Peloponnesian War Essay

Nearly during fifty long time that preceded Peloponnesian War, the Greek history was characterized by development of the metropolis of capital of Greece as the main world king in the Mediterranean universe. The ancient Greece is a term utilise to describe the Greek speaking world in the ancient measure which include the Hellenic culture that were settled in Greek during the ancient times. The ancient times in Greece was influenced by frequent migration as several mickle were forced to devote their land due to pressure from top-flight tribes.People were not free to work on their land since they could not predict when the invaders would come. most(prenominal) of these people sort refuge in the city of A then(prenominal)s as a safe retreat. No cast of communication, no freedom of trade and the richest soil were of ten dollar billtimes invaded and so changed master. Such fertile territory included most parts of Peloponnese, Boeotia, and Thessaly (Hanson, V, 2005). The city of capital of Greece in Europe was the bit of origin of democracy and became the most mesomorphic and the leading(p) city in the antediluvian Greece during the source millennium BC.Classical democracy which was alike c eithered Athenian democracy was the democratic establishment that greatly developed in the Ancient Greek city state capital of Greece and its surrounding such the Attica. some(prenominal) states in Greek in like manner had democracies provided not in the Athenian representative nor were they as powerful and st up to(p) as the Athenian democracy. It started as a lessened group of city states who merged in order to bring to an end the then intense Persian struggle. It had several pagan achievements that laid the foundation for the western civilization. provided before the commencement of the Peloponnesian contend, the city of capital of Greece had grown in power and wealth and was the strongest city state in Greece. After a short mend the city of Athe ns started dominated and invade new(prenominal) city-states. They succeeded in dominating in all the Greece except the Sparta and its affiliate thus devising the Athens Empire with which they were able to whacking the Persians and there subsequently organise a nuclear fusion of Greek city-states.Just after the way out of the Persians friction began between the Athens and the Peloponnese states including Sparta who were move to hinder the Athenians from twist the walls of Athens solely their hindrances were th fightted (Cawkwell, G, 1997). The Peloponnesians believed that without the walls the Athenians would defenseless against land polish and thus would be easily subjects to Sparta since they (the Spartans) overpowered the Athenians in land struggle. Since they did not succeed in their compress, they mat up secretly grieved. All this events mark the birthpangs of Peloponnesian contend.Other events that fueled the state of warfare involved the Athens and the Corint h. After Corinth face up stamp outed from Corcyra which happened to be one of their colony, they started building naval power but the Corcyra formed an ally with the Athens so as to gain defense against any far attack from the Corinth. Peloponnesian war which is also known as Athenian war commenced in 431BC between the Athenians and the Spartans who were leading the Peloponnesian league at that time. Many were the primal factors behind this war which lasted up to 404BC.These ii countries had made a peace treaty which had lasted for thirty long time at that time. However, the Spartans felt affrightened by the increasing power and wealth of the Athenians since they (the Athenians) being power clear had began to reassert their control on the mainland of Greece. The former(a) factor that triggered the war was the trade sanctions that the Athenians gave to the Megarans who were Spartans allies. As a result of this, Spartans and the Athenians fell into other war which was name d Peloponnesian war after the Peloponnesian league which was led by the Spartans.This war lasted for over twenty cardinal years and it occurred in three unalike chassiss namely Archidamian War, the attack of the Syracuse in Sicily and the Decelean war or the Lonian war. First phase of the war named Archidamian war, after the king of Sparta called Archidamus II, took place between 431BC and 421 BC. At the outbreak of the war the Spartans attacked Attica and burned all their crops with an aim to starve the Athenians forcing many of the citizens in Attica to leave their farms and look for refuge inside the long walls that coupled Athens and its port known Piraeus.The ecumenic of the Spartan army during this period was Brasidas art object the general of the Athenian army was Cleon. They passing wished to fight the land war which they were genuine at to the disadvantage of the Athenians who anchored on the powerful navy they had. A best human action of the population of the A thenians died during this period not merely as a result of the war but also an outbreak of abuse which consumed near two thirds of entire Athens population. Each of the sides believed that it would over power the other and therefore force a deliver which was not the case (Kallet, L, 2001).After ten years of struggles and fighting, both the two nations were worn down down and thus they agreed and write a fifty-year peace treaty which was called the quiescence of Nicias. The peace treaty was named Nicia after an Athenian politician and general leader of the Athens at that time. However, the treaty lasted for only hexad years after the death of Brasidas and Cleon thenceforth there was an outbreak of another war which ushered the second phase of the war. During these six years there were constant skirmishes and even though the Spartans kept themselves from war their allies eer conversed on the possibility of revolt.As a result of these talks the allies got good support from Ar gos one of the cities within Peloponnesus which was quite a independent from Lacedaemon (another Greek name for Sparta). They managed to form a league with other democratic states within the Peloponnese such as Elis and Mantinea and the Spartans were ineffective to break this coalition despite all their efforts. A small portion of Athenians including Alcibiades O.K. this coalition too. History has it that the war which occurred in Mantinea was the fiercest war that was ever fought during Peloponnesian war.The Lacedaemonians together with their neighbors Tegean faced a tough emulation from the combined forces of the Mantinea, Argos, Arcadia and the Athens. The Spartans who were also known as Lacedaemonians were able to put down this coalition forcing the democratic alliance to break. Finally, the members of this coalition joined the Peloponnesian league. The second phase of this war was characterized by the attack in Sicily from Syracuse. The people of Syracuse were Dorians as the Spartans whereas the Sicilians were Ionians as the Athenians.The colonization of the Sicily would have been a great gateway for getting immense wealth by the Athenians. During this time the Athenian religious jurisprudence was destroyed by an anonymous introduce but the charges were placed upon Alcibiades who demanded trial like a shot so that he could defend himself. Instead, the Athenians allowed him to go for expedition. He was then summoned back to Athens when he was in Sicily but he fearing that he could possibly be condemned unjustly, he opted not to return to Athens and sort of defected to the side of Spartans (Krentz, P, 1982).He became a resourceful person to the Spartans by revealing to the Spartans the underlying proposals of the Athenians as pertained to the city of Sicily including the Athenian plan to use Sicily as a point of departure to conquer Italy and use the resources plus the interchangeiers in these new conquests to conquer all the Peloponnese. In o rder to counteract this move, Nicia was interpreted to regenerate Alcibiades as mission who then was licensed to mount an attack on the Syracuse. just now with the help from Spartans, the Athenians were all defeated miserably thus they were unable to invade the city.The control stick reinforcement of the Spartans, Corinth and Peloponnese league to Syracuse were able to entirely destroy the Athenian pass off and consequently all their army was sold off into sla truly The Sicily attack almost left the Athenians powerless since their power was to a greater extent vested in the naval power and any of their troops that remained were killed and enslaved by the Syracusans. This war had poisonous effect on the Athenian conglomerate as their treasury was reading empty and their strong youths were held prisoners in a crazy land.Through the advice of Alcibiades, the Spartans were able to fortify Decelea, a city near Athens, thus preventing the freight rate of supplies to Athens and al so hindering them from utilise their land in a right year. This move disrupted the sliver mines that were near and thus forced the supplies to be taken by sea at an increase cost. Worst of all, the Spartans freed most of the Athenian slaves at Decelea forcing the Athenians to seek tribute from their subject allies which farther caused tension and a threat of rebellion within the Athenian imperium (Robert B, 1996).Despite all these humiliating defeat in the Sicily the Athenians never gave up on their fight but they managed to escape. For instance, the slow with which the Spartans give their troops and ship. The Syracuse and the Corinth were also not speedy enough in let their fleet in Aegean thus giving the Athenians an opportunity to survive. The Spartan officers lacked requisite skills and these accounted for their slowness in furnishing the troops.During the last phase of the war, the Spartans received reinforcement from the Persians who offered assistance in form of money a nd ship. The Persians allied with the bid to revenge on the Athenians for the war they had prosecuted in the earlier century. Whenever war was shifted to the sea the Athenians could make happy victory. Under the leadership of General Lysander, the Spartans got an general victory over the Athenians. As a result of this Alcibiades exiled himself from Athens because he was not re-elected as the general of the Athenians.Unfortunately their fleets were only destroyed due to a wonder attack which then left them very hopeless and consequently they surrendered to the Spartans who broke the walls of their cities and debar them from possessing a navy. The aftermaths of the Peloponnesian included the overthrowing of oligarchs and restoration of democracy. This war reshaped the ancient Greek world. Sparta was set up as the leading power in Greece whereas Athens which was the powerful state was let down into subjection.Poverty was greatly experienced in Peloponnesus due to the economic c osts of the war across the entire Greece. Reference Cawkwell, G. L. (1997). Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. London Routledge. Hanson, V. (2005). How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War. radical York ergodic House. Kallet, L. (2001). The Sicilia Expedition and its Aftermath. Berkeley University of California Press, Krentz, P. (1982). The Thirty at Athens. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, Robert B. (1996). A Guide to the Peloponnesian War. New York The Free Press.