Warmatrix

The First Messenian War was fought between the Greek city states of Sparta and Messenia, probably lasting from 730 BCE to 710 BCE. It established Sparta as a Peloponnesian power and perhaps historically more important, as a completely military state.
Early Sparta was just one of many Greek city-states, located in the fertile plain of Lacedaemon, which was also shielded by strong natural defenses. In this region, Sparta flourished and grew. It was probably population pressure that drove the Spartans, like other city-states, into conflict with their neighbors to obtain new farmland and access to ports. The Spartans were among the most brutal and aggressive among the competing states. At a certain moment tensions were so high between Sparta and Messenia, its neighbor to the west, that an incident of cattle theft was scaled up and spilled out into full scale war.
The Spartans opened the war with a surprise attack on the city of Ampheia, which was completely unprepared. It was sacked and many citizens were either killed or sold as slaves. The Messenians then mobilized, but knew they were no match for the larger and stronger Spartan army. Instead they strengthened their fortifications, which the Spartans could not overcome, because their siegecraft was very limited. Instead they raided the countryside, carrying off movable wealth. Other treasures like buildings and trees were left standing; clearly the Spartans intended to conquer the land and did not want to destroy it.
The Messenians could not keept up their defensive strategy forever. After four years their food was running out. King Euphaes established a forward base, which the Spartans tried to prevent, without success. The next year both sides decided to fight it out in a pitched battle. The Messenians attacked with reckless bravery, but broke on the more solid line of the Spartans, who were already fighting in somewhat closed ranks that would later evolve into the hoplite phalanx.
Damaged but not defeated the Messenians withdrew to mount Ithome, where the Spartans besieged them for several years, again unable to mount an assault on the strong position. There were two other battles, one six years later and another five years after that. The latter battle was actually won by the Messenians, who drove the Spartans back to their own land. But in the 20th year of the war they returned, took mount Ithome and decisively defeated their enemy. It seems that it was famine, deaths in battle and possibly plague that had worn out Messenians so much that they could resist no longer. With the army defeated, the Spartans quickly overran and conquered the rest of the city-state.
After their victory the Spartans did something that no other Greek city-state had done before: they reduced the entire Messenian population to "helots", serfs, which appalled other Greeks. Not just the Messenian, but also the Spartan society was transformed. There were many more helots than spartiates, mothakes and periokoi (all free men) in the expanded state. To keep the helots under control, the Spartans smudged out the differences between higher and lower layers of society and transformed themselves into a single military caste, where all men were equal except for age and accomplishments.
All this did not go well with the Messenians, who wanted their indepedence back. They gnashed their teeth for several decades and then revolted, but were put down once more in the Second Messenian War, which also lasted nearly 20 years. Despite a second revolt in the 5th century BCE, Messenia had to endure Spartan rule for 3½ centuries longer, before the hated rulers were weakened enough to be beaten back.