Expansion

Phoenicia established colonies in North Africa, Spain, Malta, Sicily, and Sardinia (Ward, “Phoenicians,” 195). During the seventh century, the Phoenicians had expanded as far as the Atlantic coast of Morocco, and the original colonies had started expanding themselves, including the Spanish coast and the Balearic Islands. The Phoenician colonies were trading ports used to transport resources collected inland back to the Levantine coast (Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East, 9, 207). Phoenician colonies were strictly commercial entities, unlike Greek colonies which were also residential centers (Moscati, The Phoenicians, 22).

The motives for the Phoenicians’ expansion west are debated. Kuhrt notes that these economic and political expansions were both a product of the socio-political environment of the late eighth century bc and a continuation of previous Phoenician activities (Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East, 410). They may have been forced to find more seaports because of the influx of the Sea Peoples or pressure from the Assyrian Empire. It may have been to take advantage of a profitable situation. Ward dismisses these reasons as inadequate; he instead suggests the Phoenicians expanded west due to overpopulation and the search for new sources of metals, both for their customers and to support the manufacture of goods (Ward, “Phoenicians,” 194–195). Frankenstein argues that the Phoenicians played “a more decisive role in supplying goods and services to neighboring empires … that the latter could not obtain by other means” (Frankenstein, The Phoenicians in the Far West, 263). She concludes, “Phoenician commitment to the Far West was always in terms of obtaining resources; it was not for territorial acquisition or political domination,” and these resources were used to support the “Assyrian dominated Western Asiatic regional systems” (Frankenstein, The Phoenicians in the Far West, 291).

Assyrian domination over the Phoenician city-states greatly restricted their trading. A new treaty between Tyre and Assyria also lowered the Phoenician vassal-king’s status. This caused rebellions as the Phoenicians attempted to regain their freedom to trade as they pleased (Moscati, The Phoenicians, 44). It was not until the Medes and the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians at Nineveh in 612 bc that the Phoenicians experienced any freedom.