After experiencing a first prelude with invasions that allowed the Greek world to extend its borders to the other continent – the western shores of Asia – Greek colonization proper stretched for nearly three centuries, from VIII e at VI th century BC.
VIII-VI century BC
Procedure
Various reasons explain this desire for expansion. Growing demography in the Mediterranean restricts habitable space. Consequently, the extension of the territory becomes necessary, in particular to find arable land. During certain civil wars, the vanquished are driven out, they must also find a new land of welcome. The desire to increase economic opportunities and control trade routes should not be neglected either to establish the prosperity of the city. Some also seek adventure. We then understand the great progress made by the Greeks in terms of navigation.
The colonies (daughter city) provide the mother city with commodities such as metal or cereals, such as wheat. If the "mother-daughter" link exists between the mother city and its colony, there is however no domination of the first over the second. What unites them are moral rights and religion because, without the agreement of the Oracle of Delphi, there is no colony. The latter therefore retains its political, administrative, economic, etc. independence. Migrations do not necessarily lead to conflicts because the Greeks do not seek to impose themselves or to erase the past of the natives, but just to find a place.
Colonization, a long-planned and decided project, extended to southern Italy and Sicily, southern Gaul and Corsica, eastern Spain, then northern Egypt, in Libya and, finally, on the shores of the Black Sea (known as “Pont-Euxin”), between the VIII th and the VI e century BC From then on, by creating counters along the coasts, the Greek world gradually conquered the entire perimeter of the Mediterranean basin.
Consequences
Colonization is one of the great facts of Greek history, in that it allowed Hellenic (Greek) civilization to spread beyond its borders, and generated unprecedented economic enthusiasm by opening up new paths commercial. This wave of colonization prefigured the conquest of Alexander the Great in the IV e century, which will extend Greek culture to India.