Leadership and Alexander the Great

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Leadership and Alexander the Great

• Alexander in World History

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What Makes a Good Leader?
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Political Leadership in Classical China

• Central authority for a vast territory

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Political Leadership in Classical China

• Single legal code for empire
• Power of the bureaucracy
• Respect for authority (Confucian belief system)
• What did the state provide?

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Political Leadership in Gupta India
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Political Leadership in Gupta India

• Regionalism
• Uniform law code
• Social order based on strict social structure
  (religion, military, taxation)
• What did the state provide?

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Political Leadership in Mediterranean Societies
(Greece, Rome and Persia)

• Diversity of political forms
• Democracy, aristocratic assemblies, republic,
  empire
• What did the state provide?

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Political Leadership in Mediterranean Societies
(Greece, Rome and Persia)
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Political Leadership in Mediterranean Societies
(Greece, Rome and Persia)
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Political Leadership in Mediterranean Societies
(Greece, Rome and Persia)
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So what gave these Empires Legitimacy?
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Great Individuals

• What makes someone great?

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Alexander the Great- The Basics

• 356 BCE- 323 BCE
• Macedonian
• Son of Philip II
• Taught by Aristotle
• Tolerant of non-Greeks
• Military genius
• Believed he was descended
• from the gods

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Alexander the Great- Debates over his Character

• Charismatic, visionary OR cruel and unstable
  megalomaniac?
• Curious dreamer OR Paranoid alcoholic?
• Cold blooded imperialist OR Benign
  Multi-culturalist?
• Brilliant warrior and strategist OR Hellenic
  cultural ambassador?
• OR all of the above?

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Motivation

• Pursuit of Glory
• Attain divinity and surpass heroes of myth
• Belief in his own invincibility (guided by omens)
• Pan-hellenic invasion of Persian empire to rid
  world of tyranny and oppression (revenge of
  Persian invasion of Greece150 years earlier)
• Personal longing to see the ocean that was
  believed to encircle Europe and Asia at the edge
  of the earth.

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As a Military Commander

• Used strategy to compensate for fewer numbers.
• He never asked anyone to do something he would
  not do himself.
• He led his men into battle every time.
• Was almost fatally wounded many times.
• Refused to drink water if all soldiers could not.

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Alexander on the Battlefield
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Alexanders Conquests

• Throne following his fathers assassination
• Expanded Macedonian borders north to Danube and
  west to Adriatic
• Used Thebes as an example and Athens and other
  Greek cities followed
• Moved west towards Persia through Asia Minor
  (Turkey)
• Tyre (Lebanon), Egypt, Babylon, Persepolis,
  Persia, Bactria (Afghanistan), Samarkand (Uzbek.)
• In five years, he expanded his empire east by
  2500 miles.

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Alexanders Conquests
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Leadership Wears Thin

• Adoption of Persian dress by Alexander
• Married Persian dancer named Roxanne
• Arranged (forced) marriages of Greeks and
  Persians to reconcile the two cultures.
• Forced to turn back before India but took the
  long (unknown) way home via water losing many
  soldiers.

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Alexander the Great- Accomplishments

• Expanded Macedonia created an empire that
  covered over two million square miles.
• Founded 70 cities- many on trade routes thus
  increasing east-west trade. Alexandria in Egypt
  (library)
• Established a new coinage for trade.
• Diffusion of Hellenic customs over much of the
  Mediterranean and Asia.

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Alexander the Great- Accomplishments

• Created a cultural and economic common market
  open to trade, social and cultural exchange with
  Greek as the lingua franca.
• Attempted ethnic fusion through marriage and
  adoption of Persian culture at home.
• Adapted and created new military techniques
  phalanx and use of cavalry.
• Improved knowledge of geography and natural
  history.

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Accomplishments
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Alexander the Great- Legacy

• Macedonian imperial domination facilitated
  cultural hegemony of Greece.
• Spread of Hellenism architecture, food, science,
  dress
• Alexander originated the concept of "one world"
  without racial or territorial delineation.

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Alexander the Great- Legacy

• Inspired Caesar, Cleopatra, Louis XIV, Napoleon
• He is remembered in legend having been both
  feared and worshipped from Iceland to China.
• The Byzantines made him a Saint and the
  Mohammedans included him in the Koran. The 13th
  century Malian oral history of Sundiata refers to
  him.

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Conclusions

• Classical empires compared
• Leadership in Classical societies
• Was Alexander a great leader for the times?