What is colonization? The Great Greek Colonization

Colonization occupies an important place in the history of many ancient states. What is colonization? It is internal and external. The resettlement of the people and the economic development of vacant lands within their country is an internal colonization. What is external colonization? This resettlement on the territory of strangers for the purpose of seizing land is often intertwined with the violent subordination of the local population or its extermination, but can be of a peaceful nature.

Colonization, what is a colony? This is the settlement of people in a foreign territory. The country or city that left the migrants is called the metropolis (from the Greek - "city-mother").

Great colonization

The Phoenicians began to capture the lands of others first. They were followed by the Greeks. The flowering of Greek activity falls on the VIII - VI century BC - this is the Great Greek colonization. Thanks to her, the Greek world spread to vast territories, and the peoples living in the basins of the Mediterranean and Black Seas experienced the influence of the Greek culture.

What are the reasons for colonization?

One of the reasons was the crisis, which manifested itself in the shortage of fertile land, and in the reduction of food resources, as the population was constantly increasing. The aggravation of the situation was due to the custom that existed at that time: the inherited land was divided equally among the sons. The division into small plots in the demographic explosion led to the fact that they could no longer feed their owners. Therefore, the land had to be sold to neighbors or to their rich relatives.

The society tried to find ways to solve the problem. The first output was seen in more effective use of economic lands and their expansion due to wooded areas. But in order to increase the yield, it was required to improve the quality of the tools, since rocky soil is not easy to process. The second is external expansion, which can be peaceful or violent. For example, an endless series of wars unfolded when Sparta and Argos wanted to forcibly take away the lands from their neighbors. Opponents were equal in strength, so no one won. Proceeding from this, the Greeks went peacefully through colonization.

Stages of colonization

Initially, there were small settlements, mainly in places of regular trade with the local population. Often they were located on small islands near the coast. This served as the protection of the first settlers from the sudden attack of the barbarians, and at the same time enabled them to trade with them.

A large number of Greek colonies were based in the mouths of rivers, which served as convenient harbors or controlled the straits of the seas.

The decisive phase of colonization came when large masses of immigrants began to settle in the conquered territory or the barbarians withdrawn peacefully. Most of the colonists were no longer merchants, but peasants, interested in maximum coverage of fertile land.

The bulk of the settlers were peasants who did not have land. Each settler received one plot of land for his use, as well as a plot for the construction of the house. Only the first settlers and their descendants possessed civil rights, and they also had much more plots of land and more fertile land than those who arrived later colonists.

The alien Greeks engaged in a diverse and complex relationship with the local barbarian population. Often the first settlers, landing on foreign land, met hostile to them local residents. They had to resort to weapons. But there were also peaceful encounters in which the barbarians extracted the maximum benefit for themselves in contact with Greek merchants, borrowing a particle of Greek culture and life.

Greece before the choice

Most likely, as early as the beginning of the 8th century BC, the crisis of the demographic and social situation in Greece reached its climax, and the society faced a choice: either the Civil War with the forcible redistribution of the land, or the withdrawal of "superfluous" people outside the polis. Often, the question of which part of the population will leave the homeland was accompanied by force and internecine strife. The party that was defeated, boarded the ships and went in search of new territories for settlement. Often the very government of the policy resorted to a depletion of the situation and the removal of tension by establishing colonies.

Northern shores of the Black Sea and colonization

What is the Bosporan kingdom? In the north of the Black Sea, on the modern territory of Ukraine and Russia, the Greeks founded many colonies. One of them - the Bosporan kingdom - is a powerful state, which had vast fertile lands with a rich harvest of bread.

In the reserve of Sevastopol you can see the ruins of the buildings of the Greek city of Chersonese, wander through the ancient streets excavated by archaeologists.

The city of Olbia (Happy) is another ancient cultural monument of the Hellenes. This city visited during the journey, in search of information about the Scythians, the father of the history of Herodotus.