The Phoenician civilization began on a thin strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea.
Phoenicia consisted of all city states which had a huge impact on the region’s
history.
The Phoenicians were fearless sailors which focused on transporting trade goods.
They dominated sea trade in the area for hundreds of years.
The origins of the Phoenician people can be traced back to the Canaanites who lived
in what is now Isreal, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The Egyptian ruled these people
for about 500 years and had a great influence upon them.
When the Egyptian ruled ended around 1150 BCE the Phoenician society began to
emerge. Independent City-States began to arise and prosper. The rulers of these
city-states were priest-kings. They shared government power with leading
merchant families and a citizen assembly. Here the ruler made decisions along with
the rich merchants. Citizens also had a say in what went on within their city-states.
Geography greatly influenced how the Phoenician civilization developed. The
Lebanon Mountains were on the eastern border. These had many large trees and
provided great farm land down below.
The Phoenicians also manufactured a number of goods which were sought after all
over the known world. The most famous was probably the purple dye that they
manufactured from sea snails. The people who made the dye often were stained
purple which led to the Phoenicians being known as the purple people. They used
this dye to make beautiful cloth which was made into very expensive clothing.
They also had skilled craftsmen which made unique pottery, glass, and metal
objects. The abundance of trees in the hills allowed them to make furniture and
other items.
Because of where the Phoenicians were located, they had few natural resources
which means they had to rely upon trading. Phoenician traders brought back many
Imports. Most of these imports were raw materials which included gold, silver, tin,
copper, iron, ivory, and other precious stones. These imports were used to make
many different things. These goods were then shipped out to many different
regions and sold. Tings that are shipped out are called exports.
The location of the Phoenicians made them ideal traders. Not only did they ship
their own goods but many other civilizations relied upon them to transport their
goods. They were experts in navigation or the art of steering a ship from place to
place. Their sailors became very skilled with wind patterns and the ocean currents.
The Phoenecian sailors were thought to have been the first ones to use the North
Star for navigation. This ability to navigate was very important for exploration. The
Phoenician sailors sailed and explored all the way into the Atlantic Ocean
discovering new lands and more importantly, precious metals. They explored for
riches.
Phoenicians set up many colonies. Because of there exploration they found many
safe harbors or places where ships could be anchored and loaded or unloaded. At
first these harbors were used just to get supplies but soon the fertile land around
them began to attract farmers. From these farms settlements arose and became
colonies. A colony is a place ruled by a distant country.
One colony that arose into a rich city-state was called Carthage. Carthage ended up
setting up it’s own colonies and fought in three wars with the Romans. The last war
that was fought resulted in the Romans burning Carthage to the ground. Roman
eventually took over all of the Phoenician colonies.
Many of the Phoenician achievements were absorbed by Greece and Rome. This
was done through cultural diffusion. Cultural diffusion is the spreading of cultural
traits from one region to another.
Because the Phoenicians traded with so many different people they were perfect for
spreading new ideas and culture around their area of the globe. One race of people
they had a major influence on was the Greeks. The Greeks adopted their system of
weights and measurements and spread them throughout the world.
The Phoenicians are probably best known for their alphabet. Before the
Phoenicians the main system of writing was cuneiform. The Phoenicians developed
an alphabet which is a small set of letters or symbols which each stands for a single
sound. Their alphabet had 22 symbols. Now a person only had to learn 22 symbols
instead of hundreds in order to write.
The people who traded with the Phoenicians learned their system of writing in
order to communicate with them. The Greeks began using the alphabet around 500
BCE. The Greeks gave the letters names and the word “alphabet” comes from the
names of the first two letters in the Greek alphabet “ alpha and beta”. Around 100
BCE the Romans adopted the Greek alphabet and changed a couple letters resulting
in the alphabet that we have today.