Download The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War
The main event!
Athens VS. Sparta
The Delian League
• The Golden Age of Greece
• 461 to 429 BC. There were many advances in art, and
sciences
• Athens had become the big dogs in Greece after the
Persian War.
• Pericles was in charge of Athens at the time. He
wanted Athens to represent everything that was good in
Greece at the time.
• He convinced many of the other city-states that there
was a need to band together to protect against the
Persians in the future. (Not Sparta)
Cont.
• The leagues center would
not be Athens, but a small
little island off the coast of
Athens named Delos.
• The Leagues Navy was
mostly made up of
Athenian ships.
• The other members of the
league provided money
and ships.
The League to the Rescue
• For the next couple
years the league was
successful in
• Freeing Ionia
• Sweeping the Aegean
free of pirates
• Building up the fleet to
an enormous size.
Athens Screws it up
• Athens begins to dominate
the other city-states in the
league.
• Pericles takes money from
the treasury and builds the
Parthenon.
• Insisted that the other citystates adopt the Athenian
coinage system.
• All criminals must be tried
in Athens by Athenian
law.
Cont.
• Pericles also sent
troops to support
revolts against
aristocrats in other
city-states
• The Delian League
had become the
Athenian Empire.
Lets get ready to Rumble!!!!!!!!
• The Peloponnesian lasted from 431 BC to 404 BC.
• Sparta decides something needs to be done about
Athens, so they declare war.
• Sparta has no Navy.
• They can not march to Athens, at some point they will
need a boat.
• Sparta makes a deal with Persia, They will return
Ionia to Persian control in exchange for gold to
build its own fleet.
Cont.
• In 430BC, Athens is
hit by a plague.
(Typhus)
• 1/3 of the population
of Athens died in this
plague including
Pericles.
• At this point many of
the allies of Athens,
switched sides.
It’s the End of the World as we
know it!
• Now it was just a matter of time.
• Sparta had a fleet that matched anything Athens
had.
• The standing army was bigger than Athens.
• The Spartan soldier was a lot better trained.
• Sparta lays siege to Athens itself.
• The Athenians finally surrender in 404 BC
The Effects of the War.
• The population was devastated. To many people had died
during the war.
• Farms had been destroyed and needed to be rebuilt.
• Mercenaries became the favorite profession for the
unemployed. They worked mainly in the Persian army.
• They had become weak and could not stop fighting among
themselves.
• Sparta tried to rule, but their system of government was
not meant to rule over other nations. They were
overthrown by Thebes who intern could not hold onto the
nation either
• They no longer had the means to defend themselves from
outside invaders.