Download PELOPONNESIAN WAR After the Persian Wars a man named

PELOPONNESIAN WAR
After the Persian Wars a man named Pericles took leadership of Athens. He had 3 main goals for Athens.
1)
2)
3)
Strengthen Democracy: Pericles wanted to change the balance of power between the rich and the poor. He
increased the number of public officials who were paid. Now even poor citizens could hold a public office.
Expand the Empire: Greek city-states formed the Delian League for mutual protection. Pericles used that
money to build the strongest naval fleet in the Mediterranean. The Delian League treasury was moved to
Athens and Athens began treating other Greek city-states as conquered people.
Beautify Athens: Pericles used the Delian League money to rebuild and beautify Athens. This made other citystates very angry with Athens.
The Peloponnesian War started because of 3 reasons.
1)
2)
3)
Other Greek city-states feared Athens because of its power.
Athens grew from a city-state to a naval empire.
Athenian settlers began to move into lands of other city-states
a. Several city-states wanted to break free from the power of Athens.
b. Pericles wanted to punish any city-state that did.
c. Sparta headed a new league called the Peloponnesian League and declared war on Athens in 431
B.C.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Sparta had a better land based army and geographically could not be attacked by sea.
Athens had a better navy and could attack Sparta’s allies by sea.
Sparta wanted to cut off the Athenian food supply by destroying crops.
Athens wanted to avoid land based battles. They allowed Sparta to destroy the countryside/crops.
Pericles brought in Athenians from the countryside into the city to be safe from Spartan attacks.
a. Athens became badly overcrowded.
i. In the second year of the war, a plague broke out in Athens killing at least one-third of the
Athens’ population.
1. In 421 B.C., Athens signed a truce with Sparta.
a. In 404 B.C., Athens surrendered to Sparta.
The War
Aftermath
a.
b.
c.
After 27 years of fighting, cities and crops were destroyed and thousands of Greeks were dead.
All of the Greek city-states suffered economic and military losses.
Athens and Sparta would never recover.
a. The kingdom of Macedonia to the north, led by their king, Philip II planned to build an empire.
b. Philip II wanted to conquer all of Greece and Persia.
c. Philip II created new ways of fighting and used new military weapons.
d. In 338 B.C Philip II completed his conquest of the Greek city-states and planned an attack on Persia.
e. Philip II was assassinated in 336 B.C.
i. His son, Alexander the Great, took control of Macedonia.