The Bronze Age carries the dates within much of Europe an Asia from around 3000BC to 1100BC and had the effect of helping develop of social order that included loose forms of government, class systems, and innovative public works. The cause of this emerging human achievement is based in part due to the reason that the name implies, bronze. The medal was discovered in various parts of Europe and Asia which by means of migratory patterns of the people from the previous Neolithic period shortly led to trade infrastructure across the cotenants. A system of commerce took centuries to develop but as time passed and the resourcefulness of the populations became more adept at crafting the medals into tools and weaponry, soon a vital system of early production and trade commenced. The value of the bronze medal was a vast improvement over the stone and merely wood elements previously in use. Fashioning the base ore component through early smeltering methods produced the workable material that was useful to artisans. This development furthered the need for improving many of the conditions necessary for civilization such as written language, societal class structure, improved farming and hunting techniques, transportation, currency and other aspects of a functioning system.

As trade for the commodities occurred through Europe and the Middle East, the interaction and forms of mathematical navigational improved. The Mediterranean basin was a beneficiary of advancement due to the vitality of it’s water access particularly in the Aegean Sea region where one of the first networks of long range trading was established. In the region around Cyprus existed deposits of copper that could be mixed with imported tin and charcoal to produce bronze. The bronze in turn was exported through the sea and land to various other regions, providing one of many important centers of origination for the metal. Most of what is known about this era of history is based upon archeological findings and using scientific means such as isotopic testing and human trial to understand this ancient period. Due to the burial practices that began in this part of the world in the Early Bronze Age, preserved tombs and unearthed cities have provided the artifacts to explain the history.

The Minoan people under the ruler King Minoa inhabited the areas of the Aegean basin including Troy with Crete serving as it’s center of influence. The commerce expansion enriched these people that led to divisions in society of wealthy nobles who lavished in the construction of large residences such as the palace of Knossos that was adorned with art, jewels and symbolized prominence for the territory. Administrative and political powers were firmly organized under royal authority. The first written form of this area known as linear A arose from the Minoan people which enabled documenting of trade accounts, historical instances and matters of government. An improved form of writing would evolve later known as Linear B as a predecessor to the more widely used archaic form of ancient Greek developed around 1000BC.

Those Minoans who didn’t revel in the minority of noble or privileged trade barons may have made their living as a worker of the palaces of which some that were set up as functioning markets where one might be the property of a wealthy proprietor or practice as an independent tradesman. Other members of the population were small locals who were subservient to the king. The need for an army developed an assertive force that was effective at protecting the developments of trade and culture in the dominant Minoan region for many centuries during the early to middle bronze age period. Yet a neighboring society known as the Mycenaean’s to the south was some what a warrior culture that also had acquired large masses of wealth exemplified by palaces and a governing kingship. Similarly, they were bold traders and maintained contact with other countries from the Mediterranean and Europe. Their military was ever prepared for battle in defense of it’s territory including Athens, Thebes, Pylos and Tiryns. Around 1100-1200 BC it waged an invasion against the Minoans and won what was important in solidifying it‘s position of rule within the area.

To familiarize the context of the situation during the time, it’s useful to call upon the stories of the Iliad by the poet Homer who provides the only remnants of factual, albeit speculative, account from that time. The extent of his writings have held a large importance to help unveil some of the structure of civic life at the time. Much of what is expressed in the epic poem the Iliad and also the Odyssey has shown to contain factual names, historical episodes, and beliefs of Mycenaean culture that are substantiated by discovery of archaeological evidence supporting people and events. Despite the widely held belief that the writings didn’t actually take place until centuries after the era that the story unfolds, the basis of the writings deal with the Trojan Wars that were that hostility waged between the two controlling forces in the Aegean.

As told by Homer, the Iliad examines most of what the solder’s life and society in general for which importance emphasis were put on honoring virtuous ideals of strength valor, achievement and homage to the celestial powers as well as other traits.

The main character Achilles from Greece is the most valiant soldier in the country and the war against the city of Troy is reaching it’s end. Greece’s governor and commander of the army Agamemnon disrespectfully abducts one of Achilles’ many enslaved maidens to make for himself. The circumstances prompting this act was that a priest of the mythological god Apollo had come to beckon King Agamemnon to return the daughter of the priest who previously had been subjected to enslavement by Agamemnon. Upon complying with the priest’s demands and to prevent a larger viral endemic that the priest had warned would infect the Greek citizen’s, the King brashly took an enslaved maiden from Achilles to make his flock full. Achilles viewed this disrespectful action as an affront and to exact revenge over his own commander, Achilles withdrawals from the war against Troy.

According to the story, the initial cause to start the ten year Trojan war was in response to the abduction of Greece’s Helen by the Trojans who intended for her to become the wife of their Prince Paris son of King Priam of Troy. With Achilles withdrawal from battle, the military gains that had ensued for the Greeks during the last nine years began to subside and the outlook became more favorable for the Trojans.

Homer’s descriptions of the battles that take place emphasize the sheer brutality exhibited with the sword and shield combat. Descriptions of the enormous fleet of sea vessels maintained by the Greek military are given as well as the portrayal of the civilization. The story ends with Achilles fulfilling the heroic fate born of him by reentering the war and claiming victory for the Greeks that involves the slaying of the prized Trojan warrior Hector. The story of The Odyssey carries similar importance as a classical text while also projecting an episodic insight to this era in Greek society. It’s story emphasizes the return home of the soldiers after enduring the tiresome decade of conflict.

The inclusion of the Greeks Gods thought-out the story obviously reinforces the widely instilled polytheistic belief of the worshiper gods. Their mention within most later day writings and the common understanding of mythology as a way of life for early Greeks extol the significance of the concept that orderly structure in was held together by this superior realm of power. These figures were believed to be in control over the powers within their proscribed domain such as Apollo being the sun god, Ares, the god of war, Athena, the goddess of beauty, Poseidon, the god of the sea, Hermes, the messenger god, Hades, god of the afterlife, his wife Persephone, the goddess of the underworld and their daughter Demeter, goddess of grain, Dionysus, god of exuberance and wine, Aphrodite goddess of sexuality who all consist with the addition of six others as the Olympian gods held under the powers of Zeus.

These accounts of late Bronze Age Greek civilization and the subsiding wars during the 11th century BC mark an approaching end to the development that emanated from the influence of international trade and wealth creation. Several factors led to a demise of the societies that were present at the time which soon prompted the arrival of what’s known as the Dark Age that lasted from 1100bc to 750bc. The biggest deterrent to the social advancement was a transition away from the bronze materials to the melding of iron that was found to be more abundant and not dependant on the intricate trade system that had been assembled during the last fifteen hundred years. So the need for the mobilization became less important and the systems that accompanied trade such as foreign interaction as well as record keeping diminished. A languishing political system and social order had grown largely out dated due to no new governing improvements leaving a gap in what was needed to maintain the emergence of stronger powers of the expanded social structure. Other reasons are said to have caused the downfall as well including natural inhospitableness like droughts, volcanoes, and climatic effects which all caused famine and large tolls of death. Thus this transformation had deleterious effects whereby writing seemingly ceased to exist and the prosperity of a world economy suffered severely.

Greek society squandered though the period of the Dark Ages as did many of the other regions of Europe. But having asserted itself previously as a regional superpower, Greece managed to arise from the two hundred years of despair in the subsequent period known as the Geometric and Archaic Age from 800-500BC.

According to most scholarly theory, this was the age during which Homer actually lived and scripted his accounts of the Trojan War. His ability to capture the stories several centuries later is assumed to have been a result of talented linguist story tellers who been passed down accounts of the action. Within this time arts, culture, transparent forms of government and the early Western thinkers slowly emerged to help plant the seed of modern thought, art, architecture and forms of government.

The emergence of the concept of the city-state, known in Greek as “poli” began around 800 BC in areas near where the cities had existed before the Dark Ages. People had reverted to a tribal existence for several hundred years but began to reconverge in larger communities which created a localized trading system. Archaic methods of pottery using geometric formations and crude statues of the human form were created. Among the previously mentioned texts, other writers produced documents of the ongoing developments. Herodotus was a very important historian who existed later in this period and offered insight to the expansion of the Greek colonization. The population grew and people provoked by the local commerce started relocating among inland territories and nearby islands where they were able to claim autonomous rule even though their settlement was within protection of mainland territories such as Thera, Crete or Athens. Each new settlement developed it’s unique culture that didn’t uniformly evolve across all the separate city-states. This led to a unique style for many of the communities that could benefit from trade and cordial relations among them.

The early forms of rule were oligarchic where a few select members of society would implement rules and help govern by a set of established laws. The true form of a democracy didn’t form until a few hundred years later in Athens. While the city-states grew, their independence was maintained and contact with several of the other foreign cultures like the Assyrian and Phoenicians in Egypt occurred. Colonies of trading outposts ultimately were formed making the Greek Mediterranean basin a center of culture and commerce.

The advent of philosophy marks one of the greatest achievements during the proceeding era known as the High Classical Period lasting from 500-336 BC. Progress gained momentum and Athens became the center of activity for the collection of island and mainland Greek territory. Introspective ideas were considered to assign substantive meaning for society. Inquisitive approaches that examined the totality of things such as innovation, policy, science, medicine and the arts became regular modes of thought. This Greek way of thinking emphasized the conceptual approach to discovering truth that is the basis of philosophy. Aristotle was among the best philosophical thinkers and he produced many works, one in particular titled “Nicomachean Ethics” explores the basis of the best way of human life. A central tenant of his thought is that for man the highest good is wisdom. Emphasizing the enormity of power contained within our minds to understand life and it’s capability for improving society was a foremost objective of the era’s great thinkers.