Midterm Essay Dustin Bawell
History 206
Learning and understanding our history of ancient civilizations is most importantly a tool we should use to prepare ourselves for a better future. I believe this to be true because after going through the different ages of time and seeing the outcome I have a better understanding of history than those who were in it and could not see the world today. I will elaborate on how the ancient civilizations like that of the Roman Empire and Medieval period laid the structure of our modern governments and militias. To learn from all the mistakes they made to make sure the next society didn’t do the same things while trying to replicate the good. But in order to do this we must examine to see what these groups of people did right and wrong. In our case we look at the fore fathers of the United States and the way they set up our democratic system to succeed more than those before it. The importance of studying ancient cultures all comes down to making the right decisions to provide a better life for everyone inhabiting this earth together on this journey called life.
The first civilization that brought all of this too my mind is Greece and their creation of the democratic government around 500 B.C. in Athens. Looking at the Greeks government you will see some similarities to our modern times but a lot of differences that helped us progress as a world moving towards equality for everyone. First example of this would be how the Athenians only allowed certain groups of people to vote and have there thoughts heard. Men eighteen and older were the only ones allowed to ask questions and even fewer of them allowed to vote. Women and foreigns that weren’t directly from the city were not allowed to vote or have a say in the decisions made for the society, as it was in early America the women could not vote nor the slaves. Even though this was the same circumstance when the United States democracy was being created it later change and developed so everyone could vote as it should be, this is how history taught us a lesson and the world has changed. Only men were allowed to hold office in any of the governing positions.
The Athenians also operated there laws and voting different from the way it is currently done in the United States system. The men would all gather at a designated area to simply raise a hand and vote for new laws and regulations that came up. Once again women, slaves, and children were not allowed to participate. But not all men were allowed to vote most were required to either own land or have previous military training. To get more voters the government eventually started to offer rewards to those who came out to listen and vote. This was appealing to those who lived further away and couldn’t take time out of their day to attend. If the United States government were to offer a reward for everyone who came out and voted this election in November we would have a record setting turnout. Our curr...
