In this lesson, you learned that the history of Greece included many wars. What effects do you think periods of prolonged fighting might have on a country?
One of the top professions in ancient Greece was mercenary soldier. After the Peloponnesian War 10,000 Greek mercenaries from all over Greece famously joined a rebellion in the Persian Empire.
The effects of prolonged wars can be exemplified with Greece:
The cultural heritage is destroyed.
After the Persian Wars, for instance the Athenian Acropolis and other monuments were no longer but ruins.
Today conflicts in Middle East and Asia have been just a demonstration of the same. Irak, being the center of the former Mesopotamia civilization can be another example.
After a war, political changes take place, in the case of the Greeks democracy became widespread.
In this sense, it is difficult to argue if the political changes that take place after a war favor the population on the long term. Some contra revolutionary movements can also take place and foreign intervention can rather shape a geopolitical space.
For the case of the Greeks most of the wars favored the spreading of their ideas into regions far away and also let them learned from various cultures that often led to cultural, economic and artistic exchange.
