Between c. 1100 and 600 BCE, the Phoenician city-states of the Levant, especially Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad, developed one of the ancient Mediterranean’s most dynamic maritime trading systems. Rather than expanding through unified territorial conquest, they relied on seafaring, commercial diplomacy, coastal partnerships, and specialist production, linking the Near East with Cyprus, Egypt, the Aegean, North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Iberia, and Atlantic-facing routes. Their trade in cedar timber, purple dye, glass, textiles, metalwork, silver, copper, grain, wine, and luxury goods connected several regional economies and helped spread Phoenician cultural influence far beyond the Levant.
From the 10th century BCE onward, this commercial reach increasingly developed into a pattern of settlement and colonization, as Phoenician and later Punic communities established ports, colonies, and emporia across the central and western Mediterranean. Carthage, traditionally founded c. 814 BCE during the reign of Pygmalion of Tyre [trad. reign c. 831–785 BCE], became the most famous of these foundations and later emerged as a major power in its own right. By the 6th century BCE, pressure from larger imperial states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire [c. 911–609 BCE] and the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar II [reign 605–562 BCE], gradually reduced Phoenician independence in the Levant. Yet Phoenician language, religion, craftsmanship, and commercial practices continued across the wider Phoenician-Punic world long after the homeland came under imperial domination.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2026, July 10). Map of the Phoenician Trade and Colonization, c.1100-600 BCE: Trade, Colonies & Maritime Networks Across the Mediterranean. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14796/map-of-the-phoenician-trade-and-colonization-c1100/
Chicago Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the Phoenician Trade and Colonization, c.1100-600 BCE: Trade, Colonies & Maritime Networks Across the Mediterranean." World History Encyclopedia, July 10, 2026. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14796/map-of-the-phoenician-trade-and-colonization-c1100/.
MLA Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the Phoenician Trade and Colonization, c.1100-600 BCE: Trade, Colonies & Maritime Networks Across the Mediterranean." World History Encyclopedia, 10 Jul 2026, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14796/map-of-the-phoenician-trade-and-colonization-c1100/.
