Persia’s Foreign Policy in 499-479 B.C.

            Persia is the currently known country by the name Iran. It is known of its earliest civilization,comprised of  historical urban settlements,emerging as early as 4000 BC. Persia is geographically advantaged by its location ,due to its central position  in the Europe and Asia.

            The years ranging from  499BC to 479 were colored by series of wars between the Greek States and the Persia,where during this period the  Persia empire launched  a war against Greece’s main land, but Greece used to overcome and even shine over Persia,although Persia was at the optimum of its strength by then. The war between the Persia and Greek was ignited because of the interest of the Persia to control Greek State cities in Iona. The Persia empire used Tyrants to ensures they earned the tribute was paid,which they relied on ,although there was biasness in terms of the amount of tribute payable among the towns. Therefore,the Persian empire had a Foreign policy of attacking cities and and taking control of them in opening up its source of revenue in terms of  paid tribute.

            The Persia used to start war in aim of overthrowing the ruling of those  cities and aimed at taking control of the cities,where it appointed persons who were expected to run this conquered cities on their behalf. The Persia empire did the recruiting of citizens into the Persia empire Army, which was expected to strengthen its army so as to protect itself and strengthen its army for further attacks to other cities and the control of the acquired cities.

The Persia empire had a revengeful attitude in its Foreign policies .This is portrayed when the Persia empire planned to punish Athens for the role that it played in Destroying Sardis, that is a temple. The Persia empire launched a war with Athens in the year 490 BC in revenge for its participation in the destruction of Sardis, on which is lost to the Athens in the battle of Marathon(490 BC), which accounts for the most important war in the Greek’s history. The war is important in the sense that if Persia could have won then  it could have taken control of Greece wiping out the Greek culture.

The Persia empire among its Foreign policies, it had an attitude of not giving up easily in its attempts to overthrow cities or other empires. This attitude made it to rule almost all the world including Asia Minor,Lydia,Mesopotamia, and Egypt, except its several fails in attempts to overthrow Athens which was the leader of the Greece, which is a the biggest achievement of Athens by that time. The Athens army used to outshine the Persia empire’s army army, in all the subsequent wars that followed after the battle of Marathon.

Conclusion. The Persia empire had a geographical advantage which favored it as a strategic positioning that made it the  oldest civilized society with urban settlements. In 499-479 the Persia empire policies focused so much in acquiring  more cities and empires  that it intended to control which made this era colored with a series of wars in attempts to overthrown their eyed empires. The major purpose to overthrow this empire according to the Persia’s foreghn policies was to act as a source of income to service the empire’s activities and to recruit citizens in this newly acquired cities to the Persia army in the process of strengthening the empire. The Persia empire’s Foreign policies had the passion of revenge when wronged and the attitude of not easily giving up.

Reference.

 WSU Website :   www.wsu.edu:8080/%7Edee/GREECE/PERSIAN.HTM