Peloponnesian War Causes

Athens Caused the Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, a war that has been dragged on for many years yet, the war has no true origin of what exactly started the war. “The war started,” according to Thucydides, “because of the growth of Athens alarmed Sparta” (Hunt 100). Although, Sparta was the first to attack; Athens contributed the cause for the attack from Sparta. Athens is the one to blame for the Peloponnesian War due to the fact that Athens was growing in power which scared Sparta and Athens mistreating Sparta’s allies, Pericles ignoring the ultimatum due to Sparta’s “refusal” to settle the dispute of the treaty with Athens fifteen years ago, finally Alcibiades disturbing the peace between the two by persuading the assembly to attack Sparta again.
One of the many reasons for war was that Athens power was growing so much and fast that it alarmed Sparta. Sparta did not want to see
Athens as a potential threat but they kept a close eye on them. Due to the growth of Athens power they kept harassing Sparta’s allies, who are Corinth and Megara. Since those are Sparta’s most important allies certainly they would defend them at a moments notice. Once Sparta got word that Corinth was up to their final straw with Athens constant bitter treatment towards them. At first Sparta didn’t think anything of it until Corinth told them that if Sparta does nothing to help keep Athens away that they will join Athens naval force (Hunt 100). Now that statement got Sparta’s attention and that led to Sparta giving Athens an ultimatum. Sparta did not want to partake in a war with Athens but they will if they have to.
In addition to the ultimatum, Pericles convinced the voters in Athens to ignore and reject the ultimatum because Sparta is unwilling to settle the dispute with Athens in the 446-445 treaty (Hunt 100). According to scholars, Pericles reputation was slowly fading away so that’s the reason for the war. Pericles wanted the war and be victorious so his people will remember him and praise him longer (Hunt 100). So naturally Athens continued to poke and mistreat Corinth and Megara. Sparta was not pleased about the ignorance of the ultimatum, however; Sparta knew they had to go to war with Athens to keep their allies on their side. Pericles speech to the Athenian assembly said that if they do go to war it would be over a meaningless matter. If the city-state gives in to the demands of Sparta they will believe the city-state is fearful of them. Athens needs to stand firm and Sparta will then know they are not to be toyed with (Hunt 101-102). Pericles stated that if they go to war that it would be meaningless, yet Pericles wanted a war. Pericles had a plan for the war that in the long run would make Athens the victor. Unfortunately, he died of the disease that swept through Athens for four years (Hunt 102).
The final cause of the war is Alcibiades.
Once Pericles died and Cleon took over the attacks on Sparta. Cleon did away with the two-part strategy and decided to attack with more aggression. The plan worked for awhile since Sparta requested a truce; however, the Athenian assembly refused. That choice led to the loss of Cleon at a battle and both city-states agreed on making peace out of exhaustion (Hunt 102). Alcibiades decided to persuade the assembly to ignore the peace with Sparta and attack. Athens only conquered the island of Melos because they refused to abandon their allegiance to Sparta which lead to the executions of men, the selling of women and children into slavery (Hunt 102-103). Alcibiades decided to persuade the assembly to fund and launch his greatest and expensive campaign. The campaign was to conquer Sicily and Syracuse. Of course that ended in disaster with a huge loss for Athens and caused major causalities (Hunt 103). If it wasn’t for Alcibiades disturbing the peace the war would have ended much sooner and perhaps not so much as a catastrophic end for
Athens.
Clearly Athens is to blame for the Peloponnesian War. If Athens would have grown their power in peace without mistreating other city-states, especially those who are allies of Sparta, they would not have gotten a threat from Sparta. Also if Pericles was not so infatuated with his reputation fading and not wanted to make the war happen to help revive his reputation Athens would not be in a completely meaningless war. Nevertheless, when Athens and Sparta were at peace, which could have ceased war and made a truce with Sparta, Alcibiades had to be determined to destroy Sparta with his “Great Campaign”. That ended in catastrophe for Athens. Overall Sparta was innocent in this war and only defended themselves; therefore, Athens is to blame for the Peloponnesian War.