"The Athenian Empire grew because no one really wanted to stop it." The Athenian Empire became the dominant power in Greece and the Aegean between 478 and 445 BC because the states who could have defeated her saw more reason to ally themselves with Athens than to oppose her. This period of Athenian supremacy was between the Persian War and the Peloponnesian War, when Athens grew in strength as leader of the Delian League and used that …
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…Athens was not stopped from becoming such a powerful empire because there was no force in existence strong enough to successfully oppose her and smaller states would not band together in fear of being completely destroyed. The rise in power of Athens can be attributed to manipulation of the Delian League and brute force on her behalf and lack of unification and ability to fight a common enemy on the behalf of her weaker allies.