Essays or projects that I am proud of

Athens empire would have been better than the one in Star Wars

Athens was becoming dangerous. That is why Sparta formed the Peloponnesian League and took Athens down. Athens was completely going against the Grecian ideal of everyone gets to be independent and the city-states are ruled by themselves. The rest of the Delian League didn't want to be consumed by an empire. Though eventually Greece was taken over by an empire, the taking down of Athens was the cause of this. When Athens lost the Peloponnesian Wars they left a metaphorical gate open for somebody to overthrow the city-states of Greece.

The city-states of Greece were not in an empire. The most important value of all the city-states was that they would have independence from each other. They also had varying types if governments. One of the most important city-states Athens was a direct democracy. Athen's "rival" was Sparta. Sparta's government was a combination of an oligarchy and a monarchy. Sparta had two kings that would be the head generals of the great Spartan army.

The Delian Leauge was a defensive alliance against the Persian empire. The Delian Leauge was formed when the Persian empire started to advance on Greece's borders. The league completed their main goal of stopping Persia from invading and taking over Greece. They also stopped Persia from invading them in the future. But unfortunately, the league was also the cause of Athens almost forming an empire.

After the Persian empire was not really a giant threat Athens started to be more controlling in the Delian League. Athens became more concerned about what their city-state could get from the league and not what they could to do help it thrive. They started to form a dangerous empire. Their first move was putting all their generals in decision-making positions. And then in no particular order; They moved the Delian League's treasury from Delos to Athens. The Athenians wouldn't let any other city-state borrow money from the treasury. They took money from the treasury to beautify their city. Athens said to stop giving supplies or stuff akin to benefit the league and said that they only wanted money. Their last questionable deed before people starting to get suspicious was when Naxos tried to leave the Delian League and the Athens went and knocked down their city-state's walls.

This made most of the other city-states in the league very suspicious of Athens. Sparta decided to leave the Delian League and then they formed the Peloponnesian League. This was the start of the Peloponnesian War.

On one side was Athens and the Delian League and on the other side was Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Sparta and Athens were the two most powerful city-states in all of Greece. Athens skill was their strategic and forward-thinking minds. Sparta had an advantage in the Peloponnesian War. Their skill was fighting anything to do with war.

Sparta eventually won the Peloponnesian War. They achieved their goal and defeated Athens. That removed the threat of Athens forming an empire in the near future. There were positive consequences like; everyone got their independence back. And Athens was no longer a major threat. But there were also negative consequences such as; Greece got weaker economically. This was because one of the biggest trading ports which happened to be connected to Athens was now basically powerless. The worst consequence was that the city-states were unalignable because they had just fought a civil war.

The defeat of Athens led to the rising of the Macedonian empire over Greece. Athens had just been "de-crowned" in their defeat by Sparta. That meant that the "throne" was up for grabs. Sparta was an isolationist society so when they won the Peloponnesian War they just went back to their island. Macedonia had a powerful ruler who had access to an immensely strong army. Philip II recognized the power shift and lack of control and leadership in Greece. When he took over Greece the people may not have at first liked what happened but it actually benefited them quite a bit.

Philip II was able to take control of Greece because it's two most powerful city-states had just finished a war between two sides of their country, and the outcome was that Greece was weakened. The Peloponnesian Wars between Sparta and Athens had just been won by Sparta. Sparta was aligned with the Peloponnesian League and the rest of the city-states were on Athens' side. When the war was over Athens had been burnt to the grown again and very vulnerable. Nobody had realized the growing threat of the Macedonian empire on the horizon.

Philip II was able to control Greece to control Greece by using diplomacy. He aligned the Balkan people. He put out governors and they ruled the lands with authority. I actually think what Philip did is what Athens might have done if they succeeded in forming their empire.

Athens would have become something akin to what Britain was before the Revolutionary War. They probably would have made Sparta surrender all of their weapons, and then enslaved the soldiers and the people on the island. They would have pillaged the Peloponnesian League's city-states and taken anything with remote value. I imagine that after the Spartans were shipped over to Athens so they could be looked after the Athenian leaders would have made them work on rebuilding and beautifying Athens. Then they would have quickly taken over most of Greece. The Delian League was already under Athens control so those places wouldn't have been any problem. I assume by the time that they had completely formed their empire Philip's army would be waiting for the perfect chance to take over the Athenian empire. There would have probably been a giant war one almost like the Trojan Wars. From then I do not know what might have happened other than Athens becoming an immense world power.