Felicia Martinez

12/02/2015
ENG 1010
Cause and Effect
If it were not for the Spartans to set such a high example for a military force, we wouldnt
have such a great army to defend our nation today. If it were not for their tactical ideas, they
wouldnt have been able to be the strongest city state known in the history of their time, nor
would they provide the starting point of the modern day with western socialization. They were
not only a great example of their armed forces and training, but with the arts and of womens
rights. They were the first city-state to start giving women the same advantages as men, even
though they were still seen to be unequal. The Spartans were the first to start a lot of the western
socialization that takes place even today, and I believe that they should be given the credit
deserved.
The Spartans are known for having a great military, the strongest one around at the time.
They were so equipped because of the harsh and long training that took place in preparing their
men. They were the first to create tactical bonding between their men to ensure their will to fight
harder on the battlefield. As it stated in the history world website, they did so by taking the boys
from home at the age of seven to pair them together to live and train together until the age of
eighteen, when they could really fight. In training the men to fight so young, their ambition was
high and the relationships that were created encouraged their passion to protect one another. In
the course of fighting, the Spartans had a giant shield that covered half of the person wearing it,
and the other half to cover the man fighting next to him as long as they were in formation. That

concept still applies today, not with a shield, but fighting for the guy next to you. It keeps you
grounded and reminds you of the reason you are fighting, for something bigger than yourself.
They were also known for having the best defense at the time because they were always
providing and assisting one another, which carried the idea onto the western civilization
impacting today.
The Spartans were very intelligent and articulate and wanted the best means for their city.
They were the first to provide women with an education to make them literate so that they would
be more useful to the men. This now separated the Spartan ways even more from the surrounding
city states because in other cities, the women werent even allowed to go in public. The Spartan
women would go into cities and dance in the street, and even sometimes naked. They were the
most beautiful women around, but were more free than others. Now they were not only beautiful,
but now educated, making the best suitable for the warriors. This evolved the ways for future
Spartan women to further the acceptance of womens rights when a princess was not only
smarter than the politically in charge men, but was able to decipher a secret message from an
exiled king warning of danger. In Paul Cartledges book about Sparta, it stated that the princess
went on to be the first women to compete in the Olympics by entering her own chariot and
eventually breeding her own selection of race horses. She was admired by the people not only
for her beauty, but for her brains as well as she expanded the acceptance for Spartan women
being able to voice their opinions.
Now why are we even discussing Sparta when they were known for being defeated by the
Persians in Thermopylae? Why are they being acknowledged in the importance of having a
strong navy when theirs was defeated? Why bring up the ways of the Spartan women? If it were
not for the Spartans having a weak navy, they wouldnt have lost so many battles setting a better

example for not only their neighbors at the time, but for the countries in todays world
acknowledging the importance of fighting in water. The world is made up of mostly water and
will create more potential if you know how to work around it. Yes, the Spartans are known for
losing the battle of Thermopylae, there is even a movie made about it staring Gerard Butler.
However, they did fight bravely and for their home. The importance of why they were fighting
over rules the turnout in my opinion. As for the womens rights, many believe that they started in
the eighteenth century when in fact it started much earlier than that. The Spartans did what they
thought would benefit their ways of life, and they were right. In accepting the adaptation it
provided a more positive way of living and influenced many neighbors surrounding them. The
women who fought for the womens rights in North America should be praised and admired for
the work they completed, but acknowledged that they were not the first to set the trend.
I think in both the rise and fall of Sparta has impacted our modern world as we see today
with the knowledge and adaptation of their success and defeat we can grow. Even with their
great architecture we have recreated and modified it to create the structures that we have today.
Through their great training and fighting techniques the armed forces have adapted a general idea
of what should work and what shouldnt in order to base new ideas off of. They also relaxed the
ideas of how women should be and what they should do at the time, which set in motion the
ideas for not only their futures, but ours as well. This wasnt in the eighteenth century like most
believe today, but long before Christ was even made. The Spartans should be acknowledged for
not only all the success that they received or the defeats that they had, but the acceptance of
change that they brought to the western civilization at the time.

http://www.livescience.com/32035-sparta.html
http://worldhistory.informe.com/athens-and-sparta-dt18.html
http://www.ancient.eu/sparta/
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac44
http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/thucydides
Spartans by Paul Cartledge