Peloponnesian League
(noun)
An alliance formed around Sparta in the Peloponnesus, from the 6th to 4th centuries BCE.
Examples of Peloponnesian League in the following topics:
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Introduction to the Peloponnesian War
- The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) was fought between Athens and its empire, known as the Delian League, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.
- The Battle of Mantinea was the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian War.
- The Argive democratic alliance was broken up and most members were reincorporated into Sparta’s Peloponnesian League, reestablishing Spartan hegemony throughout the region.
- Members of the Peloponnesian League continued to send reinforcements to Syracuse in hopes of driving off the Athenians, but instead, Athens sent another 100 ships and 5,000 troops to Sicily.
- The Peloponnesian War alliances at 431 BC.
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Effects of the Persian Wars
- This set the stage for Sparta’s eventual withdrawal from the Delian League.
- Once Sparta withdrew from the Delian League after the Persian Wars, it reformed the Peloponnesian League, which had originally been formed in the 6th century and provided the blueprint for what was now the Delian League.
- A series of rebellions occurred between Athens and the smaller city-states that were members of the League.
- For example, Naxos was the first member of the League to attempt to secede, in approximately 471 BCE.
- The Delian League was the basis for the Athenian Empire, shown here on the brink of the Peloponnesian War (c. 431 BCE).
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The Rise of the Macedon
- In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta rose as a hegemonic power in classical Greece.
- During that conflict, Philip conquered Potidaea, but ceded it to the Chalkidian League of Olynthus, with which he was allied.
- In 337 BCE, Philip created and led the League of Corinth.
- Members of the league agreed not to engage in conflict with one another unless their aim was to suppress revolution.
- Another stated aim of the league was to invade the Persian Empire.
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Athens
- These victories enabled Athens to bring most of the Aegean, and many other parts of Greece, together in the Delian League, creating an Athenian-dominated alliance from which Sparta and its allies withdrew.
- Athens moved to abandon the pretense of parity among its allies, and relocated the Delian League treasury from Delos to Athens, where it funded the building of the Athenian Acropolis, put half its population on the public payroll, and maintained the dominant naval power in the Greek world.
- Originally intended as an association of Greek city-states to continue the fight against the Persians, the Delian League soon turned into a vehicle for Athens's own imperial ambitions and empire-building.
- The resulting tensions brought about the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE), in which Athens was defeated by its rival, Sparta.
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The League of Nations
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Effects of the Peloponnesian War
- The Peloponnesian War ended in victory for Sparta and its allies, and led directly to the rising naval power of Sparta.
- Democracy in Athens was briefly overthrown in 411 BCE as a result of its poor handling of the Peloponnesian War.
- As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, which had primarily been a continental culture, became a naval power.
- After the end of the Peloponnesian War, Lysander established many pro-Spartan governments throughout the Aegean.
- Discuss the effects of the Peloponnesian War on the Greek city-states.
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Sparta
- Between 431 and 404 BCE, Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious, though at great cost.
- As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta developed formidable naval power, enabling it to subdue many key Greek states and even overpower the elite Athenian navy.
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Classical Greek Poetry and History
- His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BCE war between Athens and Sparta.
- In particular, the History of the Peloponnesian War echoes the narrative tradition of Homer, and draws heavily from epic poetry and tragedy to construct what is essentially a positivistic account of world events.
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Trade and Commerce
- In cities linked to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the Hanseatic League developed as a trade monopoly.
- Long-distance trade in the Baltic intensified as the major trading towns came together in the Hanseatic League under the leadership of Lübeck.
- The Hanseatic League was a business alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe and flourished from 1200–1500, and continued with lesser importance after that.
- The league was founded for the purpose of joining forces for promoting mercantile interests, defensive strength, and political influence.
- By the 14th century, the Hanseatic League held a near-monopoly on trade in the Baltic, especially with Novgorod and Scandinavia.
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The Persian Wars
- The Persian Wars led to the rise of Athens as the head of the Delian League.
- This formed the basis for an exclusive Ionian "cultural league."
- In the course of doing so, Athens enrolled all the island states, and some mainland states, into an alliance called the Delian League— so named because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire, prepare for future invasions, and organize a means of dividing the spoils of war.
- Historians also speculate that Sparta was unconvinced of the ability of the Delian League to secure long-term security for Asian Greeks.
- The Spartan withdrawal from the League allowed Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power within the Hellenic world.