Haley's Post

1 & 2) 

     Alexander, our great leader, can conquer many lands and keep their cultures just as they are. Alexander has created Hellenism, his own blend of Egyptian, Persian, and Indian cultures. This blend has led to many different and new discoveries in geometry, and philosophy. He adopts new cultures and brings them together with his own. He doesn't take control of a new land and force the people to adopt a new way of life, he adopts ours. My life hasn't changed much under the rule of Alexander the Great.

    He has also founded the great city that is Alexandria. Alexandria is a great international community, we have many cultures blending together. Alexandria has brought so many great and new ideas and so many new ways to live. Great minds and great people have been brought together by a great leader, Alexander. 

3) 

     Alexander the Great can be compared to many leaders, but one in particular is Adolph Hitler. His persuasion and influence on many people lead them to believe that he was a great and good leader with positive intentions. He was even  Time Magazine "Man of the Year" in 1938. He was a convincing leader, much like Alexander the Great. Hitler is a case where we see history repeat itself. Hitler is a simple repeat of Alexander the Great. Their greatness wasn't for the better of society, but it was great in the magnitude of their influence and persuasion.

1. Hellenistic Greece. A&E Television Networks, LLC. Web. http://www.history.com/topics/hellenistic-greece. 16 September 2013.

2. Alexander the Great. History of Macedonia Blog. 2011. Web. http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/AlexandertheGreat.html. 17 September 2013.

3. Wars of Alexander the Great: Battle of the Granicus. John R. Mixter. Web. http://www.historynet.com/wars-of-alexander-the-great-battle-of-the-granicus.htm. 17 September 2013.

4. Alexander the Great. Jed Untereker, James Kossuth, Bill Kelsey. Web.  wso.williams.edu. 20 September 2013.

5. Mcdougal, Holt. “World History: Patterns of of Interaction”. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

2006.Print.

6. Nardo, Don. Lost Civilizations: The Ancient Greeks. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001. Print.

7. Sacks, David. Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1995. Print.

8. Wepman, Dennis, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, jr. World Leaders, Past & Present, ALEXANDER. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Print.

9. Knox, E.L Skip. "Alexander the Great." Alexander the Great. Boise State University, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
10. Adolf Hitler.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html .  Wistrich, Roberts. web. 26 September 2013.

Alexander the Great -Blog- Andrew Johnson

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Journal entry #1

Its been 1 month since our previous leader Phillip II died. His son, Alexander, is our new leader. Alexander has taken a big responsibility at such a young age. He has big plans for Macedonia, some soldiers are worried. I am anxious to see what he has in mind.

Journal entry #2

We just found out we are going to carry on with Philip II's plan to invade Persia, under the power of Alexander. We are bringing 35,000 soldiers along into Anatolia.


Journal entry #3

We just defeated Persia's army of 40,000 men! After that Darius III sent about 75,000 men to Issus to try to defeat us, but we found a weak spot in the Persian lines, so we ran straight for Darius III. Being the weak king he is, Darius fled, followed by his army. Alexander now has power over Anatolia. We are starting to name Alexander, Alexander the great, for his accomplishments so far.



Journal entry #4

Alexander the great is going to attempt to capture the entire Persian empire. Some of us think he has lost his mind. We know he is confident in his abilities, but we are beginning to get tired and weak. We have marched into Egypt, a Persian territory, and they have welcomed Alexander as their Liberator.


Journal entry #5

We are now moving east with little energy, to confront Darius, which is likely to lead to another war against Darius.  LATER THAT WEEK- We just defeated Darius again. Alexander now has full power over Persia. We have plans to conquer Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, which will be easy. We have successfully expanded our empire.  Now everybody is calling Alexander, Alexander The Great. At first we had doubt in him, because he seemed inexperienced. Clearly we thought wrong. Alexander the Great proved us wrong with his great abilities to defeat Darius III, and take over Persia completely.

Journal entry #6

Alexander now wants to expand his empire even further. We are brutally tired, and a good number of soldiers have died from heat and dehydration. We found Darius dead, just south of the Caspian sea. Instead of returning home, which we all were desperately hoping to do, we marched further hoping to reach the end of the continent.

Journal entry #7

It has been over 11 years of wars and marching. We have already marched 11,000 miles. We have lost a large amount of soldiers. Finally after practically begging Alexander to return home, he gave in. The march back was even more brutal than the one there.

Question #2

           I think the capture of different cultures by Alexander hurt his empire, because after conquering a lot of cultures, Alexander wanted to expand and find new ones. So there might be many cultures under the power of Alexander that not as many will be existent for other people not in Alexander's empire to choose.

Question #3

I'd like to compare Alexander the Great to Martin Luther King Jr. I feel that these figures are alike because Alexander the Great wanted to expand his empire as much as possible and unify Greece. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to expand the rights of African American citizens in America and unify the Whites and African Americans to be equal.

Works Cited

 

LiveScience Staff, . N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. http://www.livescience.com/11315-top-10-reasons-alexander-great-great.html.
 

 Worthington, Ian. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. http://www.utexas.edu/courses/citylife/readings/great1.html.
 

 . N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. http://staff.4j.lane.edu/~loo/6thBlock/AW Chapt 30.pdf.
 

. N.p.. Web. 26 Sep 2013. http://www.smashinglists.com/top-10-most-fearsome-warriors/2/.

Roger B. Beck, . http://my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=9780547521084.





 

Sumter Park
History Block F

1) Why was he great?

         My king and ruler Alexander is by far the most noble and determined man I have ever encountered. It is an honor to serve under his watchful guidance because he is truly great. What makes him great is a number of things but the most impressive of all is his military brilliance and how he can move me and countless other men on the field of battle. He lead me and 47,000 of my brothers into battle against 200,000 soulless persian rats, we slaughtered them for the glory of Alexander and for the glory of all we have ever conquered. My king is truly great for his outlook on life for he is doing the impossible, he is overtaking the greatest superpower known to man on this day. He is bold in his leadership, for conquering Asia is no small task, having such large views of what you are capable of is a gift because any other man faced with this daunting challenge would surely crumble under the pressure of failure. Now my king has known to be ruthless but he is a fair man when he is respected, instead of wiping your little worthless city off the face of the earth Alexander simply overtakes your city, then renames it to further glorify him and his name. I personally want to massacre every city and town we go through, but Alexander understands the cultures we come in contact with, and wants to adopt it as his very own. His extraordinary military brilliance has also enabled him to command me and thousands upon thousands of other hardened ruthless foot soldiers into an unbreakable infantry called Phalanx. The Phalanx is a unique system of fighting that involves me next to 255 of my closest brothers all equipped  with 20 foot pikes designed to impale the enemy and dismember them as well. As for Alexander being great he truly is great as my king and leader into battle I wouldn't trade him and his military brilliance for anyone.

2) Blending of Cultures

        As a solider under the rule of Alexander of Macedonia I have come in contact with multiple cultures, many of them shave seemed to be pretty shy when we have encountered them because we did murder a lot of their people to set an example of how things were going to go. I would say over all as a foot solider i have not been able to fully grasp the different concepts of each and every culture that we have tried to introduce into our society but nevertheless I have not throughly enjoyed several of the cultures. my king for example, he has tried to adopt a woman named Roxanne as his wife, now that being said she is a great woman nut she is not one of us. I must be secretive in my word choice in fear of the king hearing of this but i do applaud his efforts he is brave in his risky actions.

3)

        The not so great Aldoph Hitler was in Germanys crumbling eyes "great" because he rose up and took control  when no one else would, he brought Germany out of the depression that it was in and then went insane from the immense amount of power. Yes,  killing almost 11 million innocent people was a terrible tragic thing but before that Hitler was a great man 

Work Cited: 

1) Mcdougal, Holt. “World History: Patterns of of Interaction”. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

2006.Print.

2)

Bipul Mainali

Question 1: 

I have been under the wing of Alexander’s army and have traveled all around the world with him. The most heroic tale that I vividly remember is the conquest in Persia. It was 331 B.C. and I remember all of the foot soldiers (including I) walking in phalanx formation of 45,000 men when we saw the kingdom of Persia. This was a special day for King Alexander because he told me that it was his father’s dream to conquer Persia and he said that he would carry out his father’s wishes.

Alexander had done it; he took control of the Persian Empire! Like the noble King Alexander was, he harnessed the Persian culture and married a Persian woman. Like King Alexander has done, he respects other land's cultures and blends it to his own. He is truly Alexander the Great.

Question 2:

My fellow soldiers and I have been hard at work for many years and we are exhausted. After observing what has been going on, I believe that King Alexander’s kingdom will be hurt by all of the blending of cultures. King Alexander has created glorious empire and whenever he conquers new land, he respects their culture and adopts his culture. I think it will hurt his empire is due to the fact that after our king dies, we think that his empire will crumble along with the vast majority of cultures. When people think of Alexander, they think of a person that likes blending culture and when people hear that he died, his image will be destroyed and that would allow for people to rebel against our empire. Alexander the great blended the cultures but many people did not like him for doing that. I heard about a plot to murder King Alexander and when he heard about it he tortured and executed his friend, the accused leader of the conspiracy, as well as other high ranking officials so all of my fellow soldiers were frightened by him and we thought he was paranoid because he wanted to completely eliminate the possibility of an attempt on his life. By thinking of the actions that my king committed, I heard that he almost committed suicide. All of the soldiers, including me are worried about King Alexander. Everyone in Macedonia has high expectations for him and if he cannot meet the requirements of others, it will demoralize him

Question 3:

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a business mastermind that was considered the great. He was known as being one of the most powerful men in America. This is very similar to Alexander the Great because he was known all through the world at the time and he was also considered a military genius for his warfare tactics such as attacking the weakest point in the enemy line with the strongest soldiers. At one point, Vanderbilt was the richest man in America having a net value of 179 billion dollars.  King Alexander was also a very wealthy king inheriting money and the throne from his father, King Phillip II. Cornelius Vanderbilt was known everyone because he basically owned the railroad industry and Alexander was known for having the largest empire and strongest military that he used to conquer new lands such as Persia. 

Work cited:

1. Alexander the Great. Jed Untereker, James Kossuth, Bill Kelsey. Web.  wso.williams.edu. 20 September 2013.

2. Mcdougal, Holt. “World History: Patterns of of Interaction”. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

2006.Print.

3. Nardo, Don. Lost Civilizations: The Ancient Greeks. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001. Print.

Sacks, David. Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1995. Print.

JiaJia

324 B.C.

My sons have told me many things after finally coming back from Alexander's army. They showered praises upon Alexander's greatness. They retold tales of Alexander's heroics and benevolence- and his military genius. He defeated what was previously thought unbeatable, such as the battle at the  Sogdian Rock, when Alexander ordered all the men who could to climb the rock at night to defeat the Sogdians on top of it. Not only that, but Alexander also treated these new cultures fairly, by going to their ceremonies and adhering to their traditions. He even ordered his men to do he same!
My son also told me that there was also one time when the army was traveling through the desert. Most of the men were thirsty and tired, and thought Alexander to be a slave driver for working his men so hard in the desert. Here my son proudly told me, "I did not doubt King Alexander for a second. Even without water, I kept on following him." Later on, when one of the generals next to him urged Alexander to drink some water, Alexander refused, saying that he would not drink water if his men were thirsty. My son had heard this, and immediately after had decided to follow Alexander wherever he went.

323 B.C.
Our king, Alexander, has died.
Alexander, perhaps, really is great. His experiences must have taught him much in the way of handling different cultures and people. He treated everyone fairly, whether or not they were nobles or peasants.
Not only that, but Alexander managed to conquer the whole of the Persian Empire. Only a man with the greatest drive and intelligence could do that without damaging the other cultures.
Looking at the empire now, one could say that Alexander beautifully unified the Persian empire while still keeping the cultures separate. There was a little merging of cultures, such as the city of Alexandria in Egypt. The fact that Alexandria was in such an ideal location made the merging of cultures easier. This merging probably aided Alexander's empire through academics and record storage. The great library at Alexandria was a place for scholars form all around the Persian Empire to add to.
The library itself was also caused by the merging of cultures. There were records from Greece and Macedonia. There were many scholars from Greece who also lived in Alexandria. Egyptian scholars, Greek mathematicians, and Persian philosophers all gathered in Alexandria. Here, they would need a way to communicate- so why not use that blending of cultures for help in learning each other's languages? The culture mix helped Alexander's army much like the way the world works now- by sharing information to help make the world smarter.

In hindsight, my research has led me to believe that no human could ever be “great”. This concept is so affected by opinion that really only a majority vote among the world’s population could decide on how great a person is. Alexander, in my eyes, really isn’t great. His rise to power was shrouded in mystery and murder and his empire collapsed soon after he died, making it believable that he didn’t really care about his empire and only controlled it through fear. Hitler is almost the same. He oppressed the people and controlled soldiers in the streets. Punishments were meted out often. But, Hitler did manage to defeat France, Poland, and other countries and occupy them, much like Alexander’s quest to conquer the Persian Empire. Hitler controlled Poland, France, the Netherlands and Norway all through fear as well, Just like what ALexander probably did. Likewise, Alexander did not trust many of his men and executed troublemakers, or even suspects. He also killed his own general Parmenio. These men could be considered great, but only for their ruthlessness and effectiveness in getting to their goals. Hitler was very close to taking over all of Europe. Alexander was able to conquer the Persian Empire. To achieve these goals, each went through numerous amounts of bloodshed and warfare.

Back during World War II, many Americans knew Hitler to be a tyrannical leader with no mercy and humanity. Now, after many years, several experts and ordinary people have analyzed Hitler’s actions and ideas. School now can teach that Hitler was a very smart man who was well-versed in politics and could draw support, not by using fear, but by giving good speeches and great ideas. Alexander is now known as a great conqueror. But, since there aren’t detailed records about the common people of Alexander’s time, we don’t know how others viewed Alexander. Was he viewed as a tyrannical leader who only thirsted for blood? Or was he viewed as an honest man with great ambitions who had the means to achieve them? 

With all the best,

Works Cited:

historyofmacedonia.org, . N.p.. Web. 20 Sep 2013. <http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/AlexandertheGreat.html>.

Adkins, Leslie, and Roy Adkins. "Biographies." Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece. Oxford: 1997.

"Alexander the Great." Changing Minds. Straker, David. N.p.. Web. 26 Sep 2013. <http://changingminds.org/disciplines/warfare/commanders/alexander_great.htm>.

"Adolf Hitler." Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.

 <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html>.

"Chart: Summary of Alexander's Life." Alexander the Great. U of Houston, n.d.
Web. 27 Sept. 2013. <http://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/classics/hti/Alexander.sum.html>.

Wright, W. R. "Great Alexandria." History of Alexandria. Wichita State U, n.d.
Web. 27 Sept. 2013. <http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/topics/
alexandria.html>.

Colin Quirk Blog

 Colin Quirk

1.

My leader Alexander the great, is a mighty warrior. I believe that my leader Alexander deserves the title of the great; because he maintains the cultures from every country we take over, which may be important at a later date. The main cultures that we have merged into the Greek culture are Persian, Egyptian, and Indian. Alexander, my beloved leader, has had leadership training since he was very young, and he controlled Macedonia since he was 20 years old. Although us soldiers are becoming very tired after 11 years of marching we still follow our leader Alexander. My leader is also very wise because he was taught by three of our greatest philosophers, one of which was Aristotle.  Alexander has led us through 20-32 areas, and we have conquered about 5 countries. We have travelled through so many areas that I have lost count. Alexander was also great because he maintained his fathers legacy, and continued his fathers campaign to take over Persia after his father died. Alexander has led us very well, because after only three years we conquered the great country of Persia. Persia fell before my own eyes, when we crushed the Persian army at the Tigris River. My leader was a very good leader although you didn’t want to get him angry, because he has a very bad temper.

2.

            Although I believe that my leader Alexander is great, he has still made some mistakes in his years of ruling. One of those mistakes is blending the superior Greek culture with the incompetence of the other countries that we take over. When we mix culture with the other cultures, we lose more and more of our Greek roots. There were some good parts of combining the cultures. Some of the good things include: improving arts, literature, and philosophy. Many other citizens are angry because they want to believe what they want.

3.

            Alexander the great can be compared to Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan did some great things in his time, and so did Alexander the great. For example Ronald Reagan was responsible for tearing down the Berlin wall, Alexander was responsible for conquering Persia. Alexander expanded the Greek empire; Ronald Reagan prevented America from entering a recession, which would have been the worst since The Great Depression. Ronald Reagan has evolved from “a good president” to the standard for conservatism. 

Works Cited

“Alexander the Great Alexander. Of Macedonia Biography.” N.p. Web. 17 Sept. 2013. <http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/>

           

“Alexander the Great.” N.p. 17. Sept. 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/alexander-the-great>

“5g. Alexander the Great.” Ancient Civilizations. Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, N.p. Web. <http://www.ushistory.org/civ/5g.asp>

“Ancient Greece” N.p. Web. 17. Sept. 2013. <www.ancientgreece.com/s/people/Alexander >

Sara Hassells post

1. Alexander the great was great for many reasons. He has a good education, he was taught geography, literature and science by Aristotle. He also had military training that consisted of commanding troops, riding horses, and weapon use. He became king at age 20 and was able to use the military training he got when Thebes rebelled. When they rebelled the city was destroyed and 6,000 Thebans were killed anyone who survived was sold into slavery. Alexander showed he had power through this incident, that’s why after this happened all the other city states stopped any ideas or plans of rebellion due to fear. Alexander was also great because when he invaded Persia he was out number by at least 5,000 men and he won. In Egypt he was crowned pharaoh.

2. Alexander has done wonders for our culture! He has set up colonies and built Cities while spreading Greek culture. I'm very happy that he is letting Greeks rule their own land. Greek is becoming more and more popular to speak. I think the Persian customs and style is beautiful. Now that both of our cultures are blended we are called Hellenistic. Our education is becoming great we have some very smart people. My friend Aristarchus was telling me he thinks the sun is 300 times bigger than the earth. He was also telling me about his friend Archimedes and how he is estimating the bale of pi. And one of my very good friends Euclid and how he wrote a book called Elements, it's about geometry. I'm very happy about what Alexander is doing.

3. Alexander the Great can be compared to a lot of people. There is one person that stands out to me, because they thought they were great but they weren't. Adolf Hitler thought he was great. He got a large number of people thinking he was great. Alexander the Great was very close to conquering the world, something Hitler wanted to do. Alexander tried to blend cultures together while Hitler discriminated against Jewish people. Both Alexander the Great and Hitler wanted to be great. Alexander did great things, while Hitler didn't do that many great things.

. N.p.. Web. 27 Sep 2013. <http://www.eduplace.com/ss/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/reviews/pdfs/LS_6_12_03.pdf>.

Beck, Roger, Linda Black, Larry Krieger, Phillip Naylor, and Dahia Shabaka. World History: Patternes of Interaction. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012. eBook. <http://my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=9780547521084>. 

   . N.p.. Web. 27 Sep 2013. <http://www.in2greece.com/engli/maps/map_of_Ancient_Greece.jpg>.         

. N.p.. Web. 27 Sep 2013. <http://i.pdfchm.net/5/7/13345/200/the-thirteen-books-of-euclids-elements-books-1-and-2.jpg>. 

. N.p.. Web. 27 Sep 2013. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/AlexanderTheGreat_Bust.jpg>.  

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWccVS2nVfqDrgVFYg4tseC9k3Oj6tM1u6G6JzTQ37j-LyFaOF2yBNtih9cgczN0Rafm_lXUPkcageQ2jwQ8J4bDsm9Uazgox0ZIvwcwfnnKw6BBdrht0hoOAtpQ-Lz5inEFA7U5Ekk-4Q/s1600/Hitler.jpg