I am reading through the Peloponnesian War and I need some clarification, It's been on my mind for a while, but during the start of the book before the war breaks out when it's detailing the actions of the Athenians and their colonies, it said one of the grievances against Athens was they would take on a colony or support a colony and then fight their wars, thus depriving the colony of the very valuable experience of warfare so if they were to revolt in any sort of way they could be cleaned up easily.
Was that a valid and used tactic or did I misunderstand?
>>3367839
Yes and no.
The grievance in question was more about the autonomy of the colony/city, rather than the warfare itself. In essence, the Athenians were being paid by these colonies and cities to fight their wars for them, either that or contribute soldiers/ships to the cause. The other cities of mainland Greece compared this to an empire, and they weren't far off, especially since Athens didn't allow for any members of their league to leave willingly.
While this could be seen as a tactic to make crushing uprisings easier, it mostly had to do with how the Delian League had been effectively transformed into the Athenian Empire.