The main reasons proposed are:
What were two causes of the Peloponnesian War quizlet?
What factors led to the Persian defeat? Such factors include unity, leadership, strategy, tactics and the pre-eminence of the Greek soldier. Each contributing factor was to play a distinctive and pivotal role in the various battles to come, which ultimately would lead to the subsequent demise of the Persians.
The primary causes were that Sparta feared the growing power and influence of the Athenian Empire. The Peloponnesian war began after the Persian Wars ended in 449 BCE. The two powers struggled to agree on their respective spheres of influence, absent Persia's influence. This disagreement led to friction and eventually outright war.
The main reasons proposed are:Sparta was jealous of other powers and desired more power for itself.Sparta was unhappy at no longer having all the military glory.Athen bullied its allies and neutral cities.There was a conflict among city-states between competing political ideologies.
Peloponnesian War, (431–404 bc)War fought between Athens and Sparta, the leading city-states of ancient Greece, along with their allies, which included nearly every other Greek city-state. Its principal cause was a fear of Athenian imperialism.
What caused the Peloponnesian War? Greece was not big enough for the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League to be in control. Each league was fighting for allegiance with the city-states. Who did the Spartans rely on for help, why was this ironic?
A number of sources of friction sparked the hostilities, notably Athenian intervention in a quarrel between Corinth (Sparta's ally) and her colony Corcyra, but the real reason for the conflict, according to the Athenian historian Thucydides, was the rise of Athens to greatness, which made the Spartans fear for their ...
The Peloponnesian War was a war fought in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta—the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece at the time (431 to 405 B.C.E.). This war shifted power from Athens to Sparta, making Sparta the most powerful city-state in the region.
Athens was forced to surrender, and Sparta won the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Spartans terms were lenient. First, the democracy was replaced by on oligarchy of thirty Athenians, friendly to Sparta. The Delian League was shut down, and Athens was reduced to a limit of ten triremes.
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Sparta and her allies won the Peloponnesian Wars due to the strength of the Spartan military, poor Athenian choices made in battle, and the physical state of Athens by the end of the war. Athens and Sparta were both Greek city-states that played major roles from the beginning of time.
Peloponnesian War, (431–404 bce ), war fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta. Each stood at the head of alliances that, between them, included nearly every Greek city-state. The fighting engulfed virtually the entire Greek world, and it was properly regarded by Thucydides, whose contemporary account of it is considered to be among the world’s finest works of history, as the most momentous war up to that time.
In the following years their respective blocs observed an uneasy peace. The events that led to renewed hostilities began in 433, when Athens allied itself with Corcyra (modern Corfu ), a strategically important colony of Corinth.
The end came in 405 when the Athenian navy was destroyed at Aegospotami by the Spartan fleet under Lysander, who had received much aid from the Persians.
The so-called Peace of Nicias began in 421 and lasted six years. It was a period in which diplomatic maneuvers gradually gave way to small-scale military operations as each city tried to win smaller states over to its side. The uncertain peace was finally shattered when, in 415, the Athenians launched a massive assault against Sicily. The next 11 years made up the war’s second period of fighting. The decisive event was the catastrophe suffered by the Athenians in Sicily. Aided by a force of Spartans, Syracuse was able to break an Athenian blockade. Even after gaining reinforcements in 413, the Athenian army was defeated again. Soon afterward the navy was also beaten, and the Athenians were utterly destroyed as they tried to retreat.
The Athenian alliance was, in fact, an empire that included most of the island and coastal states around the northern and eastern shores of the Aegean Sea. Sparta was leader of an alliance of independent states that included most of the major land powers of the Peloponnese and central Greece, as well as the sea power Corinth.
The years of fighting that followed can be divided into two periods, separated by a truce of six years. The first period lasted 10 years and began with the Spartans, under Archidamus II, leading an army into Attica, the region around Athens.
Urged on by the demagogue Cleon, the Athenians voted to massacre the men of Mytilene and enslave everyone else, but they relented the next day and killed only the leaders of the revolt. Spartan initiatives during the plague years were all unsuccessful except for the capture of the strategic city Plataea in 427.
Nothing was the same after the war, and Athens was never to be as powerful. The causes of the war are that the Athenian Empire upset the Greek world's balance of power . This greatly alarmed Sparta and its allies. Athens' aggressive policies did not help the situation- the city-state's ambitions certainly provoked the Spartans. Increasingly, the Spartans became very nervous about the growing naval and commercial power of Athens. At first, they resisted the calls of its allied to declare war on its arch-rival. Once Athens had issued the Megarian decree, it initiated a chain of events that led to the Spartan invasion of the Athenian territory. The big cultural differences between the two Greek powers was also a contributory factor to the increasing tensions that later exploded into an all-out war that consumed the entire Greek world.
The Peloponnesian war began after the Persian Wars ended in 449 BCE. The two powers struggled to agree on their respective spheres of influence, absent Persia's influence. This disagreement led to friction and eventually outright war. Additionally, Athens and its ambitions caused increasing instability in Greece. The profoundly different Athens and Sparta societies were also a significant factor in the war’s outbreak, which also had an ideological aspect.
The primary combatants in the Peloponnesian War were the city-states of Athens and Sparta and had allies that supported them during the war. The Spartans and the Athenians had radically different societies. Athens was a democracy, and it was very individualistic. The population played a significant role in politics, and indeed it was a fairly radical democracy for the time. The citizens (only free males) could directly vote on the affairs of the city. Sparta was almost the opposite of Athens in every way. It was a very stratified and conservative society. Two kings from two royal families ostensibly ruled it.[13] The kings shared power with a council of elders (Gerousia). Sparta society depended on a servile population. The helots toiled the lands of Lacodemia for their Spartan masters.[14] Sparta was a highly militarized society, and the need for a strong and well-disciplined army was the main concern of the state. The state took boys from their families and trained them from youth to be soldiers. The role of women was to produce good soldiers, and men were expected to be brave warriors.
In 440 BCE, Corinth urged the Spartans to wage war on Athens simultaneously as Cornith was suppressing a revolt on the island of Samos. The Spartan Kings were cautious and decided to avoid conflict with Athens at that time. However, the Thirty Years Peace was under increasing strain. In the Spartan assembly, they were growing alarmed at the growth of Athenian power.[8] As Athens seemed to be growing more powerful, there was a growing pro-war party in Sparta. They argued that the Spartans had to attack Athens before it became too powerful. The fear of Athens increasingly led the Spartans to prepare for war, even though there is no evidence that the Athenians had any designs on Sparta or its allies.[9] Additionally, there were those in Athens who believed that war should be welcomed. There was a strong ‘imperial’ party in Athens who believed that it was entitled to a great empire because of its role in the Persians' defeat. Sparta's concerns were not entirely unfounded.
Over time the Athenians, who were the largest maritime power in the Aegean, dominated the Delian League. This era constituted the Golden Age of Athens and was concurrent with Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle's lives. Gradually, the Athenians began to turn the Delian League into an Empire. Athens used its superior navy to intimidate its allies, and they eventually became mere tributaries of the Athenians. Sparta soon became very suspicious of Athens's growing power. Sparta was the head of the powerful Peloponnesian League, comprised of several large city-states, including Corinth and Thebes. The League was very concerned about the Athenian fleet because it allowed Athens to dominate Greece's seas. Athens had also been turned into a formidable stronghold when the city constructed the ‘Long Walls.’ These walls connected the city with its port, Piraeus, allowed the city to supply itself, and made any siege of the city unlikely to succeed. [3]
According to Thucydides, the growth of Athens's ‘power and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon (Sparta) made war inevitable." [10]Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War was inevitable because when a rising power confronted another power, they would inevitably wage war against each other to further or protect their interests. [11] Some later historians have also argued that war was inevitable between the two greatest Greek powers. It is still widely held that in international relations, the growth of a nation-state or empire will inevitably lead to rivalry and war with an established power. [12]
They had real difficulties understanding each other, and this lead to mutual suspicions. Because of their different political systems and cultures, they were often ideologically opposed . Sparta favored the many oligarchies and distrusted the role of the common people in government. In contrast, Athens encouraged democracy and believed that it was the best form of government.[15] This ideological rivalry between Sparta and Athens did much to increase tensions in the run-up to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War and was a contributing factor.
Many excellent historians have discussed the causes of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE), and many more will do so in the future. Thucydides, however, wrote the most important contemporary chronicle of the war.
Importance of the Peloponnesian War. Fought between the allies of Sparta and the empire of Athens, the crippling Peloponnesian War paved the way for the Macedonian takeover of Greece by Philip II of Macedon and, following that, Alexander the Great 's empire. Before the Peloponnesian War, the city-states ...
The main reasons proposed are: Sparta was jealous of other powers and desired more power for itself.
Corcyra appealed to Athens for help, offering to Athens the use of its navy. Corinth urged Athens to remain neutral. But since Corcyra's navy was powerful, Athens was concerned that it would fall into Spartan hands and disrupt whatever fragile balance of power the city-states were maintaining.
Fragile Balance of Power. A complicated, partially ideological political conflict between Spartan-ally Corinth and her neutral daughter city and strong naval power Corcyra led to Athenian involve ment in Sparta's realm. Corcyra appealed to Athens for help, offering to Athens the use of its navy.
Athens feared a revolt, with good reason, since the Potidaeans had secretly acquired a promise of Spartan support, to invade Athens, in violation of the 30 years treaty.
Sparta had a set of loose alliances by means of individual treaties that extended to the Peloponnese, excepting Argos and Achaea. The Spartan alliances are referred to as the Peloponnesian League .
It was a historical ancient Greek war which was fought in Athens by Athenians and its entire empire against Sparta which led the Peloponnesian League. In order to fully understand the causes of the war, it is important first to know the principle parties that were involved in the war. The Peloponnesian War involved two principle groups which were the Peloponnesian states, Sparta and Athens. There were other small parties which were involved in the war either aiding the Spartans or the Athenians such as the city states of Sicily, Attica, Corinth and Thebes.
The film Troy is based on Homers ' account of the Trojan War in the Iliad. The film begins with a peace agreement between Sparta and Troy. This agreement is nonexistent when Paris and Helen, the wife of Menelaus flee to Troy together. Menelaus, King of Sparta, declares war on Troy owing to the fact that Paris fled to Troy with his wife, Helen, along with Agamemnon, his brother the King go Mycenae, who wants to bring down the Trojans under his command.
Athens and Sparta are better in different aspects. For example, Sparta discouraged superfluous arts, but Athens appreciated them. This aspect is evident by the Athenian ruins, and that Sparta has no remnants of their history besides the tombs of their generals. This aspect concludes that Athens had more to lose during the Peloponnesian War. Athens had an empire, they stood up for values, they were the school of Greece, while Sparta were clinching onto their dear iron bars.
This war was between the Athenian empire and the Peloponnesian league. The war was divided into 3 distinct phases, the first phase was the Archidamin war , during this phase Athens ordered attack, after attack after attack on Attica. the second phase was the Sicilian war and the last and final phase was the Ionian (Decelean war). The main reason for the start of this war was because the Spartans were scared that the Athenians were growing in power and that they controlled most of the Mediterranean region form Greece to Hellas. According to Thucydides, this was not the only factor that caused the war.
Ridley’s book, ‘The Hoplite as citizen: Athenian military institutions in their social context’, which says “We have forgotten to ask what it was like to be an ordinary – or wealthy and important – citizen called upon to serve the phalanx.” The hoplite was formed due to the alliances that the city states were forming with each other. At the time they didn’t have trained armies so normal citizens, wealthy ones so they could afford weapons and armor, decided to take it upon themselves to protect the state. This was the case for most city states but it was not the case for the Spartans, who are arguably the most famous hoplites. The Spartans were a much more militaristic city state and this result in them being one of the most successful armies in ancient Greece. To give some illustration to this, Paul Anthony Rahe states, “by turning the city into a camp, the polis into an army, and the citizen into a soldier.” Due to the more militarized society
With power growing in Congress, “a group of young Democratic-Republicans known as War Hawks assumed a conspicuous and dominant role . The War Hawks urged immediate redress of American grievances against Great Britain by declaring war.” Everyone had agreed that due to their actions, America would go to war. Some of the most important battles in the war included the battle of Fort McHenry and New Orleans. Fort McHenry led to our National Anthem and a confidence booster for battles to come.
The Venetians probably felt that they could not trust the people of the Holy League 100% because they had so easily declared war on them before. If I were Venice I would have a hard time trusting the people that went to war with me before. They may have also done it as a tactical plan. Or, Maybe their plan all along was to join the Holy League to gain the trust of all those powers whilst still keeping in touch with the French, then with the element of the surprise switch teams after learning the battle plans and ultimately win in the end.
The causes of the Peloponnesian War constitute such a persistent theme in discussions of fifth-century Greek history, in part because of the complexity of the aetiological view of our earliest source, Thucydides.
6. Giovanni Parmeggiani, The Causes of the Peloponnesian War: Ephorus, Thucydides and Their Critics - The Center for Hellenic Studies
Thucydides never implies, however, that the aitiai es to phaneron legomenai are unconnected to the breakout of the war. As he himself observes: “As for the reason why they [sc. the Athenians and Lacedaemonians] broke the peace, I have written first the aitiai and the differences, so that no one should ever have to enquire into the origin of so great a war for the Greeks.” (Thucydides 1.23.5, translation by T. Rood.) The meaning of this statement is clear: if there had been no Corcyra and Potidaea, there would have been no Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. It is obvious, then, that the relationship between aitiai es to phaneron and alethestate prophasis cannot be presented as if it were a relationship between falseand truecauses. [2]
By qualifying it as alethestate, Thucydides is clearly claiming that the prophasis is more important for a correct understanding of the origins of the war. In other words, he is asserting that a proper perception of the origins of the war depends upon a consideration of the previous fifty years as well as careful attention paid both to the physis of the Athenian arche, as an ever increasing force in Greek history, and to Sparta’s phobos, as a reactive force in Greek history.
Having said all of this and having urged his fellow citizens to war, Pericles persuaded [ἔπεισε] the demos not to submit to the Lacedaemonians. This he easily accomplished through the effectiveness of his words [ταῦτα δὲ ῥᾳδίως συνετέλεσε διὰ τὴν δεινότητα τοῦ λόγου], for which he had the nickname of ‘Olympios’. (My translation)
At the meeting of the assembly to discuss such matters Pericles , by far the most eloquent of all the citizens, persuaded the Athenians not to abrogate the decree, saying that [the content of Pericles’ oration follows]… Having said all this, and having urged his fellow citizens to war, Pericles persuaded the demos not to submit to the Lacedaemonians. This he easily obtained by the effectiveness of his words, for which he had the nickname of ‘Olympios’ [Aristophanes’ and Eupolis’ quotations follow]. (My translation)
Among Thucydides’ critics is Karl Julius Beloch, who notes that the difficulties experienced by Pericles and his party in the preceding years had a direct impact on the outbreak of war.[8] During this period, Pheidias, Anaxagoras, and Aspasia were all put on trial, incidents that are recorded by sources other than Thucydides, such as ancient comedy and—it is supposed—a pamphletistic tradition hostile to Pericles.[9] Indeed, this is at the core of Diodorus’ account of the causes of the Peloponnesian War (12.38–41), the main source for which, Diodorus tells us, was the fourth-century historian Ephorus of Cyme (FGH 70 F 196).