Our civilizations are merely a wrinkle in time. Billions of years ago, during the Paleolithic Culture people had only knowledge for basic survival. The Stone Age was a time for hunting and gathering, building tools, and making fire. As the human race evolved, so did the culture. This is when the Neolithic Culture was born. People started taking control. Farms sprang up and sedentary villages began to take form.
Amazingly, not too far from these progressing cultures grew civilizations. When one wants to look at the true heart of a civilization, they must first understand the civilization’s beliefs, moral standards, social interaction, attitudes, values and social consciousness. Without a sincere background about these topics, one cannot truly develop a full understanding of the period. History calls upon humankind to breakdown civilizations, and find the roots of past civilizations. Many factual ideas have been abstracted from numerous sources through out time. In studying Ancient Greek civilization, the reader sees immense concentration of social consciousness for its peoples’ needs. Greek civilization absorbed many different attitudes from the Athenians, Spartans, and Macedonians. Another highly moral civilization was the Medieval times. The English had intolerant views on Religion; an aspect of a society which had much importance to the world at this time.
Because of these beliefs, all religions had to experience frustrations that occasionally lead toward conflict. The Chinese were greatly influenced by the earth’s ways, rather than global issues and demonstrated this through their religion, Buddhism. The Han dynasty incorporated a Confucius government system into their legal system, and points toward a clearer understanding of their beliefs, attitudes, and philosophies. The Greek civilization contained many socially conscious issues in the city-states of Athens, Sparta, and Macedonia. The Athenians were superbly educated in the arts and sciences, and trained to be extremely productive in times of war and peace. When looking at their educational and philosophical output it is simple to see that the Athenian people valued their futures.
Without educational programs for the Athenian youths, Athena would have lost their civilization long before it initially peaked. Undoubtedly, Athenian people had a productive social consciousness, and realized that education and knowledge was quite important. They knew that the future of their city-state depended on the “smarts” of the people in it. Social awareness was not usually number one to people back then. Normally, city-states were concerned with war and gaining land. While the gross majority of Greece were fighting and stealing, Athenians were busily figuring out the philosophy of life.
Clearly, the Athenians were socially aware of what was going on in their lives, through education and philosophy. The Spartans on the other hand were more concerned with being brute and strong against their enemies. A typical Spartan soldier would have to endure unbelievable pain and hardship to become a respected Spartan and citizen. Their moral standards must have influenced them to exploit their respect toward physical pain and suffering. Many historians believe Spartans were cunning, lying cheaters. There were even secret police called Krypteia; police that spy on people who are supposedly involved in crime related problems. In order to have any foundation for any relationship or civilization, one must have trust. There was little room for trust during this time in the Spartan’s lives.
This explains why modern society cannot grasp the reasoning behind their unlawful ways. Granted, the morals and beliefs of the Spartans may seem like nothing to modern society, but for them, they were everything. Literally, the Spartans thought that there was nothing more important then themselves. They worshiped themselves almost like gods and goddesses, and believed themselves to be indestructible against anything. On another extreme, and somewhere in between were the Macedonians. Typically speaking, these people were great pawns for strong leaders. They had already been educated enough to know right from wrong and knew much about the military. With the strong leadership of Alexander the Great, the Macedonians overtook much territory.
Alexander the Great gained the respect and trust from his people by respecting and trusting them in return. In battles, after the death and disgust was cleared away he would console the newly conquered army by listening to their stories, and sharing his own with them. Typically, a high military figure like Alexander would not be seen talking socially with his troops. Alexander insisted that in order to understand war, one must understand his enemy. He displayed great amounts of respect, moral standards, and social consciousness. He also showed immense social consciousness when he would take in the wives of the dead soldiers, and treat them with dignity and respect. It would be assumed that the women would be raped and murdered. Alexander gave them tax money to re-build their families and moral support supplied by his mistress in house.
This kindles Alexander’s Era very nicely. Looking at it now proves that he gave that society better understandings of what it is to be a woman and soldier, and be respected at the same time. Times may change but beliefs, moral standards, attitudes, and social awareness continue to flow throughout the lands. During the Medieval times of Europe, people continued to display these qualities through leadership, religion and war. Queen Elizabeth the First earned a well-respected reputation during her rein. Emphasis of education was important to the people, much like the Athenians. Elizabeth’s people saw that she had the same moral standards that they did.
As for Elizabeth, she too believed that a strong education built an excellent foundation for a civilization. Queen Elizabeth was educated by expert language teachers to enhance her speaking skills. In turn, she would be able to negotiate with numerous other countries through out Europe. This strategy opened the lines of understanding and communication, which helped avoid misunderstanding, leading to war. Unfortunately, communication was not enough to keep everyone under sovereignty. People have always developed their own personal opinions whether it be politics, social structure or religion. For Europeans in the Medieval civilization, one’s religion was often more important than the individual’s them self.
There were countless occurrences by which Christians and Protestants would have battles about beliefs. Because of these clashing beliefs and moral structures, there was not a defined structure to follow. After much consideration, it is safe to state that both were highly intolerant of each other because of their similarities! Both wanted their religion to be the most popular and recognized in the Roman Empire. Both wanted all attention focused on their religion, in order to gain more members. It came down to a game of tug-o-war, and the Christians won. Constantine wa ….