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Tamrakar 1

Aavash Tamrakar
Megan Gooding
History of the US to 1887
01/25/2013
Greek and Renaissance influences of the American Colonies

The Greek Empire started out as city-states that had their own governments around 800
B.C., Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful city states in Greece. Then, in the
Peloponnesian War Sparta defeated Athens and became the dominant powerhouse in Greece for a while until Pericles who combined the city states into one. Later, Alexander the Great conquered
Greece then began his campaign to conquer and defeat other kingdoms form Western Europe to
China. He had control over the largest kingdom in the history of human kind. The Renaissance was a period after the dark ages where new scientific ideas were discovered and new books published. The Greek Empire and The Renaissance were two of the most influential time periods to the American colonies and in turn to the United States.
The american colonies were mostly made up of people who came to the New World because to find religious, social and financial freedom. Therefore, most of them favored a government where everyone got a say in the local government also known as direct democracy which was first used by the people in Athens about 2000 years ago. Paper and books were made readily available during The Renaissance through the invention of the movable print-type press, which made printing more efficient and affordable. This helped by making copies of rules and regulations of the different colonies. The Renaissance was the period of exploration where the

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Tamrakar 2

European superpowers tried to expand their power by colonizing and the Americas was discovered by Christopher Columbus during this period with the use of new scientific technology the were invented in this time.
Most of the people living in the colonies were self sustaining farmers but there were some commercial farmers, very similar to the Greek Empire. The colonies in the Americas were involved in the Triangular Trade with countries in Europe and Africa, exporting raw materials
and