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[[File:PEP ONE.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|A bust of Pericles]]
One of the most important wars in the Ancient World was the [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192821911/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0192821911&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5fd0b01d22c877e6aa555ca1eb8eacff Peloponnesian War ] (431-404 BCE). The conflict was a long drawn out war between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies. It convulsed Greece and changed the course of the Classical world. The war ended the Golden Age of Athenian Culture and arguably weakened the Greek world forever. What was the cause of the Peloponnesian War? The origins of such a conflict are complex. The ultimate origins of the war primary causes were in Sparta’s fear that Sparta feared of the growing might power and influence of the Athenian Empire.
====Background====
[[File: PEP THREE.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Statuette of a Spartan Warrior]]
The origins of the Peloponnesian War lay in the Greece's victory over the Persian Empire. The Greeks had combined under the leadership of Sparta and Athens to defeat the Persians, then the most powerful empire in Asia. In the aftermath of the Persian Wars, the Greeks were unable to maintain their unity. Cultural and ethnic differences were driving the Greek world apart. People’s first loyalty was often to their Polis or local city.
While there was a definite sense of ‘Greekness’ and a common cultural heritage, it did not override the more local loyalties.<ref>Kagan, Donald. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801495563/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0801495563&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a72c6923cec3d4d8a05a33168424d78d The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War]</i> (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989), p. 56</ref> This notion of Greekness was not enough to overcome deep divisions within the Greek world. As soon as the Persians left, the Greeks immediately began to quarrel with each other. Sparta, a deeply conservative society, had opted out of the war with Persia after their invasion was repelled. Athens continued the war against Persia and it formed the Delian League. This League was an alliance of city-states and islands that vowed to continue the war against the Persians until they no longer represented a threat to their alliance.<ref>Kagan, p. 113</ref>
The Greek historian Thucydides argued that Sparta's fear of Athens was the ultimate cause of the war. According to Thucydides, the growth of the ‘power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon (Sparta) made war inevitable."<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.67–71</ref> Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War was inevitable because when a rising power confronted another power, they would inevitably wage a war against each other to further or protect their interests.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.67–71 </ref> Some later historians have also argued that war was inevitable between the two greatest Greek powers. It is still widely held that in international relations, the growth of a nation-state or empire will inevitably lead to rivalry and war with an established power.<ref>Kagan, p. 71 </ref>
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====Sparta and Athens====
====Immediate causes of the War====
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[[File:PEP FOUR.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|Vase showing an Athenian ship, a Trireme]]
The tensions between the Athenians and the Greek only Sparta grew. Thucydides noted that many believed that war was only a matter of time and that the Thirty Years Peace Treaty would soon be broken by one side or the other. All Greece needed was a spark to start a war. Thrace became the spark.
Thrace and Athens had a dispute and the Thracians, a Spartan ally, asked the Spartans for assistance. Athens despite this laid decided to lay siege to the colony. The Athenians, at this time were also in dispute with the small city-state of Megara and they . They unilaterally banned the ships of that city Megara from its port and its allies. This became known as the Megarian Decree. Megara was a long-time Spartan ally and this was widely resented, as it was seen as an attempt to make Megara completely dependent on Athens.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.71-73 </ref> [16] This was not acceptable to Sparta and they believed that if Megara came within the orbit of the Athenians that they would use the port to weaken their position in Greece.
Sparta, supported by her allies demanded that Athens withdraw the Megarian decree, but this was opposed by Athens. Pericles the de-facto leader of the Athenian Empire argued against such a move as it would only encourage the Spartans to make more demands.<ref>Kagan, p. 115</ref> Thucydides states that the Corinthians condemned Sparta's lack of action until then and warned them that they had remained too passive for too long. They demanded action. Sparta was concerned that if it displayed any weakness that this could lead to its losing its pre-eminent position in the Peloponnese League.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.67–71</ref>
====Conclusions====
The Peloponnesian War changed Greece in every way. Nothing was the same after the war and Athens was never to be as powerful. The causes of the war, are that the Athenian Empire upset the balance of power in the Greek world. This greatly alarmed Sparta and its allies. The aggressive policies of Athens did not help the situation- the ambitions of the city-state certainly provoked the Spartans. Increasingly, the Spartans became very nervous about the growing naval and commercial power of Athens. At first, they resisted the calls of its allied to declare war on its arch-rival. Once Athens had issued the Megarian degree, it initiated a chain of event that led to the Spartan invasion of Athenian territory. The deep cultural differences between the two Greek powers was also a contributory factor to the increasing tensions that later exploded into an all-out war that consumed the entire Greek world.
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