"Why did so many member states revolt from the Delian League/Athenian Empire?" (1 Viewer)

[myonlyhope90]

Why did so many member states revolt from the Delian League/Athenian Empire?

What does everyone think? Feel free to throw in any historiography into the discussion.

 

[ellofatso]

You are in uni!
You should know this...shouldn't you?

Many states or allies revolted because Athens was trying to set up democracies in their states. Thanks to Pericles.
When a state revolted, Athens would march in to establish garrisons and install democracy. They would also favor those states who are democratic, or go against any state that has another form of government or anything that Athens would like to have. An example would be Samos. Samos had the second largest fleet besides Athens, and when a quarrel between Samos and Miletus arose, Athens sided with Miletus because this means that she has a right to enter Samos and establish a democracy, and take anything she wants.

i hope that this sort of helps...

 

[Dratini]

I've been taught that the states revolted from the Delian League because Athens was becoming too 'bossy'. They also thought that they didn't need to be a part of the League as they hadn't seen any Persians for many years, as the League was created to protect against the persians.

Also, when a state revolted, Athens was quick to punish them as they didn't want other states gatting the same idea. They would arrive at the state in full force and tear down their walls - the state's only protection. They would then install cleruchies (i think that's how you spell it). They consisted of the poor and criminals from Athens. The cleruchies instilled democracy in the revolted state (similar to what the above said [sorry, couldn't remember your name])

Hope this helps.

 

[SpankyTheHippo]

The Athenians demanded too much phoros in the form of ships. The allies couldn't afford to send ships since building and maintaining ships used up people power. Instead they sent money. But Athens was greedy and they interfered with Thasos' gold mining operations. Because of this personal quarrel, Athens subdued Thasos with the Delian Leagues funds and confiscated the ships, tore down their walls and were forced to pay tribute. I guess this is the start of the transformation of Delian League into Athenian Empire.

Also the fact that there was no Persian threat after the Battle of Eurymedon, but still the allies were still forced to pay, might have pissed them off.