Why did Athens become the leading power of Greece after the Persian Wars and why do you think Sparta did not become the leading Greek city-state?

Answer 1

Athens led the Delain League of the 180 Greek city-states in Asia Minor and the Islands during the second half of the Persian War.

After the Persians agreed to leave them alone, Athens opportunistically turned the League into an empire of its own, and lived high on the annual tax it levied, by force where necessary, from those city-states. This money allowed Athens to maintain a large war fleet, which together with it walled city and port, gave it both raiding power and home security. Athens abused this power, bringing it into conflict with the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta in a destructive 27-year war which Athens lost and was stripped of its empire.

Answer 2

Sparta wanted to evacuate the Greeks from Asia to avoid further clashes (it actually happened in 1923 CE - nearly two and a half thousand years later!). Athens sensed advantage and formed an anti-Persian league to defend the cities in the Asian littoral, and Sparta, not being enamoured of overseas ventures, kept out of it.

Athens became leader as it had most of the ships. It levied forces, which could be warships or money instead. Most cities took the easy way out and gave money. This gave Athens the funds to keep its navy overwhelmingly strong and coincidentally to enforce the tribute collection from baksliding cities.

A peace was made with Persia in 449, so the league became fairly academic, but Athens continued the collections, moving the treasury from neutral Delos to Athens, where Athens spent it as it pleased, including maintaining its overwhellming navy. The league became an empire, and the navy gave it the ability to intervene wherever it wished. The long walls from Athens to its port of Piraeos meant that it could withstand a seige at home, while using its ships to continue collecting funds and harrass any opponent with amphibious raids.

Answer 3

Athens came to power after the Persian Wars because the leader, Sparta, wanted to evacuate the Greek cities in Asia Minor back to Greece to avoid the ongoing conflict of their existence within the Persian Empire.

Athens had another plan - to form a league of these cities (Delian League) backed by the Athenian navy, to protect the cities' independence. The Spartans had problems at home and went home, leaving Athens to lead the League.

After another 30 years of sporadic fighting, the Persian Empire agreed to peace and the freedom of the Greek city-states, and Athens continued to collect the annual war funds, by force where necessary, to spend on itself, so turning the League into an empire of its own.

Answer 4

Sparta proposed evacuating the Greeks who lived in Asia Minor to prevent continuing strife with the Persian Empire. Athens proposed leading a consortium of 180 Greek city-states to keep the Persians away. Losing the argument, Sparta went home to solve its problems of a restive serf population. When the Persian Empire finally agreed to leave the Greek cities alone, Athens turned the anti-Persian alliance into an empire of its own, and used the money and the troops of the empire to promote its own prosperity and interests.

Answer 5

After the War, Athens continued on with the ant-Persian Delian League, and extorting the now-redundant war contributions from the 180 cities of the League. These funds were spent on Athens maintaining a war fleet which enforced the collections, which also the strongest navy in the Greek world. With the walls built around Athens connected to its port, which enabled Athens to import food while under siege, while being able to send out its war fleet to attack the home cities of besiegers while their armies away at the siege.

Answer 6

After the Persian invasion had been repelled, Sparta wanted to bring the Greeks living within Persian territory in Asia Minor back to mainland Greece to put an end to the problem. Athens promoted a plan to form an alliance of those Greek cities to keep them free of Persian rule. This plan worn, and Sparta went home to look after the problems it had in keeping its large serf population under control.

When the Persians eventually gave up trying to keep the Greek city-states in Asia Minor, Athens converted the anti-Persian Delian League into an empire of its own and used the strength and money to attempt to dominate the Greek world. Sparta led the Peloponnesian League of cities not in the Athenian empire, and these two opposing leagues eventually entered into the devastating Peloponnesian War.

Answer 7

In the later stages of the War, it had led 180 Greek city-states in the Delian League against the Persian Empire. After peace was arranged with Persia in 449 BCE, Athens kept the League together by force and turned it into an empire of its own.

These resources gave Athens the most powerful navy and army, and the annual war contribution from the League continued to be extorted from its members, giving Athens the funding to not only pay for the forces, but also to lavish on itself.

Answer 8

It was not the greatest power - yes on sea because it had spent a windfall silver find on a fleet. However it was not strongest on land - Sparta was.