Why is Alexander the Great remembered?
Alexander the Great...
You may remember him as the guy you did in your second grade doing the project. I do. He's just some historical figure, right? To become a history buff, you have to remember one in a thousand.
Incorrect.
Alexander's life had an incredible impact on world history.
To truly understand his importance, we have to look at what happened when he was born. His father, Philip of Macedonia, invested a great deal of time and effort in building Macedonia into a powerful state.
Macedonia is an obscure country on the farthest outskirts of the Greek world. Hell, it's closer to the Thracian barbarians than to Athens. But they are still Greeks.
That was what Philip had left for Alexander. As you can see, the military buildup of Philip and his predecessors paid off handsomely. If nothing else had happened, Philip might be remembered today as a good ruler, but not a great ruler. That state may seem big to you. Now look at this.
(Yes, I know that began in 500 BC, but the borders have not changed significantly since then and this time).)
Well, that thing is not only at least 20 times that of Philip's kingdom, but also the largest empire in the world. It has been estimated that in the 100 years before Philip and Alexander, it had 44% of the world's population.
Can you tell which empire in history had so many people compared to the rest of the world? This is the Empire. The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Asia Minor combined to form this behemoth. (Although they did not willingly unify, they talked at length about *cough* Cyrus).)
Anyway, who is this guy?
oh! It was the guy who conquered the aforementioned empire.
Well, it's embarrassing. But only a few years after his conquest of Persia, his life was tragically shortened. Then we broke up. So why is he important?
He laid the foundation for the rise of the Roman Empire by dismantling what would surely have stopped it from moving forward, and then for the entire history of the Middle East since then (some say the rise of Islam?? ? ）。
Yes, it's a big deal. I can go into more detail, but you can delve into it in more depth if you want.