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The geography of Greece is very different than the geography of India. Greece is located on a peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea. In the map above, Greece is surrounded by water and many islands can be found around the peninsula. The large island at the bottom of the map is Crete. Because Greece is so rocky and barren, it is very hard to grow crops, so most Greeks lived along the coast where the soil was good for farming. There were many mountains and valleys. The climate was hot and dry, and rainfall was limited to the winter months. With a shortage of land for farming, the Greeks came to rely upon trade with other countries for food, building supplies, and other goods.

 After Greece rose from its Dark Age, its population grew quickly. Farmers couldn’t produce enough food for everyone, so Greece started to send people out of Greece to start colonies or a new settlement. They streamed to the coasts of Western Asia, North Africa, Spain, and France. Colonies and trade spread Greek culture and spurred industry. They traded grains, metals, fish, timber, and enslaved people. They also traded pottery, wine, and olive oil from the mainland. With each new colony, the Greek culture spread farther and farther.

 The Persians wanted to expand their territory and they wanted to conquer Greece. The Persians decided to try to attack Greece by sea since they lost to the Scythians on land. If the Persians defeated Athenians they wanted to try to defeat the rest of Greece. After the Persians loaded their ships and sailed over, their first stop was Eritrea. When the Persians got there, all the people went inside the city walls and hid. The Persians didn’t know what to do because they didn’t have the weapons to break down the walls. One of the Eritrea’s opened a back door and the Persians attacked, and defeated.

 The Peloponnesian War was a war that the Spartans and Athenians fought to gain control of Greece. They fought for about 27 years. The Peloponnesian War was all about control of Greece’s money and power. Athens knew they could not defeat the Spartan army, so they barricaded themselves in the city. They used their navy to supply the people in the city. This worked for a year, and then an unknown disease broke out in Athens. More than one third of the population died. Even with dead people all around, the Athenians held on for nearly 25 years. Finally the Spartans made a deal with the Persians. They gave the Persians some of the colonies, and in return, the Persians gave the Spartans money to build a navy. The Spartans destroyed the Athenian navy, and the Athenians surrendered. Sparta and the other city states broke up the Athenian Empire. This war weakened all of Greece because they were always fighting between each other. The Greece did not notice the growing threat just to the north of Greece, the Macedonians.