Paper Example on 2nd Wave Period of World History: Greco-Persian Wars

Introduction

Just like in the present decade where there are several revolutionary changes and differences as compared to the previous decades, looking back in the history of the world, there was a massive change as decades and centuries passed by. Most changes during this period impacted individuals either socially, politically, or economically depending on the particular type of change that occurred. According to the ancient history, the revolutions were named in the form of waves for instance; the 1st wave and the 2nd wave periods of the world Histories. Each wave of the history was characterized differently depending on the nature of changes that occurred and how they occurred and their impacts (Howe, Edward & Graham, pg97). The main aim of this study is to focus its discussion on the civilizations that took place in the second wave period. The study selects one of the most effective civilization and vividly discusses the impacts that the civilization brought about on the people looking deeper into the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the civilization. Among the several civilizations that took place in this particular wave is the war known as the Greco-Persian war or the Persian war.

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The Persian Wars also referred to as Greco-Persian Wars was a series of conflicts that took place among the Persians and the Greek states for almost a half a century. The particular time that this took place was between 492 to 449 BCE. Among the various inversions, the conflict became more intense during the two inversions that Persians decided to launch a war against mainland Greece. This happened between the years 490 and 479. This war was intense since the Persian empire was very strong in terms of its military and economy. Thus it was optimistic that they could win the wars and conquer the territories. However, this was not the case since the Greeks were well known for their collectiveness and unity and due to this character, that they possessed, they were able to liberate themselves in the city-states of Greek on the Persians' fringe (Hanson & Victor, pg114-167).

According to Cartledge & Paul (pg156), the Greek winning made it possible for the culture and the political structure that they had formed before to survive and become even more strong than before. This was a form of civilization since the various countries and states were starting to realize the importance of power and politically and economically were trying to expand their territories through wars. Most countries, for example, the Persians tried to expand their territories through wars thus leading to the civilization wars like the Greco-Persian Wars. Conflicts and wars have several impacts on the people as well as their social, political and economic structures. The Persian Wars, as a form of the second wave civilizations, had several impacts either socially, politically and economically as it involved a group of individuals after a long period of time.

Just as discussed above, the Greco-Persian wars were in the form of series as the Persians were determined to win and conquer the Greeks and their empire. They kept on trying severally after being defeated since different rulers who ruled over the Persians wanted to try his own strength through the same fights that the previous rulers had lost to the Greeks. The Persians in their final attack were defeated but the Xerxes who invaded Persia in winter in 479 BCE, where it was overcame by the collective force of the Greeks which included the combined force of Athenians, Spartans, and Tegeans (Tuplin & Christopher, pg76). The navy from Persia was defeated on the Asiatic coast in Mycale after the fighters declined to include the Greek fleet as they instead, joined a land army and fought a battle that they lost.

The main reason for the loosing of Persian or the decline of this civilization was due to the fact that Persia took a lot of time to make another attack which the Greek states had already known of. This gave the Greeks enough period to prepare and get ready for any attack from the Persians. Even though the Greco-Persian wars ended at the Mycale as described above, the Persians kept on fighting minute loosing battles for the next 30 years (Brouwers & Johannes, pg91). The war ended in 449 BCE when the Delian League which was formed by the Athenians won. This study, therefore, after discussing the structure and the cause of the war as well as the period with which the war lasted and what lead to the losing or winning of the battle or the decline of the particular civilization period, it goes ahead to look at some of the impacts that this war lead to focusing on the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the civilization.

There were several impacts of this kind of civilization as it took part for several years. Among the impacts of the war or civilization, according to Howe, Edward & Graham (pg99), were the economic impacts that affected both countries. Looking at the war, both the countries had to invest in terms of the army, food, the ammunition that they used to fight with as well as the horses. The fights took a very long period and thus all the above-mentioned resources were required in bulk. The countries were to, therefore, prepare well and go an extra mile to ensure that the fighters, for instance, the navy and land soldiers had enough to fight with, fight on as well as to feed on. Such impacted the two states massively in terms of their economic growth and focus as it undermined them.

Politically, this kind of civilization had an immersive impact as well on both the involved states. War is a sure way that a country loses its military power as it entails death. During the Greco-Persian wars, a big number of soldiers and navy lost their lives as a result of the war. The death of the fighters from either side of the fighting states means that a military void is left behind. This weakened the two states in terms of the defense force and military power which is a very important aspect of a country (Hanson & Victor, pg114-169). Persia which lost the wars mainly was the most affected since most of its soldiers were the affected ones. After the wars, in order for both the countries to remain strong, they had to recruit and train more soldiers in order to replenish their military strength once more.

Socially, many families were affected following the deaths of their head in the wars. In the ancient period, the soldiers who fought for a state were mainly men from the various families. The war where most of these men died at, therefore, left these families affected socially as the mothers in the families had to take responsibility and play the role of the father. The culture as well tends to change as the societies most so from the Persian state that lost the biggest number of soldiers became underpopulated, and women became more than men. The way of doing things and their way of living thus had to change hence changing their culture (Tuplin & Christopher, pg96).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that the Greco-Persian wars were a had a huge impact of revolution as the result of the war lead to a big change in terms of social, cultural, political and economic of the states. This, thus, among the other civilizations were the turning point of history and revolution.

Works Cited

Brouwers, Jose Johannes. "Warfare and Society in Early Greece: From the Fall of the Mykenaian Palaces to the end of the Persian Wars." (2010).

Cartledge, Paul. "Herodotus." The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (2013).

Hanson, Victor Davis, ed. Makers of ancient strategy: from the Persian wars to the fall of Rome. Princeton University Press, 2010.

Howe, Timothy, E. Edward Garvin, and Graham Wrightson. "Greece, Macedon and Persia." Studies in Social, Political and Military History in Honour of Waldemar Heckel (2015).

Tuplin, Christopher, ed. Persian responses: political and cultural interaction with (in) the Achaemenid Empire. ISD LLC, 2007.