The years from 413 to 404 a. Ç. they decreed the defeat of Athens to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. However, the Spartan hegemony did not last long – it can be said that those years were marked by intense social disorders.
During century IV a. a., the Greek city-states were with the military and economic forces practically exhausted, in virtue of the great participation in wars. Sparta and Athens had no basis to undertake new expansionist conquests and maintain armies constantly in war.
After the Peloponnesian War, Greek cities were divided. This fact contributed to the political and military weakening, providing external invasions.
In this way, the borders of the cities were devoid of military protection, due to the political and economic weakening. Over time, the Macedonian civilization, coming from northern Greece, took advantage of the situation of decay and dislocation of Greek cities. Soon the Macedonian king Philip II articulated a powerful and grandiose army in order to conquer the Greeks.
The Macedonian king dismantled the Greek cities, encouraging even more the rivalry between them, because its main objective was to dominate the Greek cities, while preparing his army to conquer Greece.
The conquest of Greece by Macedonia took place in 338 BC. a., when Filipe II won the Greeks in the battle of Queroneia. After the death of Philip II, he assumed the throne, his son Alexander the Great, who brought about the domination of Greece. Alexander became the emperor of the second largest empire in antiquity, second only to the Roman Empire.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/batalha-queroneia.htm