Weekly Project: 1/21-2/4

 Does Power Corrupt? How or How Not? Why or Why Not? Do you think Alexander was corrupted? And who influenced whom the most: Did Persia become more Greek or did Alexander becoming more Persian?


         For the past two weeks, we have been talking about Alexander the Great. We learned a lot about him, his battles, his enemies, and about power. I think that power can corrupt for many reasons, but there are some people in power that will stay honest/good for their whole reign. I do think that Alexander ended up being somewhat corrupted because of the things he did. Finally, I feel that Persia and Alexander (the Greeks) both influenced each other. Without one or the other causing some of the events that happened, neither of them would have done much. 
       Having power is usually a tremendous strength. Most likely, when you are in control of the people, you can probably get away with much more, and your leading the whole nation/country/group. I think that having someone in power is a good thing if they use it correctly. For instance, I think having a president for a democracy is great because they are the leader, and they make decisions collectively. based on what the people want. The opposite of that is when the person is power is only in the position for the name. They want to rule all the people and for nobody to be able to be 'bigger' than themselves. This could be harmful for many countries because there could be mass killings or just very unhappy people. Also, the leader could just make very bad decisions. I think that power can corrupt for many reasons. A person thats in power may start off really good, but end up being horrible because they were corrupted. I think a person gets corrupted because they get ahead of themselves and start thinking nobody is better than them, and they can't be defeated. Sometimes people just go to far. Another reason is if the person had some huge accomplishment, they may start to think too high of themselves and not worry about what the people want.
               I think that Alexander the Great got somewhat corrupted because of some of his great achievements. In the Wikipedia article about Alexander the Great, it said, "he (Alexander) was undefeated in battle and is considered one of the most successful commanders of all time." This could have led Alexander's corruption because he started thinking that he was too good to do anything wrong. Some of the things that Alexander did that I think are wrong are that he had killed some people who were possible to also take thrown so that he would have all the power to himself. He had also killed many other people for various reasons. I think that this would be corrupted power because at first he wasn't like that. Once he started to be very hard to defeat, he started to do bad things like that. I think that power defiantly can be corrupted, and Alexander the Great was corrupted.
             I think that the Persians and Alexander equally influenced each other. Alexander did some things that greatly influenced the Persians. For instance, when Alexander the Great and his forces attacked the Persians, I think they were forever changed by that battle. That fight set the grounds for the rest of the battles between the Persians and Alexander. The Persians ran from Alexander at the battle of Gaugamela. Before Alexander, the Persians were a very strong force, but Alexander changed that. The Persians were greatly defeated by Alexander and his army. However, Alexander was also very greatly changed by the Persians. I think the battle at Gaugemela was the beginning of Alexander's corruption. That was when he started getting very powerful. He had just defeated the Persians who greatly outnumbered the Greek forces. After he had defeated the Persians, it wasn't enough, he wanted to go to Persia and fight them again. I feel that Alexander had probably gotten to be very conceited and thought too much of himself. He became this way because of the Persians. If the Persians had given Alexander a better fight, especially by not running away from him, I think that Alexander would have not been so big-headed. It was probably after he defeated the Persians that Alexander started killing people for power and other reasons. both the Persians and Alexander were greatly influenced by each other, but I think that the Persians were affected a little more by Alexander and the Greeks because he had so badly defeated them.
          We went over a lot in the past two weeks and I learned a lot. I think that Alexander had corrupted his power and the Persians had greatly affected that. Alexander the Great had also greatly affected the Persians though because of his tremendous wins. Another thing important is that power can corrupt and sometimes it doesn't start off being corrupted, but in the end it is because of the experience and events the leader has been through. Alexander the Great was defiantly a major character in history, and was a great commander from all of his great wins.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great