How do you think things would have been different if the Persians would have won the Persian Wars?

Thesis Statement: Had the Persians won the wars which were named after them, the history of the entire world would not be the same.

Body 1:"In his [Darius] behalf, therefore, and in behalf of all the Persians, I undertake the war, and pledge myself not to rest till I have taken and burnt Athens, which has dared, unprovoked, to injure me and my father." The plan Xerxes has is to burn and destroy Athens completely. He showed he was able to do this when Xerxes led his troops to sack the Parthenon. Had the Persians won the war Athens would have been obliterated from the map.

Body 2: " By this course then we shall bring all mankind under our yoke, alike those who are guilty and those who are innocent of doing us wrong." If Xerxes had defeated the Athenians, all of the people Xerxes came across following the events would be enslaved. This would have a ripple effect, meaning that no historians who would write about the Persian Wars would be able to, people who had great power and would have gone on to shape the world would rather be in shackles, and such turmoil as that.

Body 3: "The sun will then shine on no land beyond our borders; for I will pass through Europe from one end to the other, and with your aid make of all the lands which it contains one country." Not only was Persia eager and able to defeat Athens, they believed themselves to be able to take on the gigantic challenge of razing the entire continent. Xerxes and Persia would not be satisfied with having only conquered Athens. If they conquered that they would never stop voluntarily. Any achievement that would have been made by empires after the Athenian defeated the Persians would not have happened.

Conclusion: If the Persians had defeated the Athenians in the Persian Wars, history would be unrecognizable. Every single aspect of Western culture would have been destroyed, would never have had a chance to happen. History would have been changed irreversibly.

"Ancient History Sourcebook: Herodotus: Xerxes Invades Greece, from The Histories."FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 28 May 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-xerxes.html>.