If Alexander ruled for such a short time, why are his conquests so important?

What personal goals did Alexander achieve during his short reign? How do the contributions of Alexander the Great compare to the contributions of modern leaders?
If Alexander ruled for such a short time, why are his conquests so important?
He conquered his way from the Mediterranean, all the way to India.





He controlled the trade route%26#039;s from Europe, Asia and Africa.


He started out at eighteen years of age, and achieved such a huge area of influence, that before he died; he cried because he thought there was no one left to conquer.





Shortly afterwards, he caught a fever and died.





And all this before the age of thirty three!





Military leaders from Julius Caesar, Napoleon Ghenghis Khan and Hitler to name a few, tried to emulate his generalship.
If Alexander ruled for such a short time, why are his conquests so important?
They are not. His empire fell apart immediately after his death. The only reason his conquests might be important is because they created a bunch of unintended consequences. One of the most important ones is the emergence of Alexandria (ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty, starting with Ptolemy I Soter, formerly a general in Alexander%26#039;s army) as a major center of culture and learning. Suffice it to say that Euclid lived in Alexandria, the steam engine was invented by Hero (although it was almost immediately forgotten) in Alexandria, and the size of the globe has for the first time been estimated (with some accuracy) by Eratosthenes in Alexandria. Not to mention the best library in the ancient world...





A better question to ask would be, why the contemporary writes felt it was so important? Well, just ask yourself one question: who paid them to write? :)
Reply:Alexander is important because he spread the greek/hellenistic culture. This changed western civilization bceause of what he was able to do (Kids learn about Alexander the Great as well as the Hellenistic culture in western schools) Alexanders personal goal was to take over the Persian Empire to get them back for when they tried to take over Greece under Cyrus the Great. Once he achieved his goal of conquering the Persians he wanted to get on going until he reached the end of the world(Pacific Ocean). Alexander was held up to high esteem up to the Middle Ages. Julius Caesar once grieved about how he was not able to conquer as much land as Alexander did. During the Middle Ages, Alexander was seen as the noble kind that everybody should look up too.





“Alexander was even thought to have a special connection with Britain. As early as the fourteenth century the French Romance Perceforest had sought to link the story of Alexander with the Arthurian legends of Britain. According to this work, Alexander’s ship was swept off course soon after his conquest of India, and blown ashore in Britain, where he made his lieutenants Betis and Gadifer kings of England and Scotland respectively. Alexander was thus established in the legendary past of Britain, as a distant ancestor of Arthur, and particularly in Scotland, whose kings, several of them named Alexander, liked to trace their pedigree to the conqueror. (Stoneman, Introduction)”





Alexander was a figure who was not only real but was a mythical being which kept him in the history books.