The wars that were between Persia and Greece are called the Persian wars.There were a total of two invasions, one in 490 and 480 B.C.E. The city-states of Greece came together to fight the persians. Their victory kept the entire civilization alive. If Greece had been defeated, the world may not have inherited things like, classical architecture and sculpture, theatre, Olympic Games, and even democracy.
Persia, under the rule of Darius, which had already begun expanding into mainland Europe by the start of the 5th century BCE. Next on king Darius’ list was Athens and Greece.No one knows why he wanted Greece specifically. A plausible reason is the he wanted to increase the prestige of the king at home. The Ionian rebellion and the attack
Sparta was not going to let itself being conquered or their freedom being taken away. Some battles that Spartans were known for were Thermopylae and Plataea in the 5th century BC. The battle of Thermopylae was the first battle between the Persians and the Greeks; the Persian army was vast compared to the small Greek and Spartan armies. Persian King Xerxes had already the Thessalains in the Persian side but the rest of the Greek city-states banded together and put Sparta in charge of the Greek army. The Greeks had to defend a narrow pass that could lead the Persians into Greece from the North, this pass was called Thermopylae.
Being alive to witness the events that occurred in and around fifth century B. C. E. Greece meant that Thucydides could not help but write down his experiences. The Athenians of Greece and the people of the Persian Empire were constantly at odds with each other, and these differences eventually led to the Peloponnesian war. This war lasted from 431-404 B.C.E. and began an era of conflict between the two peoples (Bulliet). This power struggle not only inflated the ego of the Athenians, but created many negative viewpoints of the Persians. Thucydides, being an Athenian, was therefore extremely biased against the Persians.
During the eighteenth century and up until the nineteenth century, Greeks were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. It was during this time that nationalism and the idea that your people should have the best became really popular. Greeks in the Balkans and in Asia Minor decided to revolt against their rulers in March 1821, starting a nine-year war in search for their independence. When other European countries siding with them intervened, the Greeks finally gain their freedom. During the war, people formed opinions on the Greeks: some praised and sympathized with them while others didn’t.
The first conflict that started the Persian Wars was when the Persians conquered the Eastern Region of Greece which is known as Ionia. This happens when King Cyrus is in power. King Darius had a special Greek on his side, this person was Hippius who was a Greek tyrant who was expelled in 510 B.C. This was important because Hippias knew a lot about the Greeks and that was all information that king Darius could use. When King Darius conquered the Greeks he would install Hippius as his “Puppet” to rule Athens.
In fact, Pericles dominated Athens Politics from 461 BCE to 429 BCE (Brand, n. d.). Basically, the whole Greek world including Athens and Sparta fought as a kind of "Greek World-War". Additionally, in 431 BCE, Pericles led Athens for the first series of Peloponnesian war against Sparta. While starting the war, the Athens was quite great in navy, good annual revenue of silver from the silver mines located at Attica, and the tribute payment from her empire.
One reason is because Persia had a stronger government structure in the area of their kings. One example would be, as stated, “To maintain order among the populace, Persian kings established courts to resolve legal disputes” (Persia Doc E). In contrast, Athenians were not forward thinkers of the area of their leaders and the laws created by said leaders. For example, as stated, “Anyone whose behavior was believed to be a threat to democracy could be ostracized; they would have to leave Athens for 10 years, within the ten days of the decision being taken” (Greek Doc A). The kings and laws of Persia were stronger than Greece’s laws and leaders because the kings of Persia made legal disputes to create peace and unification.
Greece is a land covered by mountains with nothing much else to it yet one of the greatest civilizations ever to exist on this planet. Greece is part of Europe but is made up of more than 6,000 islands as well as a peninsula. Ancient Greeks live over 2500 years ago and considering their geography it is remarkable that they got to the greatness that they did get to. But they could have been even greater if the geography Greece had cooperated with the ancient Greek cities and citizens in the areas of their economy, their social/cultural ways, and their political beliefs.
After the Peloponnesian War conflict, Sparta's naval supremacy grew quickly, but Athens' naval supremacy was questioned. The Peloponnesian War conflict eventually paved the way for the Macedonians to overthrow the Greeks in the mid-fourth century. All this happened because of the war's devastation, which led to great damage, debilitated the nation, and ultimately aided the Greek's long-term separation (Cartwright, 2018).
The Policy of Fusion was the idea of combining the Greek/Macedonian culture with the Persian culture, creating one superculture in which Alexander the Great could more efficiently rule over. For example, Persians were entitled to their own religious practices and customs, as opposed to the original idea of hellenisation, which meant they would be forced to adopt the Greek way of life, and Alexander himself, adopted the Persian attire and some Persian customs. Ideally, it would fuse the two cultures by incorporating aspects from each, and therefore the Macedonians and the Persians could live together in harmony. Following Darius III’s defeat, the Persian empire was now under Alexander’s control, causing a change in his view on ruling. The purpose
The Second War began when the Spartan King Archimedes II laid siege to the city of Plataea. The Athenians were able to hold their position until 427 B.C.E., when the city fell. During that time, a revolt by the Spartans as taking place at Mytilene, which put additional pressure on Athens. While they defended and successfully extinguished that revolt, the Athenians made additional progress into Peloponnese, by sea, as well as Italy, by land. Athens’ success eventually ended when they were defeated in an attempt to recover Amphipolis in 422 B.C.E.
The real reason that Alexander wanted to conquer the Persian Empire was not only retaliation or revenge, but also as a test of his true abilities. In addition to this, Alexander also wanted to commence the invasion because it was what his father had been planning to do for quite a while. Arrian shows that Alexander thought of his invasion not as a personal grudge but purely business as usual. This act doesn’t fit with the motto of revenge especially since it’s shown that Alexander has extremely little respect for Darius. Arrian said “They think Darius is dead and they are mourning him.’
Athens and Sparta, located between the Aegean and the Ionian Sea, allied with each other in the Greco-Persian war. Due to the advanced and powerful navy of Athens incorporation with the well-built army of Sparta, they gained victory over the Persian Empire. After the victory, Athens gained wealth and dominance over the other Greek societies causing tensions between Sparta. They both share similarities towards their cultural background but had different views in creating an ideal society in addition to their state’s place in the world. Moreover, they differ from the concepts of a well trained or educated society and a well built military, but share similarities in their government format.
Throughout history, there has been many battles in which two large and powerful empires fought to maintain land, fought over religion, or to gain an abundance of resources. These empires, the Greek and the Persian, were hostile towards each other at the time. Although these empires were quite similar, they were near direct opposites at the time.
With fall of Constantinople in 1453 came the fall of a great empire that soon lost basic political rights under the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Greece after being conquered by the Turkish. The Greek War of Independence reestablished Greece as a singular entity without the oppression of the Ottoman Empire. Much like the nationalism that had been all over Europe the Greeks had a powerful sense of pride in their cultural values and religion; this was called Hellenism. Throughout centuries, the Greeks had attempted several times to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire since their conquer.