What Are The Cause And Effect Of The Peloponnesian Wars ?
Peloponnesian wars were a result of the lack of understanding between Athens and Sparta. Both were cities in Greece. There was a truce period of 30 years before the Peloponnesian wars started between Athens and Sparta. During this period Athens started acquiring a lot of wealth and was supremacy at the sea. Athens had several allies, and had forged relationships with very powerful armies. Athens also had a trade rival and that was Corinth. Corinth and Sparta were allies. Corinth maintained colonies, such as Corcyra and Epidamus. |
In the year 435 BC, Epidamus requested Corcyra to send military aid, a request that was not fulfilled. Epidamus requested Corinth for assistance and, therefore, led to their own colonization. Corcyra was irritated by Corinth’s interference and so they sent their superb naval army and destroyed Corinth. After this battle Corinth had to re-establish itself and now they needed to make fresh allies. They turned to Sparta’s worse enemy and that was Athens. The Corinthian's protested to this alliance, but Athens was in favor of it. As a result of the alliance, 30 years of truce came to a bloody end.
The first damage to the truce came in the year 433 BC. After the Corinthian fleets were rebuilt, they attacked Corcyra in Sybota. The Corinthian armies almost won the battle, but the Athenian troops came towards the end and destroyed entire Corcyra fleet. This was considered to be the first breach of agreement between Corcyra and Athens. The second breach happened when Macedonia started fighting with Athens. This happened due to the discontentment of Macedonia with Athens decision to raze the city of Corinth to ground. Athens wanted this because they did not want to have any more problems from their allies.
In the Battle of Plateau, three hundred people from Thebes were let into the city to free it from Athens. The Plateans were very happy under the Athenian rule. However, there were a small number of enemies present. Due to these enemies, Plataea was seized by Sparta and Thebes together.
In the year 431 BC, King Archidamus came with a huge Peloponnesian army and attacked Attica and invaded it. The people of Attica fled to Athens. The huge amount of people coming into Athens caused their population to go up. They were attacked by Plague and nearly 80000 Athenians died. This led to a series of incidents thereafter. King Archidamus did not stop with his invasions. Sparta, however, being more powerful won the war and Athens was defeated.
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Hyper History: Peloponnesian War
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Peloponnesian War refers to the war fought between Athens and Sparta's Peloponnesian League. The war began in 431 BC and lasted until 404 BC. Based on historical evidence, experts have divided this war into 3 different phases. The first phase is known as Archidamian War. In this war, Sparta invaded Attica several times, while Athens used its naval might attack the Peloponnesian coast to put down any signs of unrest. This war ended in 421 BC after the two sides signed a treaty called Peace of Nicias. 