Alexander The Great Dbq

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Alexander The Not-So-Great Alexander The Great, you've mostly likely heard the name before, everyone has, but do you who he was was? Do you know what he did to achieve such a title and to be so well known even 2,300 years after his death? Do you really know who Alexander 'The Great' was? Alexander was born in 356 BCE in Macedonia. In his childhood he was educated by the great philosopher Aristotle. When he was 20, his father, King Philip of Macedonia, was assassinated and Alexander took control of the entire kingdom and the massive army that his father created. He soon swept across most of the ancient world taking control of city after city, conquering more land than anyone before him, thus earning himself the title, 'The Great'. Not many…show more content…
It would simply be a scatter plot of dots all with the same name, Alexandria (Document A). Almost every city that he founded he named after himself. Because of the privileged education that Alexander received, he considered himself better than everyone else, and almost god-like. In one story he even killed a man for wearing his hat band. While on a boat trip, a strong gust of wind knocked his hat into the water. He was able to easily retrieve it, but the band of the hat was swept off onto a nearby bank. A man on the boat swan to fetch it for his commander. To keep the band from getting wet while swimming the man put in his own head. It is told that Alexander rewarded the man for his efforts with money, but then cut off his head for wearing the royal band (Document D). He considered himself so high above the other people that he justified killing someone for wearing his hat band with good intentions. No one in history can be considered that great of a person to make it necessary to kill another individual just for wearing their hat band. A 'Great' person should consider themselves equal to others, not above…show more content…
In just four battles Alexander and his army killed 100,000 soldiers and civilians(Document E) . That is roughly the same amount of men as the American men that died during the First World War. Alexander's continuously marched his way into settlements and killed anyone that stood against him. The opposers might have been smarter to surrender, but if they truly cared about their people and they were trying to protect it, their fighting was fully justified. It was Alexander who was in the wrong for killing these people. Just like in the case with the man and the hat band, it would have been very easy for Alexander to let them live, but his conquering personality chose death for all that crossed
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