Causes of the Peloponnesian War, which lasted more than twenty years

The causes of the Peloponnesian War are generally considered to be "political and economic" conflicts. But it is clear that this is too vague a statement. Such a sweeping description does not give any real answers, so what were the causes of the Peloponnesian War?

Here I would like to briefly introduce you to two more popular theories.

The first view comes from the famous Thucydides, and is the one that has been recognized by the official history for thousands of years. According to Thucydides' extremely neutral account, the real reason for the war was completely obscured by the many falsehoods on the surface. In defense of the distant but powerful Persian Empire, the leaders of Athens made a great effort to unite the neighboring city-states in a so-called Tyrian League. However, this alliance did not function as a defense against Persia, but was gradually controlled by the Athenians, and later even became the vanguard of their maritime expansion. It thus aroused a sense of crisis among the other maritime states that were not part of the alliance. Moreover, in Xiu's neutral formulation, a feeling that the Athenians were quietly devouring the sovereignty of other city-states within the alliance was implicitly expressed between the lines. So this was a war that no one wanted and yet it was inevitable. Sparta was forced to declare war.

The second view is relatively more wildly historical. This argument claims that the driving force behind the war was a woman from Persia, Berkeley's second wife. His lover, to be precise. Because according to Athenian law, their marriage was not protected by law. This woman ran a brothel called "The House of Pleasure" and had disputes with brothels in other city-states seventy kilometers away. She instructed her husband to publicly denounce the other sovereign city-states in the alliance over these trivial matters, which led to the intensification of the conflict and the eventual outbreak of war.

The above are the two main current views on the causes of the Peloponnesian War.

Process of the Peloponnesian War

The process of the Peloponnesian War, which began in 431 B.C. and lasted for twenty-seven years, was a war between the united allies of Athens in Europe and the hostile coalition. The war lasted on and off for these twenty years and ended with the defeat of Athens and the victory of the allied nations led by Sparta.

Greece had undergone reforms during this period and was in an era of democratic development. Athenian development had reached its zenith. However, the prolonged war drained the country's strength and Athens began to decline. The Peloponnesian War was also the turning point of Athens from prosperity to decline. The scale of the war was so large that almost all the Greek cities were involved and the battlefield spread to all the Greek-speaking countries. It is therefore also known as the Great War of Europe. It was the first war to be recorded in a detailed and objective way and had a profound effect on Greece. After this war the Greek model of democratic political reform was replaced by the Roman Empire.

The Peloponnesian War was a two-phase war, with the first phase involving a confrontation between the Athenian Confederacy and the Spartan League and the signing of a contract between the two sides. The second stage of the war became the main field of Sicily, Sparta and Persia formed an alliance, although Athens defeated this alliance but in the later defeat revealed the decline of the Athenian economy, the final battle has always been known as a powerful navy of Athens in the Battle of the Sheep River, Sparta successfully achieved hegemony, domination in the Greek world.

Because of the magnitude of the war at the time, each member state had to choose a side to join, and the war was intense, with all participants giving their best to join the war. The war affected the whole human society in a certain sense.

Results of the Peloponnesian War

The end of the democratic political system, typified by the city-state of Athens, was one of the results of the Peloponnesian War. The establishment of Macedonian hegemony over the land was a surprise to all parties, including the distant Persians. Next, the author will briefly introduce some other information about the results of the Peloponnesian War for you readers.

In Athens and its allied city-states, the most immediate result of the war was a sharp decline in the number of citizens and a low level of political participation. According to the city-state's revised laws, only adult men of the state were eligible for citizenship, specifically, both parents had to be born in the city-state and the father a citizen to become a citizen. Once the qualification is established, the rights are accompanied by obligations such as military service, political participation, and voting.

With the city-states at war for more than twenty years, it was the citizens who were bound to be damaged the most under Athens' system of civic military service. It was possible to stimulate or make up for it in other ways for a short time, but for such a long period of time, the Athenians simply did not have the time to recuperate and rejuvenate. This is why the emergence of the thing known as the professional soldier was spawned. While this temporarily solved the problem of the Athenians being understaffed on the battlefield, the conflict within the city-state remained.

A qualified citizen takes time to develop. The results of training in a situation of internal and external difficulties will certainly be inferior to that of careful teaching in peacetime. And the reality of the environment is completely contrary to the education received by the new generation of citizens. Instead of a peaceful and prosperous life in a democracy, there are years of wars and defeats. This is bound to dampen the enthusiasm of the new generation of citizens to participate in politics.

Finally, the division between the rich and the poor within the city-state of Athens at that time was unprecedentedly sharp, and many former citizens had to be reduced to slavery in order to make a living.

These were the results of the Peloponnesian War.

Impact of the Peloponnesian War

The impact of the Peloponnesian War was complex and far-reaching. Here the author does not plan to make a macroscopic exposition of it, but intends to do a microscopic but specific mapping from the military side. To provide you with a cross-section, for you to see the leopard in the tube, their own speculative experience of its enormous impact.

Before the war, both sides had their own strengths in military technology. One is a typical land country, although it has a strong land force and land combat experience, but it has no knowledge of sea combat. Not only do they not have their own warships, but they can't even steer a boat in the wind and waves.

One was a typical maritime nation, with a large number of technologically advanced warships and rich experience in maritime warfare. But was defeated at sea by Sparta later.

Military strategy, both sides of the means are endless. On the Athenian side, there was a great deal of military emigration beforehand, preserving land, men and other equipment, a strategic stockpile of supplies. Sparta, on the other hand, sought to gain the upper hand in public opinion, waging war under the slogan of democracy and freedom.

As far as strategy was concerned, neither side came up with a particularly influential theory of war. It was more a matter of revolutionizing tactics and methods of warfare. For example, digging rivers to bring in seawater to flood cities, attacking cities by burning them with fire, and digging tunnels were all new methods of warfare that emerged during the war. There were many famous cases, such as when Persia communicated with Athens in code, which was deciphered by the Spartans.

In addition, due to the decades-long war, on the one hand, the soldiers were severely depleted and needed to be replenished, and on the other hand, the loss of citizens was so great that Athens could not continue its citizen-soldier system, leading to the emergence of professional soldiers.

In the end, Persia was the biggest winner of the war in the long run. It was only due to its internal reasons that it was Macedonia that eventually claimed the region.