The+Delian+League+by+James+Black

=**The Delian League: The story of how an alliance that would protect a nation turned into a dreaded dictatorship****﻿.** = =**﻿by James Black** =

**As most alliances designed to protect civilisations, the Delian league was inaugurated to protect a country (Greece) against a considerably stronger force, namely Persia. This was a very good idea as, if Persia ever attacked again, Athens would need to be prepared, this meant building a navy second to none, and the only way to accumulate these boats and weapons is of course money; and lots of it.**

**A trust fund was set up, all city states that wished to be protected, donated monthly fee, relative to the size and wealth of their city state. All money was to be kept in a temple on the neutral island of Delos. Before long, the Athenian navy was almost unnecessarily large,and also the Persians had yet to launch their next attack. People then began to question the how their money was being spent as the navy no longer needed to become more powerful. They were right, the money in fact was being spent on erecting the most beautiful(and expensive) sculptures, buildings and monuments around the city of Athens.**

**This resulted in the extreme displeasure of the many members of the league. Unfortunately, Athens was now so powerful that it could threaten to destroy any city sate that opposed the league or even attempted to secede from it. This sparked a new found hatred and resentment of the dictatorship that was now the Athenian Empire. 470 BC, Naxos and Carystus were the first attempted segregationists but were then forced to rejoin the Delian League by the Athenian Army. However, these were small and insignificant city states who would pose no threat in a war. What they did do however, was encourage some of the larger city states to join together to fight the Athenians. One of which was Sparta, who fought Athens in the Peloponnesian wars for over ten years and finally managed to end what had turned into the Athenian Empire. As this is a document on the Delian League, I have no intention of writing anything on the Peloponnesian wars. I hope this song does the trick though.media type="youtube" key="UZzyuw_lBTM" width="425" height="350"**