The 5th Century Bc Greek Persia Political Relations

The topic of this dissertation is the Greece-Persian political relations from499to404BC. As two old civilizations, the clash and contact between Greece and Persia not only exerted a great impact on their own history, but also affected the direction of world history.In Chapter one, I illustrated the development process of the Greece-Persian political relations. According to different contact between Greece and Persia, I divided the Greece-Persian political relations during this period into three stages:Hot Wars, Cold Wars and Ionian War. On account of some special reasons, Sparta withdrew from the continuing war against Persia before the end of Persian War. That offered an opportunity to Athens, and end of Persian War. That offered an opportunity to Athens, and it took advantage of the continuing war against Persia to make its strength growing enormously, and finally built an sea-empire. The Callias Peace was concluded in499BC, which marked the end of the massive war between Greece and Persia, and the Greece-Persian political relations developed into a new phase. During the second stage Persia basically took a wait-and-see attitude but to the Ionian War it took vigorous actions to negotiate with Sparta, and helped Sparta smash Athens to pieces with abundant funds. As a reward, Persia acquired the suzerainty of Asia Minor.In Chapter two I analyzed the causes of the evolvement of Greece-Persian political relations. The failure of Persia and her change of foreign policy, the rise of the hegemony of Athens and the characteristics of Sparta were important factors. Although the direction of the Greece-Persian political relations on the whole was determined by respective benefit of every power (As major players, Persia, Athens and Sparta had sought to maximize their own interests in their respective foreign policy), its course of development was conditioned not only by the change of military situations in mainland Greece and the political struggle between different powers, but also by the particular conditions of each power. Distinguished from the other Greek city-states, Athens was continuously in great need for the oversea grain, which forced it to pursue an sea empire, but this behavior of it could not very well shun clashing with Persia. The Helot system, unique constitutional structure and fundamental guiding principle of repelling industrial and commercial economy compelled Sparta to turn to Persia for help in order to defeat Athens.In Chapter three I researched the mutative influences of Greece-Persian political relations. Persia hastened the decline of the Greek city-states. After the major Persian War, Athens set up its empire during the continuing war against Persia. Sparta, however, felt the threat produced by Athens on its Peloponnesian League and its supremacy state; there arose the conflicts between the two hegemons of Greece. Persia aligned with Sparta and supported it with abundant funds demolishing the Athenian Empire during the War. The Peloponnesian War not only consumed a great quantity of human and material resources of Greece, but also did great damage to economic and cultural undertakings of the Greek city-states, which made the civilization of Greece declining quickly. Persia played an important role in this course to achieve its goal of indirectly controlling Greece, and continued to maintain the external prosperity. Whether it was a exchange of peaceful and friendly or a clash of blood and fire, the communication of eastern and western civilization had become more frequent.By the research of the Greece-Persian political relations from499to404BC, we can find that the appearance and the development of the Greece-Persian political relations were conditioned by many factors. The Greece-Persian political relations were conditioned many factors. The Greece-Persian political relations arose from two problems:the belongings of Greeks in Asia Minor and the conflicts among the city-states in mainland Greece. The former was one of the main conflicts between Greece and Persia, and joined them together. But the latter made the Greece-Persian political relations develop profoundly and intimately. The inner struggle among the Greek world continuously drew Persia into the conflicts among the Greek city-states, and brought an advance in Greece-Persian political relations.