffered numerous sacks in the early years of the 5th Century - from the Visigoths and the Vandals. Interestingly our English word “vandalism” comes from this same barbarian tribe who greatly contributed to the destruction of Rome. A tangible example of the constant and continuing influence that the Roman Empire, and the Latin language, have on our lives.

All of the answers are correct-all of these factors contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, although the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) survived into the fifteenth century.

The Gothic victory against the Romans at Adrianople in 378 signaled the permanent decline of Roman power, opening the empire to new waves of foreign invasions that it eventually succumbed to. Both the battles of Carrhae and Cannae were defeats much earlier in Roman history when Rome was still rising in power, and did not directly lead to Rome's permanent decline. The Visigoths' sack of Rome and the battle of Chalons were both events of the fifth century, once Rome's permanent decline were well underway, and the battle of Chalons was in fact not a Roman defeat.

In his most famous work, The Republic, Plato argues that for Greek society to become truly enlightened, it is necessary for philosophers to be kings, or else that “kings must genuinely and adequately philosophize.”

Pericles was a political figure and a leader of Athenian democracy. Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle were all philosophers whose works (and philosophies, in the case of Socrates, from whom we have no extant written works), continue to be immensely influential to this day. Sophocles was a dramatist and a renowned writer of tragedies. The ancient Greeks were known for their tragedies and comedies.

Solon was an Athenian statesman in the sixth century BCE. His economic, political, and social reforms were designed to improve the conditions of life in ancient Athens, and although his reforms failed, they are credited with laying the foundations for Greek democracy.

Ancient Greece developed many philosophies that continue to influence the world today. One of these is Humanism, the belief that reason is more important than piety and that people, not a deity or deities, were at the center of the universe.