Achaean League

In ancient Greece, the Achaean League was a military alliance and confederation of cities, whose inhabitants were Achaeans, one of the four Hellenic tribes. Located in northern Peloponnese, this defensive league had been dissolved when they were conquered by the Macedonian, under Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. However, in 280 BC, during the fall of the Macedonian Empire, it would be reactivated, extending its membership to Sicyon, which was not Achaean.

Under the command and leadership of Aratus of Sicyon, the league grew in strength, expelling the Macedonians in 228 BC from the Peloponnese as it became the main hegemonic power in southern Greece. However, four years later, the re-emergence of Sparta would force the Achaean League into alliance with Macedonia in 224 BC. In 146 BC, a Roman Legion, under Quintus Caecilius Macedonicus, marched on the Peloponnese and defeated the Achaean Army. After that, Corinth would be razed to the ground as those cities that had fought against the Roman Republic were politically annexed to Rome.

Government

The Achaean League was ruled by a federal assembly, a council, and several magistrates who managed and took care of daily business. The executive power was held by a chief league official, an annually elected General. Nevertheless, member cities did not give up local autonomy.

Minoan Civilization

The Minoan Civilization was a bronze-age culture which arose around 3000 BC on the Greek island of Crete. Preceding the Mycenaean Civilization, it is usually divided into three periods: 1) the Early Minoan (3000 to 2300 BC); Middle Minoan (2,300 to 1,500 BC); and the Late Minoan (1500 to 1000 BC). The original people who created this culture are known as Minoans, called so after the legendary King Minos. Their kingdoms lasted for hundreds of years. At the end of the third period, the Late Minoan, the Mycenaeans would invade the island and they would found the Mycenaean Civilization around 1300 BC.

The people of the Minoan Civilization designed and built large palaces, such the ones at Knossos and Phaistos. Being polytheistic, they regarded bulls as sacred animals. Thus, they created the myth of the Minotaur, a deity that had the body of a man and the head of a bull. The Minotaur was trapped inside an impregnable maze, which was called the Labyrinth.

Economy

Cris-crossed by mountains and valleys, the island of Crete lacked a plain large enough for agriculture. Therefore, the Minoans grew olives, grapes, and fig on the slopes of hills, making oil and wine out of olives and grapes respectively. They also raised goats and sheep, which, along with fish, were the base of their nutrition. They bartered their products for wheat, metals, and linen cloth which came form other regions of the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea.

The ruins of the Minoan Civilization were discovered by a British archeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, around 1900.

Below, map of the Eastern Mediterranean, showing the island of Crete and Greece.

Mycenaean Civilization

The Mycenaean Civilization was an ancient culture that flourished in the Balkan peninsula during the Bronze Age. It was the first major civilization which emerged and developed in mainland Greece. It arose around 1600 BC and lasted until 1250 BC. According to Homer’s poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, a major rival of Mycenaean kingdoms was the Anatolian city of Troy. The founders of this civilization were the Achaeans, who were one of the four Hellenic tribes that had invaded the Balkan peninsula and Aegean islands around 2000 BC.

The Mycenaean Civilization was not a single kingdom comprising a large territory. It was composed of a group of city-States, which were united by a common language, the same traditions, and cultural patterns. It thrived around the city of Mycenae, which lay in northeastern Peloponnesus, with its legendary king being Agamemnon. The city of Pylos, Thebes, Tyrins, and Athens were other important centers of Mycenaean Culture. Unlike the Minoans, they were a warlike people as they would dominate the region for about 400 years. Around 1450 BC, they invaded the island of Crete, where they made of Knossos their administrative center.

Most of what we know about the Mycenaean Civilization was obtained by the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the city of Mycenae in the second half of the 19th century. Like the rest of the Hellenic tribes, they spoke Greek. It was discovered that Mycenae was at the height of their development between 1400 and 1200 BC. During that time, the Mycenaean acropolis was surrounded by huge massive stone walls as the main entrance to the fortification was the Lion Gate. In 1200 Mycenae was destroyed by fire; although it would be rebuilt in the next centuries, it would no longer play an important role in the history of Ancient Greek.

Below, the Lion Gate, which was the main entrance to the fortification of the city of Mycenae.

Samnite Wars

The Samnite Wars were a series of three armed conflicts fought between Rome and the Samnites, who formed a confederations of tribes that inhabited the central and eastern part of the Italic peninsula. It was when Rome was a prosperous young Republic as it was constantly under attacks by neighboring tribes. As it came victorious at the end of these wars, it expanded its territory, creating buffer zones and exerting even stronger hegemony in the region.

The first war began in 343 BC when the war-like Samnites attacked Capua, the capital of Campania, whose inhabitants asked Rome for military help. Although in the past Rome and the Samnites had been allied in their war against the Gauls, the Roman Republic decided to help the Campani sending an army that defeated the attacking forces and invaded the Samnite territory. However, as the Romans advanced through a narrow valley they were ambushed and totally beaten. As the Roman Senate rejected the Samnite hard peace proposal, the struggle raged on in the form of a second war.

In order to destroy Rome, the Samnites organized a military coalition with the Estruscans, Umbri and other Italic tribes. After many vicious military encounters, the Romans finally defeated the Allied forces in the famous and big battles of Sentino and Aquilonia. Thus, the third and final war ended with the Roman occupation of all the Samnite territories in 290 BC.

The Samnite Wars, like other armed struggle in the Italic peninsula, showed that whenever Rome was attacked to be destroyed and conquered, the Roman Republic was able to muster all its military strength and to overcome all obstacles, emerging as a victor as it expanded even more its border and cultural influence. In the Second Punic War, it would be the Carthagenian General Hannibal who would try to destroy Rome; and once again, Rome would come out a winner with even more territory.

Samnites

The Samnites were a group of warlike mountain tribes from the southern Apennines, challenging Rome in the political supremacy of the region. Just like the Sabines and Latins, they were indo-european people who had settled in Italy around the 10th century BC. Over the centuries, they would clash with Rome and the Latin tribes inhabiting the territory nearby.

In the 4th century BC, the Samnites began to attack other prosperous cities. In order to protect Latium, the Latin cities supported Rome to ward off the invaders. As a result, a long military conflict ensued, known as the Samnite Wars. At the end of these military struggle, the Romans came out victorious as they began to exercise political and cultural hegemony in the whole central portion of the Italic peninsula.

First Samnite War (343-341 BC)

It began when the rich city of Capua asked Rome for military help as their inhabitants were being existentially threatened by the Samnites. As a result, the Romans sent a large army, which defeated the Samnites, repelling them Campania, seizing territory. After the war, the Latin League, which had been allied to Rome, was dissolved as several Latin cities became part of the Roman State. As a consequence, the Latins outside Rome were awarded with Roman citizenship.

Second Samnite War (327-304 BC)

The peace treaty and the temporary alliance with the Samnites did not last long as hostilities broke out again in 327 BC. After successful military campaign against the Samnite garrison in the cities of Campania, the Romans were ambushed and defeated at Caudine Forks in 321 BC, with the consuls being forced to sign a peace treaty, in which the Romans gave up the territory they had conquered.

When the consuls went back to Rome, the treaty they had signed was rejected by the Senate and they resumed the war. However, in 309 BC, they would suffer another defeat, forcing them to change their tactics. Thus, instead of marching out in an offensive, the Romans decided to wait for the Samnites to attack them, choosing the battlefield ground. The Samnites attacked the enemy positions in Campania but this time the Romans came out victorious as in 304 BC they made peace with the Samnites.

Third Samnite War (298-290 BC)

This armed conflict broke out in 298 BC over a Roman military campaign in Etruria and Umbria, which were located north of Rome. The Samnites joined forces with the Etruscans and Umbrian people to stop the Roman march. However, the uncoordinated alliance was not enough to stop the Roman Army, which, by that time, had been beefed up to become a force of 40,000-men strong. The turning point of the third war was when the Roman legions decisively defeated the Samnites, Etruscans, and Umbrians at the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. Although the Samnites would hold out for another five years, they signed a definitive peace treaty with Rome in 290 BC. The peace terms left Rome as the sole military power, seizing the whole territory of Campania as the Samnites lost their independence. However, they would be given Roman citizenship over the years and be absorbed into the Roman culture.

Below, 18th Century painting depicting four Samnite Warriors.

Etruscans

The Etruscans were one of several tribes that inhabited the Italic peninsula in ancient times. They were originally from Asia Minor, migrating into Italy around 1600 BC, settling between the Arno and the Tiber rivers north of Rome. The region inhabited by the Etruscans was known as Etruria, which is present day Tuscany. Their civilization preceded the Roman one. The main sources of information about this people are the written works by Herodotus, Livy, and Pliny the Elder, who were Greek and Roman historians respectively.

The Etruscans produced a remarkably colorful and prolific civilization, which revolved around city-States. They spoke a non-indoeuropean language. Therefore, it was not related to Latin at all. Some historians think that they were perhaps related to the Phenicians, who were Semitic people. In the 6th and early 5th century BC, the Etruscans had reached the zenith of their progress and power. Their political system consisted of a monarchy, focusing on the city-State, similarly to the Greek polis. The oldest settlements were situated on the Tyrrhenian coast; they were walled towns that sat on hilltops for easy defense; Vulci and Tarquinii are example of these cities. They were basically traders and carried out most of their commerce by sea.

The biggest Etruscan city-States constituted a league for religious and military purpose. Each one of these cities were ruled by a king, who held political, military, and religious power. In public places, the king wore purple robe and traveled through the streets of the city in a chariot. They exerted a great geopolitical influence which went beyond Etruria’s boundaries. According to traditional history, the last three kings of Rome were Etruscan; Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Tarquinius Superbus. Although he undertook many construction works, such as the temple to Jupiter and Cloaca Maxima, Tarquinius Superbus established a despotic and tyrannical government. This is the reason that, in 510 BC, the Romans, led by Lucius Junius Brutus, rose up in rebellion and overthrew the king and the monarchy, founding the Republic.

Map of the Italic peninsula, showing the location of the Etruscans territory

Germany in the Cold War

Germany in the Cold War was the hub of the main geopolitical and ideological struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two new super powers that had emerged after after World War II. Invaded by the Allied armies at the end of this armed conflict, Germany began the postwar period divided into four occupation zones: American, British, French, and Soviet.

The sector occupied by the three western Allied countries would become the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), a democratic country with a free market society; while the portion occupied by the Red Army would become the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), a non-democratic country whose economy was run by the State, which did not allow private property and free individual enterprise.

Three years after World War II, the Kremlin decided to run a blockade of Berlin, the former capital of the Germany, in an attempt to force the Allies to abandon West Berlin, which was beginning to show signs of economic recovery. In order to supply the population of the city with food and coal and avoid famines, the Allied nations carried out what is known in history as the Berlin Airlift, which was the massive transportation of food, medicine and coal by aircraft, seven days a week. It was ended when Josef Stalin decided to lift the blockade, allowing the ground transportation, such as freight trains, trucks and buses from West Germany into West Berlin, which was surrounded by Soviet-held territory.

In May 1949, West Germany’s constitutional assembly passed its new Constitution (the Basic Law) as the free Germans held its first democratic elections, in which Konrad Adenauer, from the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU), was elected chancellor. During his government (1949-1963), and boosted by an American, financial aid package, called the Marshall Plan, Germany would undergo a period of great economic growth and technological development, despite the fact of having been literally razed by Allied carpet bombing during World War II. In 1955, as the Cold War Iron Curtain had been dropped by the Soviet Union across Europe from north to south, West Germany became a NATO member, the military organization of western free democratic countries.

In the late 1960s, international relations with France were improved and strengthened, especially under Willy Brandt, chancellor. In 1967, he signed the economic treaties, with Charles de Gaulle of France, allowing the inauguration of the European Community, he sowed the seeds for the future European Union. He also signed a treaty with East Germany, allowing West Berliners to visit East Berlin and East Germany more often. Willy Brandt was succeeded by Helmuth Smith, who improved even more the relations with East Germany and also with the Soviet Union. However, the ties with France perfected.

In December 1989, the Berlin Wall, which divided the former capital of Germany, was partially torn down as the Berliners from East Germany were allowed for the first time to freely travel in and out of West Germany. In August 1990, with the collapse of Communism and the former Soviet Union, East Germany joined West Germany to become one nation again.

Below, the map of Germany in the Cold War. It was divided into four zones of occupations, with the eastern portion being permanently relinquished to Poland.