Significant Humans Overlooked in History

Alexander the Great

Introduction

While you might not have heard about many people on this list, I am certain that you have heard about Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great is best known as a conqueror and with good reason. Alexander’s empire spanned from the Balkans to the Indus. While his conquests are very frequently mentioned, the historical significance of his empire is very often minimized.

History

Alexander’s life does not really become noteworthy until the age of 16 (the year is 340 BC), when Alexander took command of his first army. He did so to crush a revolt that had sprung up in Thrace, while his father was campaigning against the city-state Bzyantion. After proving his competence as a general, Phillip continued to give Alexander military assignments in Greece for the next 4 years. Many of these missions dealt with quelling rebellion within the Macedonian holdings in Greece. It was during this time that Alexander established his reputation as a ruthless commander, for he would completely raze any cities that took up arms against his father’s rule. The reason for this was that Phillip was preparing an invasion of the Persian Empire and did not want the Greeks to rebel while he was off campaigning. Before these plans could be realized Phillip was assassinated, leading the crown to pass to Alexander. After securing his succession, Alexander crossed into Turkey in the year 334 BC with a massive army,  beginning the war with Persia, in the process. His heavily armed and armored spear men made easy work of the armies of the Persian satraps (governors) in Turkey. When he had finished conquering Turkey, he battled and defeated the main Persian royal army that was personally led by the Persian King, Darius III. Alexander was initially losing the battle, but managed to turn the tide when he charged Darius’s position, causing the Persian King to flee. With Darius temporarily defeated Alexander was free to conquer the Levant, Syria, and Egypt virtually unopposed. By the time Alexander had conquered all of these regions, Darius had managed to muster another army. The Macedonians and Persians met at Gaugamela (near modern-day Mosul, Iraq), and once more Darius was defeated. The second defeat of Darius allowed Alexander to enter the Persian heartland and conquer the Persian capital at Persepolis. With the Persian empire effectively destroyed Alexander turned his attention to the realm which bordered his new empire, India. Alexander was quite successful for the short time that he spent in India, but was forced to return to his home due to mutinies among his troops, who had grown homesick after being at war for 15 years. On his journey back to Macedonia, Alexander and his troops rested in the city of Babylon. It was here that Alexander became ill dying a few days later at the age of 35 on June 11, 323 BC.

Significance

While Alexander the Great is most known for his conquests, that is only one reason why he is one of the most significant men to ever live. Alexander’s greatest impacts on history comes from his policy of cultural exchange, his policy of unclear succession which the break up of his empire upon his death, and the reputation that he established.

Arguable the most important aspect of Alexander’s conquests was his policies of cultural exchange. For Alexander wanted to fuse the cultures of all the peoples that he conquered. To this end he encouraged intermarriage between his soldiers and conquered subjects, adopted aspects of Persian culture in court, and encourage Macedonian and Greek settlement in conquered lands (he also had plans to have Persians and other subjects settle in Greece and Macedonia, but died before they could be enacted). All of these efforts served to create a cultural melting pot which merged aspects of Persian and Greek culture. This exchange led to a greater dissemination of Greek culture and knowledge, cementing Ancient Greek culture as the foundation of all Mediterranean civilizations to follow.

The second point of significance of Alexander’s conquests was his conquests themselves. The destruction of the Persian Empire and the organization of Greece into a single entity dramatically changed the course of history. The unified Greek confederation was, for the first time in centuries, freed from the influence of the ever encroaching Persians and the destruction that wars between the city-state brought. This in turn allowed Greek culture to finally surpass Persian culture as the dominant culture of the Mediterranean. Not only in life did Alexander affect geopolitics, but also in death. For after Alexander died his generals squabbled over his empire. Eventually dividing it into 4 kingdoms. These kingdoms continued to exist for the next 300 hundred years, all of them playing a key role in Mediterranean politics.

Finally, Alexander established a legacy that drove future great men (the most noteworthy being Julius Caesar and Napoleon) to aspire to be like him. These aspirations would lead to some of the most important decisions and events in history.

To conclude, many see Alexander’s conquests as his greatest contribution to history, but in fact this is only one part of his role. Not only should he be remembered for his conquests, but he should also be known for his promotion of cultural exchange, the great changes to geopolitics that he triggered, and the example that he set for future great men. All of these are reasons that Alexander truly deserves to be known as the Great.

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4 Comments

  1. caden November 14, 2023

    good source

  2. Kelly October 24, 2022

    By the Standards of a True Academic Scholar, I am NOT a “Scholar”.

    However, as a Student of the Great Conquerors and their Empires of ancient times in World History, of which is inescapably entertwined with what we find in The Holy Bible, as well as the Bible’s scholasticly credible associated apolitical texts.

    And of course, our escivation of the Holy Land continues to supply us quite literally with 100’s of Tons of REAL Evidence FOR the Bible, as well as many of the apolitical books.

    THIS☝, is something I’ve been actively doing for 30 years and it all started when I was just a wee lad.

    Which leads me to a Question, (that I’m sure I already know the answer to),

    Simply put…
    …WHY! WHY!! WHY!!! was the One WE KNOW as “Alexander The GREAT” NOT EVEN mentioned, or referenced in ANY WAY, SHAPE, FORM, nor was there the slightest “IMPLICATION” of Alexander, or Alexandria in a Four Hours long PBS Special, from their “EMPIRES” Series, they had entitled, “The GREEKS”…
    “Crucible of Civilization”.

    ZERO MENTION OF ALEXANDER The GREAT in a “History” of Greece from its Rise to its Fall.

    W H Y ?

    Anyone wanna field THAT simple Question???

    The above article certainly does affirm and confirm what I’ve managed to learn over the years. GOOD ARTICLE!

  3. Lucas Richardsen September 14, 2018

    Very fascinating topic. I had no idea that Alexander began his career at such a young age, nor that he had such a large effect on so many people and places. What surprised me most was your discussion of cultural exchange. I would have expected to see Alexander force his own culture upon the conquered, but he only does this subtly, instead preferring to combine the two. For me, this has very real implications for the modern world, so perhaps in future articles you can connect history to the present in some way (I realize this is not always feasible depending on the specific subject). Great post!

    • axm6090 September 14, 2018

      I find the idea of ancient to medieval warfare and conquest to be an absolutely fascinating topic. For just one person to accomplish so much as Alexander the Great is absolutely remarkable and definitely defines a strong precedence challenged by few such as Julius Cesar with his conquests throughout present day Europe with the most notable feats being the consolidation of Gaul and his crossing of the Rubicon. I think that your imagery is very useful and pertains directly to what you’re talking about, allowing the audience to visualize some of his conquests that are taking place throughout his career. Overall, I feel that this post is very strong from a historic and informative perspective, and my only suggestion for the future would be to possibly try to break up the solid blocks of text a little more to enhance readability. Other than that, very good job, and I look forward to reading about more significant people in history in the future!

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