Alexander the Greats up-bringing is the answer to why his empire was so successful.

Alexander grew up in the perfect alignment to become a victorious leader. He was born and
raised into the aspects of leadership and war, his army was exceptionally strong, and because
of his want for power. This is what made his empire to be such a great force.
Alexander was not raised like any other child. Born in 356 BC, his parents were Queen
Olympias of Macedonia and King Phillip II. As he was born, his father was busy trying to unite
the Greek city states in order to prepare for war against the Persians. This resulted in him not
being around much, leaving Alexander to be raised by his mother. She was a great believer in
teaching children about Greek Mythology. From hearing all of his mothers stories and beliefs,
this caused Alexander to develop a great interest in becoming a great hero. Even though he
was raised mostly by his mother, he still had the desire to be just like his father. As Alexanders
interest in becoming a hero continued and progressed, he was then taught by Greek
Philosopher, Aristole. He was taught several beliefs Aristole thought would be very useful for
him in the future. After his training, when he was 16 years old his father granted him control of
their home city, Pella. Quickly improving in his leadership skills, a year later when he was only
17 years of age, he solely lead a successful first conquest by annihilating Athenian and Theban
forces at the battle of Chaeronea. After this battle, his father was able to unite all the city
states with the exception of Sparta, starting the League of Cornith. His father was voted leader
of the campaign, but shortly after, when Alexander was 19 years old, his father was
assassinated. This meant all the power would be left for Alexander.
Even though this was such a big responsibility to hand over to a 19 year old boy, since
Alexanders training and up-bringing was so intense, he was greatly prepared for what he had
coming to him. After Alexander was awarded his fathers power, the city states first refused to
acknowledge his power as leader. To show that he was a worthy general, he marched all of his
troops into Thebes. Destroying the entire city and killing 6 000 troops, Alexander had more
than proved his position as leader, causing no more conflict with peoples acceptance. After
being able to gain full power throughout Greece, he wanted to further his empire. Using his
fathers military expansion plans, he targeted the Persian Empire. 40 000 soldiers strong and
his fathers war training in his mind, he marched right through Asia into the heart of the
empire. After entering, he stumbled upon an extremely dangerous situation. Persian emperor
Darius III had came to meet him with 140 000 men by his side. Hugely outnumbered Alexander
commanded that they charge the straight at them. He avoided death and forced Darius to flee.
This meant Alexander had gained power of the entire western portion of the Persian Empire.
After Persia, Alexander continued south, conquering Southeast Asia in places such as Jerusalem
and Gaza, then proceeded to take control of Egypt. One of the most interesting and unique
things about Alexanders ruling is that the places he captured were not forced to change their
religion and beliefs. Also, he did not destroy their temples. Instead, he paid his respects to

their gods. By the age of 30, Alexander had created one of the largest empires of the ancient
world, stretching from the Ionian Sea all the way to the Himalayas.
Alexander developed the want for power due to many things. He felt as sort of an
outsider to the rest of his family growing up. Causing him to seek self fulfilment as he got older.
Conquering city after city he could never get this feeling of satisfaction that he desired. So to
try and fill this empty whole, he thought he would just need to capture more and more
territories. He had aspirations of conquering the entire world. He wanted to further his culture
into other places and get that sense of accomplishment he always dreamed of. His main
motivation for success in battle was to get revenge against the Persians for all the bad they had
done. So he did everything in his power that he could possibly do to make that happen. While
he was growing up, he had a lot of things influencing him to become something great when he
was older. His mother would read to him about all of the gods, and being a normal kid, he felt
the need to want to be like them one day. Also, having a father who was the leader of a
massive army really motivated him to have an excessive want for power.
Alexander the Greats up-bringing is the entire reason his empire was what it was. He
had everything in place for him right from the start. He was born and raised into leadership and
war by having his father model how to be a successful leader of a large empire, his well trained
army was outstandingly strong thanks to all of his fathers work, and he had a huge thirst for
power to back it all up, brought on by all of his teachings of Greek heroes and his need for
satisfaction. Alexander the Great is one of the best leaders to ever exist and this was all thanks
to where he grew up, and the family he grew up in.

Pellas Finest

Mac Massi
Ms. Bew
CHW 3MR
May 8, 2013

Bibliography

http://www.personal.psu.edu/asg198/Final%20Project/alexempire.html
http://www.ancientanatolia.com/historical/alexander_great.htm
http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/People/Alexander/