Essay on The True Cause of Conflict Between Athens and Sparta

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'The True cause of the conflict between the Athenians and the Spartans was growing fear of Athenian domination.' To what extent is this an accurate assessment?

This assessment is accurate however there are other causes which led to conflict between Athens and the Spartans, which many historians have discussed the different causes of the Peloponnesian War, the two equal but different powers in control of Greece and the surrounding area. Athens with a democratic rule expanded by using the surrounding waterways for trade and developing a great navy. Sparta with an oligarchic rule settled in by developing a thriving agriculture community and a land based army. The balance of power leans towards Sparta and her allies. Sparta already feared …show more content…
His play 'The Acharnians' mentions how the decree left the Megarians ‘slowly starving’ and caused them to appeal to the Spartans for aid which could be another reason Sparta fought Athens.

The main precipitating causes of the war, thought of as a war between Athens and Sparta, actually concerned relations between Sparta's allies rather than Sparta itself as well as other smaller states with Athenian connections, at Potidaea, a Corinthian colony, the Athenians demanded that the Corinthian magistrates be sent home. Potidaea revolted, and an unofficial Corinthian force went out to help. Potidaea was laid under siege by Athens. None of this yet amounted to war with the Peloponnesian League as a whole, but the temperature was as high as it could be. A congress of Spartan allies was convoked to discuss grievances against Athens, and the decision was taken for war. The other Spartan ally seeking to involve Sparta in a private feud with an enemy was Thebes, whose attack on its neighbour Plataea (an Athenian ally) in time of peace was retrospectively recognized by Sparta as an act of war guilt. Sparta should not have condoned it, nor should it have invaded Attica despite the fact that Athens had placed a garrison in Plataea so long as Athens was offering arbitration, as it seems it was.

Overall Sparta and Athens could not compromise with each other as well as the risk being conquered by the other state. I believe Sparta would have chosen to attack Athens
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