Phoenician settlement of North Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Phoenician settlement of North Africa or Phoenician expedition to North Africa was the process of Phoenician people migrating and settling in the Maghreb region of North Africa, encompassing present-day Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, from their homeland of Phoenicia in the Levant region, including present-day Lebanon, Northern Israel, and the Syrian Coast , in the 1st millennium BC.
Causes
The Phoenicians originated in the Northern Levant sometime circa 1800 BC[2] and emigrated to North Africa around 900 BC.[3] The causes of Phoenician emigration to North Africa as far as the Atlantic coast are debated, but could include overpopulation in the Levant and economic opportunities and precious metals in North Africa. These precious metals in particular may have been given up to the Assyrian Empire as they expanded into the Phoenician homeland in the Levant, though whether this caused the Phoenicians to need to search for more through expansion into Northern Africa has been disputed.[4]
Immigration
The first Phoenician settlers immigrated to North Africa around 900 BC as traders and merchants, mainly from Tyre and Sidon in modern-day Lebanon.[3][5] They settled predominantly in what is now Tunisia,[6] but they also established over 300 colonies and settlements in the lands currently part of modern Algeria and Morocco.[7] These included the settlements of Thapsus, Leptis and Hadrumetum, Tunis, Carthage, Utica, Hippo, Igilgili (Jijel), Icosium (Algiers), Iol (Cherchell), Gunugu (Gouraya), Cartennae (Ténès), Tingi (Tangier), Lixus (Larache), Mogador (Essaouira) and Thymiateria (Mehdya).[6] These settlements displaced the local peoples, and caused the importance of the Greek culture and language to diminish in importance west of Tripoli.[8] The descendants of the Phoenician settlers in Ancient Carthage came to be known as the Punic people. From the 8th century BC, most inhabitants of present-day Tunisia were Punic.[9]