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At its beginning, from 3000 to 1000 B.C. Greece was not as successful or influential as the other ancient cultures.  At the end of that period the Dorians, who were tribes speaking the Doric dialect of Greek, settled Greece between 1100 and 1000 B.C.  They had a military ruling class that oppressed the local people, and they retained this rule by an aristocracy in Sparta and Crete even after the Greeks established democracy in Athens.  The simplest form of Greek architecture, consisting of a straight column without any artistic trim at the top, was created by the Dorians and is known as the "Doric order".

At its beginning, from 3000 to 1000 B.C. Greece was not as successful or influential as the other ancient cultures.  At the end of that period the Dorians, who were tribes speaking the Doric dialect of Greek, settled Greece between 1100 and 1000 B.C.  They had a military ruling class that oppressed the local people, and they retained this rule by an aristocracy in Sparta and Crete even after the Greeks established democracy in Athens.  The simplest form of Greek architecture, consisting of a straight column without any artistic trim at the top, was created by the Dorians and is known as the "Doric order".

[[Image:beginnings_hist_greece.jpg|600px]]

[[Image:beginnings_hist_greece.jpg|550px]]

The beginning of the ancient or classical Greece (see map above) was around 750 B.C., and its peak was 500-336 B.C. when Greece consisted of many small city-states, each comprising a city and surrounding countryside.

The beginning of the ancient or classical Greece (see map above) was around 750 B.C., and its peak was 500-336 B.C. when Greece consisted of many small city-states, each comprising a city and surrounding countryside.