During the conquest, especially with Persia, many Greeks were killed and injured as a result of the war. The literature of the Greeks did not suffer a lot during that time, and much of the Greek works of art and culture was not touched.
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The new cosmopolitan world created by Alexander’s conquests eliminated the power of competing Greek city-states. This fostered a mentality more concerned with the individual than identification with the city-state, which had been an integral part of Greek culture.
One of the negative aspects of Alexander’s Mediterranean unification was the increase in the chattel slave trade. The increased wealth acquired from success in trade created a small group of elite citizens who instituted slave plantations.
Example, at the cost where trade took place, the towns developed rapidly leading to urbanization in Greek. Alexander collected tax from all the territories that he conquered. Most of the finance and tax remained in the Macedonians’ hands.
This is the first major battle he had with the Persian king, and once again, Alexander proved his excellent strategic thinking by outflanking the Persian army through his cavalry. He made a direct attack on the Persian king's centerline, where this key moment in the battle became a famous Roman-era mosaic found in Pompeii (Figure 1).
More importantly, Alexander's conquests spread Greek culture, also known as Hellenism, across his empire. In fact, Alexander's reign marked the beginning of a new era known as the Hellenistic Age because of the powerful influence that Greek culture had on other people.
Alexander the Great's conquests freed the West from the menace of Persian rule and spread Greek civilization and culture into Asia and Egypt. His vast empire stretched east into India.
Alexander's legacy extended beyond his military conquests. His campaigns greatly increased contacts and trade between the East and West, and vast areas to the east were exposed to Greek civilization and influence. Some of the cities he founded became major cultural centers, and many survived into the 21st century.
His conquests introduced Macedonian rule to several parts of Asia and many of these areas remained under Greek influence for the next two-three centuries. His campaigns also greatly increased contact and trade between east and west. Alexander founded around twenty cities that bore his name.
How did Alexander the Great change the world? -conquered the Greeks, Persia, and parts of Central Asia. -created a Hellenistic culture by Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian styles and customs. -conquests spread Hellenistic culture throughout his empire.
Alexander spread Greek culture throughout the Persian Empire, including parts of Asia and Africa. Alexander respected the local cultures he conquered, and allowed their customs to continue. Alexander himself embraced local customs, wearing Persian clothes and marrying Persian women.
His conquests included Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Bactria. He extended the boundaries of his empire as far as Taxila in Indian subcontinent (present day Pakistan).
Alexander's conquest of Persia opened the floodgates for the expansion of trade. For centuries, Persia had hoarded gold from its conquered lands. Alexander, however, turned the gold and silver into coinage and spent it lavishly.
His encouragement leads to the development of science, mathematics, and discoveries that helped Greek people. Also, the Greek temples, threaten and gymnasia were constructed in lands where the Alexander had conquered thus promoting the Greek culture. There were also both political and economic impacts.
During his time, he destroyed major world cities and later build a new one with his own means and style. His Persian style of ruling was widely adopted through all kingdoms.
The use of the common language led to the simplification of the trade and exchange concepts. The people were taught the Greek language which implied the trading activities. This led to the involvement of the more people in business activities.
The food supply reduced the number of resources that were used to acquire food among the Greek people. This meant that most of the resources were used in productive and development activities leading to economic growth among the Greek people. Again, Alexander initiated vast building project in Greece.
The cities and roads were used to assist the transit of the merchandise. Foundation cities or towns were planned according to the pattern of the Greece. The towns contained marketplace square, shops, schools, offices, theater, exercise room, and temples.
Alexander the great enhanced trade between him and other international bodies in the world. The trade led to supply of the goods and services to the empire. After conquering the territories Alexander was involved in trading activities which improved the living standards among the Greek people [footnoteRef:8].
In a span of his reign, which lasted for twelve years, alexander the great had made the biggest empire known as Macedonia that stretched from Greece to the current Pakistan. In his time, he was able to conquer great Persian Empire and many other empires that were relatively smaller.
As a final point, the long-lasting consequences of the common culture that Alexander had formed were instrumental to the advancement of Christianity.
Another outcome of the common culture created by replacing the region’s separate countries was the increase in trade activities. This is because Alexander brought down the political barriers that had previously impaired trade activities in the area.
Due to many territories that he conquered, the dominion that Alexander the Great had was regarded as one of the greatest in the history of the world. Through these conquests, he managed to bring together Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East to form one culture referred to as the Hellenistic civilization.
This cultural exchange was possible because Alexander conquered most of the world and formed an empire that enabled the free movement of people from one place to another. His conquests ensured that he brought down regimes that did not permit the free flow of information.
As he continued stamping the culture of the world “with a Greek character,” he formed the Hellenistic culture by mixing the Greek culture with the culture of the individuals he had subjugated. For example, on many occasions, he compelled the Greeks and the Persians to marry one another.
Due to Alexander the Great’s politics, individualism, philosophy, learning, and economics principles were considered to be part of the new culture. As his biography states, during the reign of his father, Alexander assisted him in conquering Greece.
This experience led to the cavalry during the Battle of Chaeronea, which was one of the critical victories for Philip.
Immediately after Alexander was made king, Thebes rose up to challenge his authority —a big mistake.
So as he turned his attention back to Persia, Alexander framed his campaign against the Achaemenid Empire as a patriotic retaliation for Persia’s failed invasion of the Greek mainland a century earlier .
Darius’ strategy was to cut off Alexander’s supply lines from behind and force the Macedonian troops to turn around and face off. But Darius botched the location of the battle, which ended up being a narrow strip of land between a ridge and the sea that neutralized his numbers advantage.
The battle served as a coming-out party for 18-year-old Alexander, who bravely led the Macedonian cavalry charge that broke through the Athenian ranks and secured victory for the upstart kingdom. With the Greek mainland subdued under Macedonian rule, Philip turned his well-oiled army East toward the Persian Empire, a far greater prize.
But he never made it home. At just 32 years old, Alexander died in Persia in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon from a sudden and mysterious illness .
Darius and his generals chose a battle site near the town of Gaugamela. It was a wide, flat valley that, unlike Issus, would allow the Persians to take full advantage of their lopsided numbers, an estimated 250,000 Persian troops facing off against Alexander’s 50,000.
Alexander owed a tremendous debt to his father for leaving him a world-class army led by experienced and loyal generals. But it was Alexander’s genius as a leader and battlefield strategist that secured his victory against an imposing adversary deep in enemy territory.
The Norman conquest of England, then, resulted in long-lasting and significant changes for both the conquered and the conquerors. The fate of the two countries of England and France would become inexorably linked over the following centuries as England became a much stronger and united kingdom within the British Isles and an influential participant in European politics and warfare thereafter. Even today, names of people and places throughout England remind of the lasting influence the Normans brought with them from 1066 CE onwards.
That is, William, who considered all the land in England his own personal property, gave out parcels of land (fiefs) to nobles (vassals) who in return had to give military service when required, such as during a war or to garrison castles and forts.
The Norman conquest of England, led by William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE) was achieved over a five-year period from 1066 CE to 1071 CE. Hard-fought battles, castle building, land redistribution, and scorched earth tactics ensured that the Normans were here to stay. The conquest saw the Norman elite replace that of the Anglo-Saxons and take over the country’s lands, the Church was restructured, a new architecture was introduced in the form of motte and bailey castles and Romanesque cathedrals, feudalism became much more widespread, and the English language absorbed thousands of new French words, amongst a host of many other lasting changes which all combine to make the Norman invasion a momentous watershed in English history.
The Normans were hugely successful warriors and the importance they gave to cavalry and archers would affect English armies thereafter. Perhaps even more significant was the construction of garrisoned forts and castles across England. Castles were not entirely unknown in England prior to the conquest but they were then used only as defensive redoubts rather than a tool to control a geographical area. William embarked on a castle-building spree immediately after Hastings as he well knew that a protected garrison of cavalry could be the most effective method of military and administrative control over his new kingdom. From Cornwall to Northumbria, the Normans would build over 65 major castles and another 500 lesser ones in the decades after Hastings.
the two countries of France and England became historically intertwined, initially due to the crossover of land ownership, i.e. Norman nobles holding lands in both countries. the syntax and vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon Germanic language were significantly influenced by the French language.
The lack of an influx of tens of thousands of Normans was no consolation for the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, of course, as 20 years after Hastings there were only two powerful Anglo-Saxon landowners in England.
Domesday Book was compiled on William’s orders in 1086-7 CE, probably to find out for tax purposes exactly who owned what in England following the deaths of many Anglo-Saxon nobles over the course of the conquest and the giving out of new estates and titles by the king to his loyal followers.
That influence is perhaps most palpable in ancient Rome, where the craze for copies of famous Greek works are often all we have left of Greek art. Do not overlook the Sleeping Hermaphrodite Roman, made in the 2nd century AD but as a copy of a 2nd century BC Greek original.
In the final chamber, which focuses on Hellenistic art in the Roman period, stands the Borghese Krater. Standing nearly two meters high, the vase was made in Athens in the 1st century BC, shipped to Rome and discovered in the 16th century in a Roman garden.
There is also the impressive marble head and arm of Zeus from Aigeira from circa 150 BC on loan from the National Archaeology Museum of Greece.
Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World —opening Tuesday to July 17—catalogs the breadth, diversity, and richness of Hellenistic art, a period which began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ended after the Battle of Actium with the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BC .