The reasons for this war are sometimes traced back as far as the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes, which Sparta always opposed. However, the more immediate reason for the war was Athenian control of the Delian League, the vast naval alliance that allowed it to dominate the Mediterranean Sea.
What caused the Peloponnesian War and who won?
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta.
How did Peloponnesian War began?
Sparta and its allies accused Athens of aggression and threatened war. On the advice of Pericles, its most influential leader, Athens refused to back down. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute failed. Finally, in the spring of 431, a Spartan ally, Thebes, attacked an Athenian ally, Plataea, and open war began.
What was the Peloponnesian War and why was it fought?
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.
What was the cause of the Peloponnesian War quizlet?
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.
What was the main result of the Peloponnesian War?
The Peloponnesian War ended in victory for Sparta and its allies, and led directly to the rising naval power of Sparta. However, it marked the demise of Athenian naval and political hegemony throughout the Mediterranean.
What conflict resulted in the Peloponnesian War?
The Cause of the Peloponnesian War
The formation of the Delian League, or Athenian League, in 478 B.C. united several Greek city-states in a military alliance under Athens, ostensibly to guard against revenge attacks from the Persian Empire.
Why did Athens and Sparta hate each other?
To put it simply, by the 5th century BC, Athens wanted to become a superpower with control or influence over the rest of the Greek world. But Sparta, which preferred to be left alone, wanted none of this, so it went to war to stop Athens from becoming too powerful.
Who led Athens into the Peloponnesian War?
The Peloponnesian War witnessed the rise of three influential leaders of the time: Pericles of Athens, Alcibiades of Athens, and King Archidamus of Sparta; these men led their people through a war that lasted twenty-seven years and would have dire consequences for Greece.
Why did Sparta decided not to destroy Athens?
As Thebes grew richer, Sparta grew more wary of accidentally creating a new powerful rival. Given Athens’ generations-old enmity towards Thebes, it would be safer for Sparta to preserve Athens as a buffer, absorbing Theban aggression and allowing for shrewd alliance politics if the need arose.
What are the most important facts about the Peloponnesian War?
Facts About the Peloponnesian War:
The first Peloponnesian battle is sometimes called the Battle of the Archidamian War because it was named this after the Sparta leader, Archidamus II. The walls around Athens were over 4 miles long. Sparta won the war and stopped democracy.
Why did the Peloponnesian War start according to Thucydides?
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
How does Thucydides explain the origin of the Peloponnesian War?
“The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm that this inspired in Sparta,” he wrote, “made war inevitable.” Thucydides wrote how Corinth, a Spartan ally already fighting the Athenians, pushed Sparta to go to war against “the tyrant city” and liberate Greece.
Who really won the Peloponnesian War?
Sparta
Finally, in 405 BC, at the Battle of Aegospotami , Lysander captured the Athenian fleet in the Hellespont. Lysander then sailed to Athens and closed off the Port of Piraeus. Athens was forced to surrender, and Sparta won the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.
What ended Sparta?
Spartan political independence was put to an end when it was eventually forced into the Achaean League after its defeat in the decisive Laconian War by a coalition of other Greek city-states and Rome, and the resultant overthrow of its final king Nabis, in 192 BC.