Describe the conquests of Alexander the Great and analyze the legacy of his empire.

Describe the conquests of Alexander the Great and analyze the legacy of his empire
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Describe the conquests of Alexander the Great and analyze the legacy of his empire
Alexander is synonymous with one of the most powerful and icon legacy of all times. His popularity surpasses military conquest and economic dominance. For instance, he managed to influence trade and contacts between the West, and East. Additionally, he managed to influence the vast region of the East to adopt the Greek culture and civilization (Clark, 2012). Hence, he developed many cities in the East through building major cultural centers that exhibited the Greek culture. Some of these structures are still standing strong to date.
Contrarily, the expansion of Alexander`s empire or Hellenism from the Mediterranean area to Asia was facilitated with the passage of his military personnel who used the vast mountainous region of Middle East toward the Asia countries. This route later became trade route between Asian and European people. The concept of Hellenization refers to spread of Greek culture, language and people to others like he did to the previously known Persian Empire immediately after his conquest (Clark, 2012). This means that Alexander wanted to rule his great empire through cultural homogenization. For example, the Athenian culture was his prime Hellenistic core culture. After his conquest, Greek immediately became the language of commerce and trade for the newly acquired territory and people from all over the empire gained from using this common ideology.

Besides, the benefit of Hellenistic culture to Alexander`s empire is that people were able to understand each other well, and it led to the appreciation of Greek drama, art, and philosophy (Clark, 2012). In addition to that, various governments under the rule of Alexander were immune from attack and they flourish through enhanced trading route such as the Silk Road. The Silk Road was used to transport silk from Chinese dynasty to the people of the Mediterranean who need it. It influenced the creation of major caravan cities like Palmyra and Petra that were Greek influenced towns in nature.
In the cosmopolitan world, the conquest of Alexander was also noticed. For instance, Alexander acquired Egypt after defeating Persia that had ruled Egypt for awhile (Clark, 2012). Alexandria town named after him was one of the cities in Egypt that was influenced by commerce and culture facilitated with Alexandria`s empire. Alexander himself launched this town, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty, it became the capital of Egypt. It was very strategic in terms of geographical placing because it facilitated trade routes needed in the Mediterranean and it was also a significant hub for sea traders. Alexander and Ptolemy influenced the Egyptians to fuse their religion with that of Greek, and this formed the anthropomorphic god named Serapis. The iconic god Serapis linked the aspect of the living Apis bull popular in Greek culture with the god of the dead Osiris that is synonymous with the Egyptian people.
Consequently, Greece was a perennial enemy of Philip who was Alexander`s father. Therefore, the core goal of Philip was to defeat Persia by all means (Clark, 2012). This was because the Greek culture and lifestyle were always under threat by the extensive growing Persian Empire. However, he was murder before he accomplished this objective. When Alexander, his son assumed leadership, he vowed to accomplish his father long dream of invading Persia. After a three year battle, Alexander emerged Victoria through defeating the Persian armies. He automatically became the leader of the Persian Empire through acquiring the legendary city named Babylon.
In Persia, he spread the Hellenization concept through creating a unified ruling system. For example, he encouraged marriage ties that incorporated the idea of conquerors intermingling with conquered. Furthermore, he adopted certain aspects of the Persian court system and culture. For example, he developed his own type of royal robes and also copied Persian court ceremonies. These actions were resented by many Macedonians leaders who believed that hybridization of Greek with another culture was not significant in any way. His unification concept was also felt in the military. For instance, he trained Persian soldiers in the Macedonian method and placed them in military ranks and this assisted in solving manpower issues during battle.
Simultaneously, in his ambition to travel further east he arrived in India in 326 B.C.E (Ancient Civilizations, 2016). He defeated Porus who the Indian regional King at Jhelum river battle. In Indus, the newly acquired territory in India, Alexander nominated Peithon his office to rule as satrap while Porus continue ruling as the regional king. In reality, even though he dominated India his influence remained less in this region. Porus, the regional king, officially derived his leadership from the Macedonian king, Alexander though he essentially remained an independent leader. In short, Alexander did not have the required resources to hold India as he had done with Persian and Egyptian empire. Therefore, all trace of Alexander`s Macedonian power were cleared from India by the year 317 B.C (Ancient Civilizations, 2016).
On the other hand, the spread of Hellenism caused a significant change in religious ideology in India and Asia in general. For instance, Buddhism managed to spread from Indian Mauryan Empire to the central Asia and into eastward Chinese (Ancient Civilizations, 2016). The Monk used the Silk route established by Alexander`s conquest to spread their Buddhist ideologies into Chinese. Lastly, Roman and Hellenistic art have significantly portrayed the Buddha. In the past, Buddha used to be represented symbolically without any human based image (Ancient Civilizations, 2016). However, the Greek structured an anthropomorphic image to represent Buddha and in the same way reflect the human aspect of his teaching and lifestyle.
Alexander died of illness on his way home from Asia. After a while, the Macedonian empire was faced with rivalry and dissension following the murder of Perdiccas who was in a joint leadership with Alexander`s son (Ancient Civilizations, 2016). The United Macedonian kingdom was demolished, and it formed the four stable kingdom blocks named the Seleucid empire that stretched the East, the Ptolemaic kingdom that was based in Egypt, the Pergamon Kingdom that was formed in Asia Minor and the ancient Macedon Kingdom in Greek. This rivalry caused the assassination of both Philip III and Alexander IV (Clark, 2012).
In conclusion, even though the reign of Alexander was very short, people cannot ignore his influence on both western and eastern cultures. More ever, his legacy is always based on his campaign to spread the Hellenism culture to the rest of world and this last for many years after his official death. Furthermore, the expansion of new empires fused and merged the Hellenism culture with their own to establish some of the greatest civilization in the ancient world. Today, the trace of Hellenism culture can still be noted in areas where the Macedonian kingdom ruled through exhibition such as artwork, buildings and cultural centers designed in the Hellenism culture (Ancient Civilizations, 2016). Even though the trace of Hellenism is limited in Asia, but the spread of Hellenism caused a significant change in religious ideology in India and Asia in general. For instance, Buddhism managed to spread from Indian Mauryan Empire to central Asia and into eastward Chinese.
References
Ancient Civilizations.(2016). 5g. Alexander the Great.
Retrieved from. http://www.ushistory.org/civ/5g.asp
Clark Darci .(2012). The Impact of Alexander the Great`s Conquest.
Retrieved from. http://semiramis-speaks.com/the-impact-of-alexander-the-greats-conquests/