World History
Professor Meskill
Alexander The Great The Macedonian empire was one of the greatest empires in world history. In 359 B.C., King Philip came to rule Macedonia. He developed a strong empire by forming a strong military and political system. In 356 B.C, Philip had a son, who later became historically known as Alexander the Great. Today, Alexander the Great is considered one of the greatest military leaders of all time.
Alexander the Great and his father, Philip, were very successful as conquerors while ruling the Macedonian Empire. Philip used a combination of bribery, persuasion, tribute and force to keep enemies away and to make sure he got what he wanted. Macedonian kings were normally polygamous, Philip included. Philip used marriage as an excellent military tactic to consolidate his power. He married seven women, including Alexander’s mother. Under Philip’s rule, Macedonia had the most superior cavalry around and became the most powerful state in the Greek peninsula. When Alexander the Great came to power in 336 B.C., he had inherited a large and successful empire that his father had built. The Macedonian army consisted 18,000 heavy infantry and 5,000 cavalry, larger than the armies of Sparta and Athens. As …show more content…
However, he had expanded the Macedonian empire so rapidly he could not establish a working government for him to rule it all. Therefore, it collapsed after his death. His empire was simply too massive to rule all by himself. The Macedonian empire fell the way all other empires have fallen in history, when they become more concerned with being seen than it is with actually maintaining order and organization. The overextension of the empire caused instability in the government leading to its fall. Alexander the Great had all of the proper tools to build a long lasting empire. The Macedonian empire was later succeeded by the Roman