Persian wars started in 499 BC and lasted several years to about 449 BC. It was a series of wars that took place between Persia and the Hellenic world. The main cause of the war was in rise in the power between the states of Sparta and Athens. According to Phillip ‘the war was caused by the rise to power of its two protagonists, the city of Sparta and Athens and their political estrangements’ (11). The struggle of Persia started when the then ruler of Persia conquered the Ionia state which was an independent minded state that did not take the Persian rule gladly. The appointment of tyrants to rule over the various places of Ionia is known to have escalated the problems for the Greeks as well the Persians. The decision by one of the then tyrant, Aristagoras, to conquer Naxon, one of the islands with the support of the Persians led to his fall which caused him to incite the Hellenic world against Persia. He also got support from Eritrea and Athens military after sometime. The support from Athens marked the beginning of a revolt that was called Ionian revolt. This led to the capture and burning of Sardis; Persian regional capital. These led to the then king of Persia, Darius to seek revenge against the two states, Eritrea and Athens. ‘Alexander the great led an army of Greeks and Macedonians into western Asia to launch his attack on the Persian Empire.’ It can be said that the Persian war was a struggle by Athens and Sparta to obtain a political constitution (Terry 212).
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Get Help Now!It can therefore be said that the main reasons for the Persian war was political. It was mainly strife between two groups to gain political power and a civil code. The war had effects on both Athens and Sparta. Sparta was withdrawn from its friends, the main ones being Thebans who were suspicious of their occupation of Athens. Sparta benefited temporarily from its victory though its social status could not go beyond the Peloponnese (Terry 364). Athens on the other hand survived the war in terms of its democracy which was functioning very well politically. The economy also changed to a commerce and trade town. Most of the people living in Athens before the war were peasants but after the war their living standards improved greatly.
The Spartans did not have a well equipped leadership after the war to lead the Greeks. According to Phillip and Randall(87), ‘the war ended with a technical victory for Sparta… the Spartan leadership was not inclined or equipped to lead the squabbling Greeks into an effective central government.’ The war made the towns of Athens and Spartan to be known and recognized worldwide. Athens was known as a trade center after the war and its economy improved greatly because of this trade. After the war, opportunities were created for the people in different professions like the engineers, soldiers, merchants, intellectuals and administrators. This was especially evident in Athens. Athens also had unity after the war and a greater and stronger empire than before the war. Through the war civilization was born. It is only after the war that the fighting groups shifted from their previous way of life that was kind of primitive to a more modern way of life.
Part 2: Alexander the Great
Alexander, the king of Macedonia, succeeded Philip the second, his father who was assassinated after he had brought the Greece cities under Macedonia. Alexander the great served in the military first before coming to reign as the ruler of Macedonia. He was known to be strong and fearless. He was inspired by a god and his action thought to be guided by the ‘homer’, a spirit. Alexander rose to the throne as king of Macedonia through an action by the army that enthroned him as king after the assassination of Philip at a party. He ruled by eliminating his enemies at whatever cost. Immediately after his confirmation as king he executed the assassinators of Philip and also got rid of the people who were against him.
Alexander started off by an invasion of the Persian Empire which was a campaign that had been started by his father before his assassination. The Persian Empire was also wealthy and he needed this for the maintenance of the army. He began the war by crossing Hellespont with an army of both the Greeks and Macedonians. He got his victory, which was a usual thing to his army. He then continued to advance southwards towards Syria and Egypt. Alexander waged war in Asia, Syria, Assyria, Egypt and Babylonia, the main point of his battle though was Persia which was being ruled by king Darius. As explored by Maxwell, Alexander was very spiritual and even slept with a god image under his pillow (8). He is said to derive his inspiration from his father and also from spiritual belief in the gods that they worshipped at the time. He was known as a man who was never stopped when he had made up his mind to achieve something. He had a fearless character and was motivated by the desire to get more and more without stopping. Most of Alexander’s inspiration was from his father, Philip, because his style of rule was similar to the father only that he was more firm and fearless after serving in the army before taking over the throne.
The effects of the rule of Alexander mostly were the enmity that the Macedonia got from the nations around them. Every reigning king around the neighbors of Macedonia turned against Alexander the great. This caused an uprising in the entire kingdom which had direct effects on the people living in Macedonia. The conquest of Alexander also led to the growth of the Hellenistic culture because of the enlargement of the empire which brought different communities together; this is according to Stoneman (332), who describes the conquest of Alexander the great in detail in his book. The rule of Alexander also led to the rise in the economy of his empire through the effects of interaction between different communities that he conquered during the wars that he wage in the quest of enlarging his empire.
Alexander’s death is mysterious though it is only known that he succumbed to illness. His death brought a fall to the empire that he had built. He died before designating a successor to his kingdom, this finally led to the fall of Macedonia and the kingdom came to an end. Perdiccas was appointed the successor of Alexander though he avoided claiming power. Some of the people in command were however not pleased with the leadership arrangement and this caused divisions within the empire. Finally Alexander the great was succeeded by his son, Alexander the 4th and Philip the 3rd, who were appointed as joint kings to the empire. All in all Alexander the great is known as the greatest king to have lived in the ancient times.
Works cited
Phillip, De Souza. The Peloponnesian war. Osprey Publishers, 2002. Print.
Philip, J., and Randall, P. World civilization: Since1500. New York: Cengage Learning Inc, 2008. Print.
Terry, B. Aspects of Greek History, 750-323 BC: A Source-Based Approach
Classics-ancient History. USA: Routledge Publishers, 1996. Print.
Maxwell, J. Alexander the great: The Invisible Enemy. USA: Taylor and Francis library, 2005. Print.
Richard, Stoneman. Alexander the Great. USA: Taylor and Francis, 2004. Print.
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