The Geographic Determinant

Readers of history know that geography has often shaped the history of a society or civilization. In Greece, this variable emerges in force. Hellas is 80% mountains. The only expansive plains occur in three locations: eastern Thessaly, a small area of the Peloponnesse, and the area around Boeotia.
Many scholars have commented how the mountainous terrain fostered tiny, individualistic communities that shared a cultural affinity, yet remained fiercly unique from one another. It is this geographic determinant that helped democracy take root.
In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides notes that the arid peninsula of Attica was only able to grow due to immigrants from non-productive mountainous areas pushed out by migrants and the use of the sea as a way of life. The mountains, a barrier to ease of travel and trade, forced those along the Hellenic coast to take to the sea. The exportation of their superior wares was soon followed by the distribution of their democratic ideals (something similiar to what occurred in our own history). The spreading of democracy had begun.