What if Athens won the Peloponnesian War? How would this change the course of Western history?
>>410429
If they could withstand the rise of Thebes then that would have further impact on the Rise of Macedon and eventually the rise of Hellenism and Rome.
>>410429
Almost certianly very little would have changed. You'd still have the plague, you'd still have them bankrupting themselves on lengthy expeditions with big fleets and big fortification projects, and if they ultimately prevailed over Sparta, they'd be in the same prostrate position that Sparta was in after it "won".
Thebes becomes the most powerful state in Greece immediately after, mostly by virtue of staying out of it was much as possible.
>>410429
Well the reason the war started in the first place was because of fear of Athen's growing power.
So perhaps another coalition of Boeotian or Peloponnesian City-States would form to to rival Athens? Perhaps headed by Thebes?
>>410462
A better question would be what if Syracuse managed to conquer/control all of Magna Grecia and put a stop to Samnites and Bruzi fucking shits raiding greek cities.
Imagine the possibilities.
>>410429
Nothing would have been much different. Other Greeks would unified with each other against Athens and defeated them. Every time one Greek polis gained any power everybody else would gang up on them and destroy their hegemony.
That being said, Athens was a major naval power and less afraid of long distance expeditions than Sparta. If they'd won and gained total control of Greece, they might have been able to hold onto their hegemony for longer, enough to possibly even create a genuine empire covering much of Greece.
Well Sparta only made allies and installed puppet oligarchs in defeated city-states, while Athens had the whole empire building shit going in all but name. Athens would have been more directly imposing their hegemony on the defeated which in turn would have resulted in other Greeks fucking their shit up (like Thebes).
>>410429
Alexander never happens. If Athens had won, they most likely would have dismantled Spartan power, and considering that Thebes allied with Sparta, kick them feet from under them too. Athens is at this point far, far, far better equipped to control Greece, and in this scenario I just can't see Epaminondas inventing, or at least using and being successful with, the Phalanx, and even if he still does, Phillip probably wouldn't be in Thebes anyways. No Phallanx=No Macedonian hegemony, at least not strong enough to be able to compete with Athens at this point.
>>417623
far better equipped to control Greece than Sparta was*
>>414615
>every time
Only happened three times, all in the same 100 year period of 450 to 350 BC, though.
Athens was the first with their Delian Empire (it's not a league when trying to leave gets your whole population sold into slavery and the polis turned into a military colony), Sparta was the second, and Thebes the third.
But yeah, even before hand whenever a polis got too much power the guy they were bullying would call his friends and they would all fight and then go home and return to the status quo.
