Question

What was the main cause of the Peloponnesian War?

A.
The Spartans resented Athens' dominance over other city-states.

B.
The Peloponnesian people turned out to be even fiercer warriors than the Spartans, so they attacked.

C.
Sparta began building a navy and the Athenians responded.

D.
The other city-states decided to band together to defeat Sparta and Athens.

Answer 1

I would think its (A) because..

The two main causes were the rivalry of Athens and Sparta. Athens was dominant on the sea. Sparta on land. They built small empires of allied city states and it was clashes of these that brought the two major powers into direct conflict. Athens won at first, and if Alcibiades their great general had not turned traitor to avoid almost certain execution on trumped up heresy charges might well have won the war. But their invasion of Sicily and siege of Syracuse, loss of the entire expeditionary force, with Alcibiades advice to the Spartans turned the tide. It went on for years with Alcibiades repeatedly changing sides. The end result was when Sparta became a naval power itself and developed their own great general/admiral in Lysander. Even though Sparta did eventually conquer Athens a revolt threw them out in a few years.