How did the Phoenicians dominate the sea for a thousand years? The Phoenicians were able to dominate the sea for nearly a thousand years because of the ship technology they had, because of the way they controlled their colonies, and because of the collapse of other civilizations during the Bronze Age..
The Phoenician Empire wasn’t really an empire by our sense of the word. And the Phoenicians weren’t a single people who started in one country and then took over other countries, as happened with the Roman Empire. The Phoenicians were a group of city states that came together to trade and then slowly expanded to include other city states. They didn’t have a central government or a central ruler, as the Romans did. Each city state was ruled by a separate king and the kings acted autonomously. It was more like a conglomerate of companies that all have their own CEO and operate independently, but trade with each other for their mutual benefit.
These city states grew out of what is now Lebanon and they were based along the edge of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. As they grew, they spread along the coast of the Mediterranean in a thin strip, until they spread along most of Northern Africa, the bottom of Spain, and Sicily. The whole “empire” lasted from roughly 1550 BC to 300 BC. These are rough dates because it was never really an empire. Over those thousand and a little bit years, the different city states became more or less powerful in the region, and they expanded and contracted. They also had to contend with other empires that grew up on either side of them, but they generally survived unscathed because they were the trading middlemen that those empires needed. They were finally overrun by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and were folded into the Roman Empire in about 64 BC. The name Phoenician was bestowed upon them by the Greeks. The first Phoenician people called themselves Can’ani – Canaanites.
So, how and why did the Phoenicians manage to last so long? Well, the first reason is because of their ships. Because the original city states were not very big and were usually surrounded by a more powerful country, they couldn’t develop agriculture. Their only real choice was to look outwards into the sea. As luck would have it, they happened to have one of the only cedar forests in the whole area. They were able to sell this cedarwood to other countries and they could use it to make boats. Cedar is very strong, durable, and resistant to decay. It is also resistant to the salt in seawater. You couldn’t find a better wood to make ships out of. This was a profound advantage and the Phoenicians very quickly became a seafaring peoples. Their ships were not only durable, they were fast and very maneuverable. They were also technologically advanced. They invented the mortise and tenon joints to hold the planks of their ships together and they invented the bireme, which was a type of ship with two sets of oars on each side. They were bigger and faster. The Phoenicians could carry up to 500 tons of cargo, which was far more than anyone else. They also invented the trireme later on, which had three rows of oars on each side. They invented the cutwater, which was a blade shape on the front of the ship that let them cut through the water and sail faster with less effort. They also invented the amphora to carry their goods, which is a container we probably associate with the Romans. Because they started sailing before other civilizations, they became expert sailors.
As the best sailors, with the best ships, they became the traders in the Mediterranean. They carried their own produce, but they also carried and traded with other empires. To increase their ability to trade, they colonized areas along the coast of the Mediterranean to be trading posts. These were called colonies, but there were more of the independent city states that grouped together to form the Phoenician Empire. They relied on the trade, but they were independent. One of the thing that the Phoenicians traded in was the dye that made Tyrian purple. It was so rare that only the richest people could afford it, and that is the reason why religious figures are usually painted wearing purple.
There are many reasons why the Phoenicians became so powerful, but an important one is that they were more resilient when the Bronze Age collapsed. Many civilizations collapsed during this period, but the Phoenicians thrived. They were not reliant on bronze and they made their living by trading. They jumped into the void left by the other civilizations and grew. In fact, they may be the reason why civilizations like Egypt were able to survive. The Phoenicians helped them trade and brought iron and iron goods in. They went from strength to strength. Until they were suddenly conquered by Alexander the Great. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia
https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/the-phoenicians-1500-300-b-c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassocracy
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/first-rulers-mediterranean
https://www.worldhistory.org/Phoenician_Government
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2wbfqc/how_did_the_phoenicians_colonize_so_effectively/ Image By No machine-readable author provided. World Imaging assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1028318