Origins of the Peloponnesian War: Causes and Sources

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This worksheet is for 10th-grade history students. Use historical evidence to complete each question, analyze cause-and-effect relationships, and evaluate Thucydides' historical perspective.

Identify the defensive alliance formed in 478 BCE to protect against Persia, and name the city-state that led it.
What major action in 454 BCE symbolized the Delian League's full transition into an Athenian empire?
Explain how the treatment of Naxos (471 BCE) and Thasos (465 BCE) demonstrated changing Athenian policy toward its allies.
Describe the economic action Athens took against the city of Megara in approximately 432 BCE and explain why Sparta cared.
According to Thucydides, what was the 'truest cause' (prophasis) of the Peloponnesian War, separate from the public complaints?
Read this excerpt from Thucydides: 'The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon [Sparta], made war inevitable.' Evaluate whether being an exiled Athenian general helped or harmed the reliability of his analysis.

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Origins of the Peloponnesian War: Causes and Sources

Answer key

Identify the defensive alliance formed in 478 BCE to protect against Persia, and name the city-state that led it.
The Delian League, founded on the island of Delos and led by Athens.
What major action in 454 BCE symbolized the Delian League's full transition into an Athenian empire?
The transfer of the league's treasury from the island of Delos to the city of Athens.
Explain how the treatment of Naxos (471 BCE) and Thasos (465 BCE) demonstrated changing Athenian policy toward its allies.
When these islands attempted to secede from the Delian League, Athens used military force to subdue them, torn down their walls, confiscated their navies, and forced them into tributary status, proving the alliance was no longer voluntary.
Describe the economic action Athens took against the city of Megara in approximately 432 BCE and explain why Sparta cared.
Athens enacted the Megarian Decree, excluding Megarian merchants from all Athenian ports and markets. Sparta cared because Megara was a key member of Sparta's Peloponnesian League, and the blockade threatened the integrity of Sparta's alliance network.
According to Thucydides, what was the 'truest cause' (prophasis) of the Peloponnesian War, separate from the public complaints?
The growth of Athenian power and the fear this expansion instilled in Sparta, which forced Sparta to choose war to maintain its own security.
Read this excerpt from Thucydides: 'The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon [Sparta], made war inevitable.' Evaluate whether being an exiled Athenian general helped or harmed the reliability of his analysis.
Exile helped his objectivity by allowing him to interview Spartans and Peloponnesians directly rather than relying solely on Athenian propaganda; however, his personal military failure and aristocratic background may have caused him to downplay specific political blunders by figures like Cleon and focus excessively on abstract inevitability.