Week 6 Short Paper Assignment #2

Week 6 Short Paper Assignment #2

Charles Titus, MPA

History 111 – World Civilizations Before 1650 (B004 Fall 14)

Professor Brian Carey

11/11/2014

American Public University System

Charles.

Thank you for the submission of your Week 6 Short Paper Assignment #2.

You earned 97/100 points on this assignment. This assignment is worth 10 percent of your total grade. Please see left column of Home Page for websites to assist with any issues on formatting citation or bibliography, including a citation examples and sample essay.

• Format and Submission (5 points)
• Introduction and Thesis Statement (20 points)
• Organization and Body of Essay (25 points) 22
• Historical Analysis and Use of Sources (25 points)
• Writing Style and Grammar (10 points)
• Use of Citation and Bibliography (15 points)

Please see comments on your returned assignment and look for the three questions posed in the feedback. You are to pick one of these questions to respond to in one of the two Forums for Week 8. Do not pick a question if you addressed the answer in your original essay.

1. Describe two ways in which the time period your historical personality lived in shaped his/her education/philosophy.

1. How is the historical personality you picked seen in the country of their origin today in the 21st century? Is he/she seen as a hero or a villain or some combination of both?

1. Do you see a continuing legacy of the person you picked to write about in your Short Paper Assignment #2 in the 21st century? If yes, what is that legacy? If no, why do you believe there is no legacy?

Good luck on your final.

Professor Carey

"Identify one important historical personality studied in this class through Week 6 and describe three ways this person shaped the age in which he/she lived in."

There have been many historical personalities that have shaped the age which he/she lived in. One historical personality that helped shape the time that he lived in was Alexander the Great who lived between 356 – 323 BC. He helped shape his time and also even helped shape time after he passed away. This paper will describe three ways that Alexander the Great shaped the age in which he lived in.Solid introduction and thesis.

Alexander's real name was “Alexander III of Macedon” and he was the son of “King Philip II of Macedonia” (Fox, 2004, p. 17). Fox (2004) went on to find that Alexander's mother was named “Olympias” (p. 17). Alexander the Great “lived in Pella, the capital city of Macedonia” (Pancella, 2004, p. 6). Throughout the early part of Alexander's life, he was trained by “Leonidas” and “the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle” (Pancella, 2004, p. 6). It is also very important to point out that Alexander did not just become King. He was first a soldier in the Macedonian army when he joined it at the age of sixteen. As a solider, Alexander got his first taste of war in “338 B.C.E” when he “led the cavalry against the Thebans” and won the battle (Pancella, 2004, p. 12). Alexander then became the King of Macedonia at the age of “twenty years old” when his father was assassinated (Fox, 2004, p. 22).

Now by understanding that Alexander the Great was trained at a young age by Aristotle and joined the Army at a young age, one can look at how he helped shape the age in which he lived in. One of the ways that Alexander helped shape the world was the way that he carried out warfare. Barksdale (2014) pointed out that Alexander the Great never lost a battle and that his methods are still being studied today in “military academies” (para. 3). Bardsdale (2014) went on to say that “Alexander gained a reputation of leading his men to battle with impressive speed, allowing smaller forces to reach and break the enemy lines before his foes were ready” (para. 3). Alexander the Great helped shape his time by the way that he used his military allowing him to gain an advantage over the civilizations that he was battling.

Another way that Alexander the Great helped shape his time was that he was not afraid to take on another civilization's customs in order to bring them together. Fox (2004) noted that “Alexander embraced the customs of his former enemies” (p. 59). Fox (2004) went on to find that Alexander even recruited Persian troops to join “his army because he believed that if he forged a close alliance between the Macedonians and the Persians, he could better hold onto the empire he now ruled” (p. 62). Another example of Alexander the Great not looking down upon another civilization's custom was when Alexander was intrigued by the “Indian culture” and as a result, he “had heard of the sophistication of Indian philosophers and summoned some to instruct him or debate with him” (McKay, 2012, p. 82). By doing this, one can argue that Alexander the Great had a respect for other cultures and did not want to force his beliefs on other civilizations. Alexander was a ruler that realized that he needed to take on the customs of other civilizations and to let the people into the Army in order to allow the civilizations to get closer together. Good informational above. However, I want you to move away from using so many direct quotes either as full sentences or as phrases. Instead, moved to a full paraphrasing stance. It’s okay to use direct quotes on occasion, but if more than 15% of your paper is made up of these types of direct quotes, then you’re probably doing it too often -3.

Another way that Alexander the Great shaped the world in which he lived is was that he brought Greek ideas and form of government to the new civilizations that he had conquered. An example of this is when Alexander made the East all have the same language. Fox (2004) pointed out that Alexander “had made the vernacular Greek, koine, the common tongue of the East (p. 79). By doing this, one can conclude that Alexander the Great helped shape the world because it allowed the people within his Kingdom to be able to communicate with one another. This has shown that he understood the importance of everyone being able to communicate with one another. McKay (2012) pointed out that during the time that Alexander was conquering new civilizations that he helped build “new cities and kingdoms” (McKay, 2012, p. 116). McKay (2012) went on to say that during this period that the “Greeks developed a distinctive form of city-state known as the polis and made lasting cultural and intellectual achievements” (p. 116). As a result of Alexander conquering new civilizations and then building cities in the areas that he had conquered, he made a lasting impression on the world because of the cities that he formed during his time.

It is also important to point out that Alexander the Great helped shape the world into what it is today because his methods of warfare are still being studied to this day. Agreed. As a result of this he helped shape the military of today’s time into what it is today. One can also argue that he helped shape the world today because of the way that he tried to integrate civilizations when he conquered new cities. By doing this, he showed that in order for a Kingdom or a civilization to succeed in today’s time that people have to be willing to live together with each other despite our differences. The last way that he helped shape today’s time is that without Alexander the Great being into power, one could argue that a lot of the things that he accomplished would not have taken place if he was not the one in power.

In history ,there were many historical personalities that shaped their time and even shaped the future into what it is today. Alexander the Great was one of the historical personalities that helped shape their time and the future generations after his time. Although Alexander the Great lived between 356 – 323 BC, he has shaped the world into what it has today. He is the type of historical figure that will continue to be studied for many years to come.

An interesting and informative paper on Alexander III of Macedon.

References

Barksdale, Nate. (2014). 8 Surprising Facts about Alexander the Great. History. Retrieved October 21, 2014 from about-alexander-the-great

Fox, Robin Lane. (2004). Alexander the Great. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

McKay, J.P., et all. (2012). A History of World Societies. 9th ed. Vol. 1: To 1600. New York: Bedford/St. Martins.