Why was the outcome of the Persian Wars so significant in world history?

Answer 1

There were several Greek victories over Persia over 150 years.

The culminating one of Alexander's total defeat and taking over of the Persian Empire had several results:

1. His successors (generals) carved up his conquests and established kingdoms and dynasties of their own, of which the most durable were Macedon, Syria and Egypt, known as the Hellenistic kingdoms.
2. These dynasts superimposed a veneer of Hellenistic organisation and culture in the Middle East, with a modicum of civilising effects.
3. They engaged in warfare with each other, tussling for territory, so the stability of the kingdoms was offset by the competition between them. Persian rule had been benevolent, and there isn't much reason to believe that the Greek kingdoms improved on the Persian one.
4. When Rome expanded its empire to the Greek east, these kingdoms slotted into the empire.

Answer 2

The immediate effect was to free the Greek city-states that were part of the Persian Empire, in Ionia (what is today the coast of Turkey). Released from the Persian threat, Athens rebuilt their city, which the Persians destroyed, and began a period of prosperity that encouraged the Golden Age of Philosophy and the Arts. Examples of its architecture, sculpture, and drama stand as monuments of artistic achievement to this day. Eventually, Athens misused its position of power as the treasurer of the Delian League that safeguarded the seas from Persian intrusion, and began acting as an imperial power itself, bringing it into conflict with Sparta, precipitating the Peloponnesian War when Sparta felt its hegemony threatened.

Another View:

After seeing off the Persian threat, the cities were able to return to their habitual shifting alliancces and disputes. The diffrence this time was that Athens had organised an anti-Persian defensive league to ensure the cities of Asia Minor and the Islands were free from the Persian threat. When peace was finally formalised after 449 BCE Athens shifted this Delian League treasury from the island of Delos to Athens and then began to spend it on itself, building the Parthenon etc and putting nearly half its population on the public payroll, and paying for its fleet to continue collecting League contributions by force if necessary.

This League therefore became effectively an empire of Athens, and Athens was thus enabled to use its power to intervene in other cities' affairs outside its empire. Sparta was prevailed on to lead a Peloponnesian League as a counter (most were Dorian cities in peninsular Greece - the Peloponnese). So the threat of Persia was replaced with threat of war between two powerful internal Greek coalitions, which came devastatingly into play with outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. Paradoxically, this war was decided against Athens after 27 years by the late intervention of Persia on the side of the Peloponnesians.

Answer 3

Failure of the Persian Empire to incorporate the Greek city-states under its control left the Greek city-states to continue warfare between themselves, so weakening them that the became vulnerable to takeover by Macedonia, and Macedonia was able to use the combined power to takeover the Persian Empire.

Answer 4

In the aftermath, Athens was able to use the Delian League which it led to establish and empire of its own, and confront the other Greek city-states. This resulted in the destructive 27-yer Peloponnesian War with Athens lost when Persia sided with the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, and so lost its empire. Ongoing wars opened the way for Macedonia to establish dominance of the Greek world and use this combined power to take over the Persian Empire.

Answer 5

They paused in their normal warfare between each other to repel the Persians, then went back to their usual warfare with added ferocity, having learnt how to better unite into powerful groups.

Answer 6

After peace was made with the Persia Empire, Athens opportunistically converted the alliance of Greek cities into an empire of its own. Its consequent strength and overconfidence led it into a destructive war with the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. This destructive war and ongoing fighting between the Greek city-states made the way clear for the rise of Macedonia, which dominated the Greek world. Macedonia used this power to take over the Persian Empire.

Answer 7

After peace was made between Persia and the Greek city-states, the Greeks were free to go back to fighting each other and became so weakened that they became an easy mark for Macedonia which took control of them and diverted their military resources to help conquer Persia, from which arose Alexander's empire and the subsequent Hellenistic kingdoms, later taken over by the Roman Empire.

Answer 8

The wars temporarily liberated the Greek city-states in Asia Minor from Persian rule, but this was reversed 50 years later.

Answer 9

It temporarily stopped the movement of peoples from east to west, and ensured the entrenchment of Graeco-Roman culture as the later dominant factor in Europe and the Americas.
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