JiJi Plotka, Certified Historian
1) My newest research project, like others that have come before me, is whether Alexander the Great was really great? After researching many credible sources and many long nights without sleep, I have come to the conclusion that Alexander the Great is great because others have decided he was great. Alexander III of Macedon was named Alexander the Great posthumously, showing that already, other people were deciding that he was better than the average king. He did conquer land like nobody else and that is admirable for a general, but that does not make him great. As a king, he was terrible. He had no interest in governing his conquered lands. If there were rebellions, his solution was kill everyone involved because as a general, that's what he did. Alexander the Great was revered by many, long after his time. He was known as a brilliant general, having lost no battles. His drive and the mythology that was given to him after his death influenced many leaders to strive to be like Alexander the Great. Alexander himself was not opposed to embellishing his achievements. Many of the statistics we have for Alexander the Great and his conquests are most likely untrue. The Alexander Romance is a collection of legends and myths regarding Alexander the Great. This collection has Alexander doing deeds there is no human way possible of doing. So the question from this is, was Alexander truly thought of as a god or did he just want to be thought of that way? As with people today there is no doubt Alexander wanted to be remembered and honored. People had no trouble integrating Alexander into their own mythology, especially with him causing Hellenistic culture to be widespread. With collections of legends, myths, non-provable historical data, people have decided his greatness. While Alexander was still alive, he prayed at the shrine of Zeus Ammon that was shared by Egyptians and Greeks. While he was there, the Egyptians proclaimed him one of their own gods, and Alexander was content with this. It simply added to his legacy of being great. Julius Caesar's rule of Rome was greatly inspired by Alexander the Great. Napoleon Bonaparte tried conquering conquering a lot of land to emulate his hero Alexander the Great. Alexander's influence on basically the entire known world at that point helped solidify his life and his assumed greatness.
2) The blending of cultures under Alexander's rule personally helped him greatly. It allowed his influence to stain many cultures and ensure his survival through history. His spread of Hellenistic culture allowed the spread of Greek language. During Alexander's rule, all of his empire spoke Greek. This allowed for common trade, more communication, more efficiency between said trade and communication and a more connected empire above all. This probably would not have happened without Alexander the Great conquering as much as possible. Directly after Alexander's death, his empire split into three parts, known as the Hellenistic Kingdoms. Eventually after these kingdoms broke down, the countries that were once Hellenistic and once united under the Greek language that the Macedonians, Phillip II, and Alexander the Great were so fond of.
3) Seventh President of the United States Andrew Jackson was arguably the worst president in US history, but he got stuff done, like Alexander the Great. He was a popular general and after winning the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, an unnecessary battle, he gained popularity and decided it was time to run for president! So he did...but he lost to John Quincy Adams. He got angry and said that it was corrupt and John Quincy Adams had abused his power. The next election Jackson won, in one of the first elections where it wasn't just wealthy, white landowners voting, it was now also poor, white men. For a while Alexander was very popular with the masses, but he eventually started abusing his power. Jackson, who was the most democratically elected president up to this point, used the veto power more than any other president. At one point he was thought of as champion of the common man. Nowadays, Jackson is considered one of the worst presidents of the United States. Not only did he abuse power in office, but he also killed or misplaced most Native Americans. So the American outlook of Andrew Jackson has changed greatly since his reign of wannabe-king of the USA. Thankfully, Americans now don't feel too happy about the man who liked to kill Native Americans and abuse power. Like Alexander the Great, he was a military man and not a great leader, even though they were both popular with the people they ruled over, for a time, now each man's greatness has come into question.
Works
Cited
"Alexander
romance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Romance>.
Cartledge, Paul.
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<http://web.ebscohost.com/hrc/detail?vid=6&sid=f5a1ed8f-73fa-43ae-9c35-a3353faabe72%40sessionmgr198&hid=112&bdata=JnNpdGU9aHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=khh&AN=44388998>.
Green, John.
"Alexander the Great and the Situation ... the Great? Crash Course World
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Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LsrkWDCvxg>.
Green, John.
"Age of Jackson: Crash Course US History #14 - YouTube." YouTube.
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<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beN4qE-e5O8>.
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Knox, E.L. Skip.
"Alexander the Great." History Sites by Knox. N.p., n.d. Web.
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<http://europeanhistory.boisestate.edu/westciv/alexander/08.shtml>.
Loberfield,
Audrey. "FANTASY OVER FACT: AN INQUIRY INTO THE GREEK ALEXANDER ROMANCE
AND THE ROLE OF MEMORY." Mac OS X Server. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept.
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<http://argos.chs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/eJournal.woa/wa/dist?dis=163>
I find it cool how he just accepted the idea of him being an Egyptian god. He must have had a pretty big ego to be compared with a god. On the other hand, who wouldn't? :)
ReplyDeleteI agreed on question 2 with how you said that the blending of cultures that ultimately helped Alexander's empire in the blending of ideas which is more or less what I wrote. I also agreed with you on how Alexander had many flaws within his character as you basically said when you stated that he killed a bunch of people and was a bad king, and I think that a lot of people forget that fact and just think that Alexander conquered a lot of land. On the whole you had a great blog with a lot of specific detail when needed and had broad generalizing of Alexander's life when needed whoch made it an interesting blog to read.
ReplyDeleteYour comparison to Alexander and Andrew Jackson was different and I unexpected. I like that you gave examples about the aspects of the blending of Hellenistic culture such as trading and better communication. I like your turban. Great word choice, and project!
ReplyDelete