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====How fought in the Peloponnesian War?====
The primary combatants in the Peloponnesian War were the city states of Athens and Spartaand had allies that supported them during the war. The Spartans and the Athenians had radically different societies. Athens was a democracy, and it was very individualistic. The population played a very important role in politics and indeed it was a fairly radical democracy for the time. The citizens, (only free males) could directly vote on the affairs of the city. Sparta was almost the opposite of Athens in every way. It was a very stratified and conservative society. It was ostensibly ruled by two kings, from two royal families.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.67–71 </ref> The kings shared power with a council of elders (Gerousia). Sparta society depended on a servile population. The helots toiled the lands of Lacodemia for their Spartan masters.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.67–71 </ref> Sparta was a highly militarized society and the need for a strong and well-disciplined army was the main concern of the state. The state took boys from their family and trained them from youth to be soldiers. The role of women was to produce good soldiers and men were expected to be brave warriors.
The profound cultural and political differences between the two great Greek powers contributed to the war. They had real difficulties understanding each other and this lead to mutual suspicions. Because of their different political systems and cultures, they were often ideologically opposed. Sparta favored the many oligarchies and distrusted the role of the common people in government. In contrast, Athens encouraged democracy and believed that it was the best form of government.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 1.67–71</ref> This ideological rivalry between Sparta and Athens did much to increase tensions in the run-up to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War and was a contributing factor.
====Immediate causes of What event sparked the Warwar between Athens and Sparta?====
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The Athenians were extremely confident and they knew that as long as they had their navy and their ‘Long Walls’ that they could not be defeated even if they could not beat Sparta and her allies on the battlefield. This strategy was recommended by Pericles to the Athenians and was much praised by Thucydides. Sparta began to contemplate war but they seemed unwilling to formally declare war. Then the situation spun out of control when allies of Sparta attacked the allies of Athens. The Spartans came to believe that they had no choice but to go to war. In 431 BCE, the senior Spartan king led an army into the countryside around Athens and laid it waste. This was the start of the great Peloponnesian War. The early years of the war were a stalemate because according to Thucydides writings, this was because the Athenians followed Pericles cautious strategy.<ref>Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 2.69–71</ref> Later Athens, encouraged by Alcibiades launched the Sicilian expedition to conquer Sicily during a lull in the fighting, known as the Peace of Nicias. This proved to be a disaster and it led to the loss of an Athenian army and navy. Remarkably, the Athenians continued to fight and the Spartans needed Persian help to defeat them.<ref>Thucydides, <i>The Peloponnesian War</i> 6.6–11</ref> The destruction of the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami ended the war, and Athens surrendered the following year. Athens was forced to tear down its Long Walls and was fortunate not to be utterly destroyed.
====ConclusionsWhat were the longterm effects of the Peloponnesian War on Greece?====
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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