What Was The First Peloponnesian War?

Peloponnesian war

When people think of the Peloponnesian war they think only of the major battle and victory of Sparta! But what of the events leading to this triumph?

There was the "first Peloponnesian war"
But this war had only lasted 10 years. During this time the Spartans dominated the land and the Athenians dominated the sea. One advantage the Athens had was that they constructed massive walls all the way from the city to its seaport Piraeus. This allowed them to remain inside the city and still have access to trade and supplies from their ships. Although the Spartans had never breached the walls of Athens during the first war Athens suffered greatly due to a plague outbreak. One important person that was killed during the plague was the great leader and general of Athens, Pericles.
Between the "the first Peloponnesian war" and the "Peloponnesian war" a treaty was created.
This treaty would be known as "thirty years peace" which was signed by the ancient Greek city-states Athens and Sparta the purpose of the treaty was to prevent another outbreak of war. Ultimately, the peace treaty failed in achieving its goal. Athens was forced to give up all of there possessions in the Peloponnese which included the Megarian ports of Nisaea and Pegae with Troezen and Achaea in Argolis; however the Spartans agreed to allow the Athenians to keep Naupactus. This also ruled out armed conflict between Sparta and Athens if at least one of the two wanted arbitration. Neutral poleis could join either side (i.e. Sparta or Athens and this implies that there was a formalized list of allies for each side. Athens and Sparta would keep all other territories pending arbitration. It also recognized both Leagues as legitimate, a boost for Athens and its newly formed empire in the
Aegean.
However this thirty years peace treaty would only last thirteen years. The events that led to renewed hostilities came first when Athens allied itself with Corcyra, a strategically important colony of Corinth. Fighting ensued, and the Athenians then took steps that explicitly violated the thirty years peace. Sparta and its allies accused Athens of aggression and threatened war. Events led to heated fighting between the two and Sparta systematically garrisoned Attica with a permanent fort at Decelea to encourage desertions and local disruptions in commerce, all the while applying steady pressure to pry away tribute paying Athenians and their allies in Aegean, the life blood of the city's Capital and military reserves.
Athens unable to replace man power, losses from the plague and the disaster at Sicily, resulted in the Athenian army and navy being greatly outnumbered by the combined alliance of Sparta, Thebes, and Syracuse. This led the Spartans victory over the Athenians.
In my opinion the Spartans made very wise decisions where the Athenians had some setbacks that could’ve caused them to be more of a fighting chance but because of the massive plague within the city walls of the Athenians I think it was not possible. Spartans did use one strategy that I think was a major factor in the war that led to victory and this was the use of Attrition warfare. Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materiel. The war will usually be won by the side with greater such resource. The word attrition comes from the Latin root atterere to rub against, similar to the "grinding down" of the opponent's forces in attrition warfare.
Sources
Kagan, Donald. The Peloponnesian War. New York: Viking, 2003. Print.
Tritle, Lawrence A. The Peloponnesian War. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004. Print.