Discuss the Causes and Origins of the Peloponnesian War.

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Discuss the causes and origins of the Peloponnesian War. The Peloponnesian War was a long and brutal affair involving Sparta and its allies and the Athenian empire. The war was fought over supremacy in Greece but was also a struggle of opposing political systems and outlooks. There was division, within city states themselves, particularly Athens, over whether to go to war and then how to fight it. Sparta was eventually the victor of the conflict but at a terrible price to Greece. The Peloponnesian War began in 431BC and ended in 404BC. The Peloponnesian War is broken up into three phases. Phase one (431BC-421BC) is known as The Archidamian War which ended in a stalemate. Phase two (421BC-415BC) erupted from a 6 year truce which was broken by military skirmishes. Phase three (415BC-404BC) is known as the Sicilian expedition and Decelean War. This phase resulted in the intervention of Persia and the end of the Athenian empire. However, the true beginning of the war can be argued. There had been a 10 year conflict from 457BC to 447BC between Athens and Sparta. This period has been given title of The First Peloponnesian War. The Peloponnesian War is seen as a continuation of this earlier war. Thucydides, seen as the most important source from the time and other sources such as Aristophanes and Plutarch, do not refer to this period as part of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides refers to the Peloponnesian War as the “Twenty-Seven Year War” and refers to the First Peloponnesian War (as we call it) as the “Ten-Year War” meaning he sees them as separate wars. This is probably because for 15 years after the First Peloponnesian War there was a balance of power between Athens and Sparta until the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War or as Thucydides calls it, the “Twenty-Seven Year War”. Thucydides lists three events as bringing on the immediate outbreak of the war,
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