Conquest, Power, and the Rise of Alexander’s Empire
From the start, the world has been peaceful, and humans are greedy to influence this peace. From the individual to the international level, we see wars over economy, power, and resources for which we don’t even care about human beings. It is in human nature to uphold power over others. Even in our lives, we always want to be first, for which we make different efforts; likewise, countries do it in the international arena. This tendency is not new to human nature and politics, but it is an old practice conducted by different kings and emperors.
They shed blood, destroyed infrastructure, and disturbed human life just for the sake of territorial expansion and their rule over resources, for which history is filled with pages and books about the conquerors. Some conquerors influenced large regions. Alexander the Great is one of the big names from history in the early ages. By the age of thirty, he had expanded over a large area in the west and east, which included Egypt, India, and Persia, all within ten years with a well-organized army.
Alexander III, son of Philip II, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was the most famous king in the history of the Greek Empire. He was born in 365 BC when his father was king of Macedon. After his father died, he took up the throne when he was only 20. He was a person of strength and a student of Aristotle until age 16. Using his power, he took up the generalship of the army after taking up the throne. He planned to expand the territory and successfully developed good territorial control from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. In his era, we have seen a lot of improvement in the administration and also a big impact on the empire he conquered.
Military Expansion and the Administration of Conquered Regions
The legacy of the empire was mostly linked to the military campaigns. Still, many other factors sustained the rule despite the military campaigns. We have seen that there was a gap that ended with this campaign and a huge trade line developed between the east and west. We can find much cultural influence in this century around the world in regions of India, Egypt, and areas that were under the control of the Persian Empire.
Macedonia was just a small region; later on, it was introduced to the world over a huge part of the east and west, covering about 5,200,000 km2, which was the largest empire in the early ages. These areas were led for 200 to 300 years by Macedonian successors, which was the result of Alexander the Great’s efforts (Bosworth, 1993).
With the development of the empire, we can see its influence on many sides, such as making buildings and converting clay into marble. Many cities were developed and modernized according to that time. The most famous of all of them is Alexandria in Egypt. According to historians, 20 cities at that time were developed after his control and had his name to make a memorial attachment to these cities. While Greece used to have trade for which people moved out into those cities, after his death, numbers got shortened, and they were mostly settled in Alexandria, the Mediterranean city of that time. Numerous public buildings were influenced by Greek architecture, such as traveler lounges, markets, and monuments. There were temples developed, and huge funds were announced and allotted for building new temples; the most famous is Athena Polias. At the same time, many others are still under the inspection of archeologists.
Hellenization and the Cultural Legacy of Alexander
The legacy of this Hellenization around the world was observed and influenced all over Rome, in which different aspects of development were introduced. The Greek language spread then in the Middle East and the urban west side, influenced by Greek culture and architecture. We can say that the legacy of Alexander influenced Rome with the new rule set and criteria for ruling the nations by influencing the culture and practices that Alexander initiated.
In the early ages, Rome was the most civilized concerning economic, social, and political matters. With all this, its people were educated and had great philosophers of that time, which gave them hegemony over their rule of the world. Even after Alexander died, we have seen that for 300 years they had a hold on major parts of the world, which included Egypt, India, and Persia. Persia and Rome were powers of their time, and we can say they had an old rivalry with each other as they both had super regimes full of military power and technology of that time, but unfortunately, Persia fell in front of Alexander badly (Engels, 1980).
If we look at the influence of that time on the economy, it is sure and proved by economists that money used to flow like a river from the cities and all regions were stable with their economic standards. They were flourishing in trade, and barriers were removed from all sides and among natives. As it was in the same state, the routes were safe for trade around. We know that slavery was the biggest economy of Rome, and they were expanding rapidly in it. Unit currency, as a metal coin, was used as the mode of exchange, which was a new intervention in the economy and united people under one umbrella for the mode of exchange in the region under the rule.
Law, Government, and Social Organization Under Macedonian Rule
Socially, the structures at that time were well-developed. There were government rules, offices, and courts where people had access to present their cases. There was law and order under which we can see strict punishment for spreading illness in society, while some bad days also arose due to the monarchical use of power by the kings at that time, in which we can count both kings and generals. They were the most civilized nations, and people tried to adopt their modes of living and traditions, which we can find in the 21st century in different cultures worldwide.
Language and education were the assets of Rome. Historically, if we look at the books and philosophers, we find them all from the Roman Empire, in which Aristotle and Plato are famous names who worked a lot on good governance and law. They opened the field of political science with their writing and thinking. In this, we can say that the success of Alexander also depended on the teaching and company of Aristotle, as he was the first scholar in history to describe different forms of governance with proper justification. We have seen Latin as a prominent language until the 18th century concerning education. Reading English literature, we identify that Latin was part of school courses and the second language for the source of education (“The Hellenistic World,” 2012).
The gate that was opened after the massive conquests of Alexander was the structure of management, while if we compare it with the numerous rulers who came after him, they worked a lot and improved it with time. On that basis, we can identify flaws in the ruling structure of Alexander in which the biggest critique is the military campaign versus authoritative control, which is still being debated among historians and political scientists.
References
Bosworth, A. B. (1993). Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge University Press.
Engels, D. W. (1980). Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. University of California Press.
The Hellenistic World: The World of Alexander the Great. (2012, January 18). Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://www.ancient.eu/article/94/the-hellenistic-world-the-world-of-alexander-the-g/
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