WHAT ACTIVITY ALLOWED THE EXPANSION OF GREEK CULTURE? - HISTORY - 2024

The activity that allowed the expansion of Greek culture was navigation, which allowed commerce and the transmission of knowledge. In addition, the search for territory and new lands, and trade were important.

Many historians believe that the excessive population was another trigger. The land was taken over by few families to the detriment of those who did not possess it, and this caused emigration to other places.

The political situation did not help, since the government was monopolized by the noble class, who, far from providing land to the people, accumulated it for themselves.

This resulted in the class with fewer resources looking for other horizons to colonize. Through navigation they set out to conquer other lands, towards the East coast, and the West coast.

How did the expansion of Greek culture happen?

The eastern coast

The first colonizations were in Macedonia and the northern Aegean Sea. Colonies such as Olinto and Potidea were founded. To strengthen trade, they colonized the route of the straits, which through the Sea of ​​Marmara led to the Ponto Euxino (Black Sea).

They founded colonies like Abydos and Sesto at the entrance to the Dardanelles. The colony of Byzantium on the Bosphorus, founded around 660 BC, became a very rich city for trade.

From Ponto Euxino or Black Sea, the colonies of Odesa, Tanais, Panticapea, Chersoneso, Fascia, Sínope and Heraclea were founded.

These were dedicated to the export of cereals on a large scale, and to tuna fishing. Such was the agricultural development of these colonies that they soon became the granary of the Greek world.

The west coast

The coasts of Greece are only 70 kilometers from those of Italy. The Greeks occupied the eastern region of Sicily, since the western one was in the hands of Carthaginians.

In 650 BC the Greek colonies in Italy, occupied from the Gulf of Taranto to the Gulf of Naples.

Among the cities that they founded there we can name Síbaris, Crotona and Taranto in the Gulf of Taranto. Messina and Syracuse, in Sicily; Paestum, Naples (Neapolis) and Cumas on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Towards the west of the Mediterranean the Greeks settled in the south of France, founding there the city of Massilia (Marseille), which quickly developed thanks to the fact that it dominated the Rhone Valley.

Through this city, those of Nikaia (Nice), Antipolis (Entebbe), Monekis (Monaco), among others, were also founded.

Colonizing Cities

There were cities within the colonies in which commercial development was more prominent. These cities were almost always the most populated, and two of them stand out above the others: Miletus and Phocea, in Asiatic Greece.

Mileto, on the coast of the Black Sea or Ponto Euxino, had more than eighty factories where they produced wood, cereals, slaves and fish.

Phocea, developed by sailing towards the western part of the Mediterranean, Sicily, Corsica, and the Iberian Peninsula.

They were excellent sailors, but they did not dedicate themselves to founding colonies, but to profit commercially from their travels.

Consequences of colonization

The expansion of Greece through the Mediterranean Sea came from the development of navigation. It stimulated trade in an extraordinary way, which brought growth in line with the industry.

The commercial exchange made many cities become true markets of great movement. Greek culture spread throughout the colonial cities.

References

1. "The Greek expansion" in XdsocialesXd. Recovered in September 2017 from Xdsociales Xd at: sociales2012.wordpress.com
2. "Greek expansion" in Aliquando. Recovered in September 2017 from Aliquando in: crispescador.blogspot.com.ar
3. "Consequences of the Greek Expansion" in The Wisdom of Greece (December 2012). Recovered in September 2017 from The Wisdom of Greece in: lasabiduriadegrecia.blogspot.com.ar
4. "Colonizing expansion" in Gamma History. Recovered in September 2017 from Historia Gama at: sites.google.com.