Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Persian Wars

Sparta: danger of a helot revolt → military state
Athens: struggles between rich and poor → democracy
Invasion by Persian armies → moved alike to glory

A New Kind of Army Emerges
Only rich could serve in army during the Dorian Age
Bronze → Iron (harder and cheaper): made a new kind of army composed of merchants, artisans, and small landowners
Hoplites (foot soldiers) with spears and shields → phalanx (the most powerful fighting force)

Battle at Marathon
Between Persian Empire and Greece began in Ionia on the coast of Anatolia (Persians conquered this area from Greeks around 546 B.C.)
Athens helped Ionian Greeks → Persian defeated and vowed to destroyed Athens
In 490 B.C., Persians landed on Marathon plain (25,000 men) but were not match for the Greek phalanx (10,000) so they fled the battlefield

Pheidippides Brings News
City was defenseless → chose Pheidippides to deliver message (Rejoice, we conquer) → after 26 miles died
When the Persians sailed into the harbor, they found the city heavily defended.

Thermopylae and Salamis
10 years later (480 B.C.) Xerxes (the son and the successor of Darius the Great) assembled an enormous invasion force to crush Athens
Met no resistance as it marched down the eastern coast of Greece (some city-states did not want to fight the Persians)
They were blocked by 7000 Greeks (300 Spartans) in a narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae for three days → Spartans made a great impression and were all killed (other forces retreated)
How best to fight: evacuated the city and fought at sea (Themistocles) →  positioned fleet in a narrow channel near the island of Salamis (southwest of Athens)
After setting fire to Athens, Xerxes sent warship to block both ends of channel → difficult turning and hulls were punctured by Greek ships → more than one third sank
Battle of Plataea → Persians defensive
Formed an alliance called the Delian League (headquarter) to continue to press the war against the Persians → drove them from the territories surrounding Greece and ended the threat of future attacks

Consequences of the Persian Wars
During the 470s, Athens emerged as the leader of Delian League (200 city-states) → used the power to control other members
Moved the headquarter to Athens and used military force against members that challenged its authority
City-states → provinces of Athenian Empire → entered its brief golden age (based on the prestige of victory and the wealth of the Athenian Empire)

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