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Colonization Of Africa

Colonization of Africa

The colonization of Africa has a long history, the most famous phase being the European Scramble for Africa of the nineteenth century.

Ancient Colonization

North Africa in particular experienced colonization from Europe and Asia Minor in the early historical period. The city of Carthage was established in what is now Tunisia by Phoenician colonists, becoming a major power in the Mediterranean by the 4th century BC. Over time the city changed hands, falling to the Romans after the Third Punic War, where it served as the capital city of the Romans' African province. Gothic Vandals briefly established a kingdom there in the 5th century, which shortly thereafter fell to the Romans again, this time the Byzantines. The Ancient Egyptian civilization also fell under the sway of the Greeks, later passing to the Romans. The whole of Roman/Byzantine North Africa eventually fell to the Arabs in the 7th century, who brought the Islamic religion and Arabic language (see History of Islam).

Early modern period

From the seventh century, Arab trade with sub-Saharan Africa led to a gradual colonization of East Africa, around Zanzibar and other bases. Although trans-Saharan trade led to a small number of West African cities developing Arab quarters, these were not intended as colonies and even the pillage of the Moroccan war in the Sahel finished with Moroccan forces returning home. Early European expeditions concentrated on colonizing previously uninhabited islands such as the Cape Verdes and Sao Tome Island, or establishing coastal forts as a base for trade. These forts often developed areas of influence along coastal strips, but (with the exception of the River Senegal), the vast interior of Africa was not colonized and indeed little known to Europeans until the late nineteenth century.

The Scramble for Africa

:Main article: Scramble for Africa Established empires, notably Britain, Portugal and France, had already expropriated vast areas of Africa and Asia, and emerging imperial powers like Italy and Germany had done likewise on a smaller scale. With the dismissal of the aging Chancellor Bismarck by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the relatively orderly colonization became a frantic scramble. The 1885 Congress of Berlin, initiated by Bismarck to establish international guidelines for the acquisition of African territory, formalized this "New Imperialism". Between the Franco-Prussian War and the Great War, Europe added almost 9 million square miles (23,000,000 km²) — one-fifth of the land area of the globe — to its overseas colonial possessions.

Decolonization

:Main article: Decolonization of Africa The main period of decolonization in Africa began after World War II. Growing independence movements, indigeneous political parties and trade unions coupled with pressure from within the imperialist powers and from the United States ensured the decolonization of virtually the whole of the continent by 1980. While some areas, in particular South Africa, retain a large population of European descent, only the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and the islands of Reunion, the Canary Islands and Madeira remain under European control.

See also


- Colonialism
- New Imperialism
- Neocolonialism
- Third world

References

External links


- [http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/index_20021014.asp Germany Refuses to Apologize for Herero Holocaust] - from Africana.com
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4460659-103681,00.html Belgium exhumes its colonial demons] - from guardian.co.uk Category:African history Category:Colonialism

Scramble for Africa

The Scramble for Africa (AKA Race for Africa) was the period between the 1880s and the start of World War I, when colonial empires in Africa proliferated more rapidly than anywhere else on the globe. It is the canonical example of the New Imperialism. The latter half of 19th century saw the transition from an "informal" empire of control through military and economic dominance to direct control, marked from the 1870s on by the scramble for territory in areas previously regarded as merely under Western influence. The Berlin Conference (1884 - 1885) mediated the imperial competition among the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the French Third Republic and the German Empire, defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of colonial claims and codifying the imposition of direct rule, accomplished usually through armed force. For information on the colonization of Africa prior to the 1880s, including Carthaginian and early European colonization, see Colonization of Africa.

Opening of the continent

Colonization of Africa The opening of Africa to Western exploration and exploitation had begun in earnest at the end of the 18th century. By 1835, Europeans had mapped most of northwestern Africa. Among the greatest of the European explorers was David Livingstone, who charted the vast interior and Serpa Pinto, who crossed both Southern Africa and Central Africa on a difficult expedition, mapping much of the interior of the continent. By the end of the century, Europeans had charted the Nile from its source, the courses of the Niger, Congo and Zambezi Rivers had been traced, and the world now realized the vast resources of Africa. However, on the eve of the New Imperialist scramble for Africa, only ten percent of the continent was under the control of Western nations. In 1875, the most important holdings were Algeria, administered by the French Third Republic; the Cape Colony, held by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and Angola, held by Portugal. David Livingstone's explorations, carried on by Henry Morton Stanley, galvanized the European nations into action. But at first, his ideas found little support, except from Léopold II of Belgium, who in 1876 had organized the International African Association. As an agent of the association, Stanley was sent to the Congo region, where he made treaties with several African chiefs and by 1882 obtained over 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 km²) of territory. 1882]] Technological advancement facilitated overseas expansionism. Industrialization brought about rapid advancements in transportation and communication, especially in the forms of steam navigation, railroads, and telegraphs. Medical advances also were important, especially medicines for tropical diseases. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, enabled vast expanses of the tropics to be penetrated.

Africa and global markets

Sub-Saharan Africa, the last region of the world largely untouched by "informal imperialism" and "civilization", was also attractive to Europe's ruling elites for other reasons. During a time when Britain's balance of trade showed a growing deficit, with shrinking and increasingly protectionist continental markets, Africa offered Britain an open market that would garner it a trade surplus: a market that bought more from the metropole than it sold overall. Britain, like most other industrial countries, had long since begun to run an unfavorable balance of trade (which was increasingly offset, however, by the income from overseas investments). As Britain developed into the world's first post-industrial nation, financial services became an increasingly more important sector of its economy. Invisible financial exports, as mentioned, kept Britain out of the red, especially capital investments outside Europe, particularly to the developing and open markets in Africa, predominantly white settler colonies, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. In addition, surplus capital was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap labor, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible. Another inducement to imperialism, of course, arose from the demand for raw materials unavailable in Europe, especially copper, cotton, rubber, tea, and tin, to which European consumers had grown accustomed and upon which European industry had grown dependent. However, in Africa (exclusive of what would become the Union of South Africa in 1909), the amount of capital investment by Europeans was relatively small before and after the Berlin Conference. Consequently, the companies involved in tropical African commerce were small and politically insignificant, exerting only a tiny influence on domestic politics. These observations might detract from the pro-imperialist arguments of Léopold II of Belgium, Francesco Crispi, and Jules Ferry, who argued that sheltered overseas markets in Africa would solve the problems of low prices and over-production caused by shrinking continental markets. But later historians have noted that such statistics only obscured the fact that formal control of tropical Africa had great strategic value in an era of imperial rivalry.

Strategic rivalry

While tropical Africa was not a large zone of investment, other regions overseas were. The vast interior — between the gold- and diamond-rich Southern Africa and Egypt, had, however, key strategic value in securing the flow of overseas trade. Britain was thus under intense political pressure, especially among supporters of the Conservative Party, to secure lucrative markets such as British Raj India, Qing Dynasty China, and Latin America from encroaching rivals. Thus, securing the key waterway between East and West — the Suez Canal— was crucial. As a result, the important developments were taking place in the Nile valley. Shortly before the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Isma'il Pasha, the ruler of Egypt, borrowed enormous sums from French and English bankers at high rates of interest. By 1875, he was facing financial difficulties and was forced to sell his block of shares in the Suez Canal. The shares were snapped up by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, who sought to give his country practical control in the management of this strategic waterway. When Isma'il Pasha repudiated Egypt's foreign debt in 1879, Britain and France assumed joint financial control over the country, forcing the Egyptian ruler to abdicate. The Egyptian ruling classes did not relish foreign intervention. A serious revolt broke out in 1882. Britain decided to quell the revolt and then assume responsibility for the administration of the country. The occupation of Egypt and the acquisition of the Congo were the first major moves in what came to be a precipitous scramble for African territory. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck convened a conference in Berlin to discuss the Africa problem. The diplomats put on a humanitarian façade by condemning the slave trade, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and firearms in certain regions, and by expressing concern for missionary activities. More importantly, the diplomats in Berlin laid down the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies, and they agreed that the area along the Congo River was to be administered by Léopold II of Belgium as a neutral area known as the Congo Free State in which trade and navigation were to be free. No nation was to stake claims in Africa without notifying other powers of its intentions. No territory could be formally claimed prior to being effectively occupied. However, the competitors ignored the rules when convenient and on several occasions war was barely avoided. Britain's occupations of Egypt and the Cape Colony contributed to a preoccupation over securing the source of the Nile River. Egypt was occupied by British forces in 1882 (although not formally declared a protectorate until 1914, and never a colony proper); Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda were subjugated in the 1890s and early 1900s; and in the south, the Cape Colony (first acquired in 1795) provided a base for the subjugation of neighboring African states and the Dutch Afrikaner settlers who had left the Cape to avoid the British and then founded their own republics (see Boer War). The Fashoda Incident (1898) was one of the most crucial conflicts on Europe's way of consolidating holdings in the continent. It brought Britain and France to the verge of war but ended in a major strategic victory for Britain. It stemmed from battles over control of the Nile headwaters, which caused Britain to expand in the Sudan. Nile politician proponent of colonialisation]] The French thrust into the African interior was mainly from West Africa (modern day Senegal) eastward, through the Sahel along the southern border of the Sahara, a territory covering modern day Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Chad. Their ultimate aim was to have an uninterrupted link between the Niger River and the Nile, thus controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region, by virtue of their existing control over the Caravan routes through the Sahara. The British, on the other hand, wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa (modern South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zambia), with their territories in East Africa (modern Kenya), and these two areas with the Nile basin. Sudan (which in those days included modern day Uganda) was obviously key to the fulfillment of these ambitions, especially since Egypt was already under British control. This 'red line' through Africa is made most famous by Cecil Rhodes. Along with Lord Milner (the British colonial minister in South Africa), Rhodes advocated such a "Cape to Cairo" empire linking by rail the Suez Canal to the mineral-rich Southern part of the continent. Though hampered by German occupation of Tanganyika until the end of World War I, Rhodes successfully lobbied on behalf of such a sprawling East African empire. When one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes' dream), and one from Dakar to the Horn of Africa (now Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti), (the French ambition), these two lines intersect somewhere in eastern Sudan near Fashoda, explaining its strategic importance. In short, Britain had sought to extend its East African empire contiguously from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope, while France had sought to extend its own holdings from Dakar to the Sudan, which would enable its empire to span the entire continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. A French force under Jean-Baptiste Marchand arrived first at the strategically located fort at Fashoda soon followed by a British force under Lord Kitchener, commander in chief of the British army since 1892. The French withdrew after a standoff, continued to press claims to other posts in the region. In March 1899 the French and British agreed that the source of the Nile and Congo Rivers should mark the frontier between their spheres of influence. Germany was the third largest colonial power in Africa, acquiring an overall empire of 2.6 million square kilometers and 14 million colonial subjects, mostly in its African possessions (Southwest Africa, Togoland, the Cameroons, and Tanganyika). In the process, by the end of the century, Europe added almost 9 million square miles (23,000,000 km²) — one-fifth of the land area of the globe — to its overseas colonial possessions. Europe's formal holdings now included the entire African continent except Liberia and Ethiopia.

The colonial encounter

The production of cash crops

Capitalism, an economic system in which capital, or wealth, is put to work to produce more capital, revolutionized traditional economies, inducing social changes and political consequences that revolutionized African and Asian societies. Maximizing production and minimizing cost did not necessarily coincide with traditional, seasonal patterns of agricultural production. The ethic of wage productivity was thus, in many respects, a new concept to supposedly 'idle natives' merely accustomed to older patterns of production. Balanced, subsistence-based economies shifted to specialization and accumulation of surpluses. Tribal states or empires organized along precarious, unwritten cultural traditions also shifted to a division of labor based on legal protection of land and labor — once inalienable, but now commodities to be bought, sold, or traded.

The Congo Free State

Main article:Congo Free State Congo Free State king, and by his own account one of the most active movers of the scramble]] Congo Free State The integration of traditional economies in Africa within the framework of the modern, capitalist economy was particularly exploitative. Exploitation of the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, German Southwest Africa, Rhodesia, and South Africa paled in comparison to that of the Congo basin, where the Congo Free State was ruled (1885-1908) by King Léopold II of Belgium but not by the state of Belgium as such. The fortunes of Léopold, the famed "philanthropist", "abolitionist", and self-anointed sovereign of a territory seventy-six times larger geographically than Belgium itself, and those of the multinational concessionary companies under his auspices, were mainly made on the proceeds of Congolese rubber, which had never before been produced on such a scale. Unknown numbers of "indolent natives," unaccustomed to the bourgeois ethos of labor productivity, were the victims of murder, starvation, exhaustion induced by over-work, and disease. International exposure (1903-1904) of the atrocities conducted by Léopold's agents and concession-holders forced him (1907-1908) to submit the territory to formal Belgian colonial rule.

The extermination of the Herero

Main article: Herero massacre In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report recognized the German attempt to exterminate the Herero and Namaqua peoples of South-West Africa as one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. In total, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Namaqua (50 percent of the total Namaqua population) were killed. Characteristic of this genocide was death by starvation and the poisoning of wells for the Herero and Namaqua population that was trapped in the Namib Desert. Many historians have stressed the historic importance of these atrocities, tracing the evolution from Wilhelm II of Germany to Adolf Hitler, from German Southwest Africa to the Holocaust.

Partition of Africa

the Holocaust

British

The British were primarily interested in maintaining secure communication lines to India, which led to initial interest in Egypt and South Africa. Once these two areas were secure, it was the intent of British colonialists such as Cecil Rhodes to establish a Cape-Cairo railway. :Egypt :Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (now Sudan) :British East Africa ::Kenya ::Uganda :British Somaliland :Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) :Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) :Bechuanaland (now Botswana) :Orange Free State :British South Africa :The Gambia :Sierra Leone :Nigeria :British Gold Coast (now Ghana)

French

:Algeria :Tunisia :Morocco :French West Africa ::Mauritania ::Senegal ::French Sudan (now Mali) ::Guinea ::Côte d'Ivoire ::Niger ::Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) ::Dahomey (now Benin). :French Equatorial Africa ::Gabon ::Middle Congo (now the Republic of the Congo) ::Oubangi-Chari (now the Central African Republic) ::Chad :French Somaliland (now Djibouti) :Madagascar :Comoros

Portuguese

:Angola :Portuguese Cabinda :Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) :Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) :Cape Verde Islands :São Tomé and Príncipe

German

:German Kamerun :German East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania) :German South-West Africa (now Namibia) :German Togoland

Italian

German Togoland politician proponent of colonialisation]] :Italian North Africa :Eritrea :Italian Somaliland (now Somalia)

Belgian

:Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo)

Spanish

:Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara, composed of:) ::Rio de Oro ::Saguia el-Hamra :Spanish Morocco ::Ceuta ::Melilla ::Tarfaya Strip ::Ifni :Rio Muni (now part of Equatorial Guinea)

Independent Nations

:Liberia, founded by the United States' American Colonization Society :Abyssinia, now Ethiopia and annexed by Italy during the Abyssinia Crisis

Conclusions

Between 1885 and 1914 Britain took nearly 30% of Africa's population under her control, to 15% for France's, 9% for Germany, 7% for Belgium and only 1% for Italy. Nigeria alone contributed 15 million subjects, more than in the whole of French West Africa or the entire German colonial empire. It was paradoxical that Britain, the staunch advocate of free trade, emerged in 1914 with not only the largest overseas empire thanks to her long-standing presence in India, but also the greatest gains in the "scramble for Africa", reflecting her advantageous position at its inception.

See also


- African Liberation Day
- British Empire and Commonwealth Museum
- Colonialism
- Mau Mau Uprising
- Neocolonialism
- Shaka

Further reading


- Pakenham, Thomas: The Scramble for Africa. Abacus History, 1991. ISBN 0349104492
- Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, London and Tanzanian Publishing House, Dar-Es-Salaam 1973.

External links


- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4460659-103681,00.html Belgium exhumes its colonial demons] Category:New Imperialism Category:African history ja:アフリカ分割

North Africa

North Africa is a region generally considered to include:
- Algeria
- Egypt
- Libya
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Sudan
- Tunisia
- Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. The Maghreb (also called Northwest Africa or Tamazgha) is the portion of North Africa that consititutes Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania (thus excluding the Nile Valley). In common usage - particularly in French - the term is often restricted to the first three countries, as all are former French colonies. In Arabic, the term can also refer to Morocco alone. Some countries in northern Africa, particularly Egypt and Libya, often get included in common definitions of the Middle East, since they in some respects have closer ties to western Asia than to the Maghreb. In addition, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt is part of Asia, making Egypt a transcontinental country.

People

The people of North Africa can be divided into roughly three, distinct groups: the Berbers of the Maghreb; the Tuareg and other, original black Berbers; and the Nilotic blacks of the Nile Valley. Maghreb Berbers are generally fairer-skinned than the Berbers to the west. They are considered indigenous to the area, and are believed be the descendants of black Berbers mixed with Asiatic and Caucasoid peoples who spread westward, laterally across the continent. Berbers predominate in the northwestern part of Africa, but the area also hosts various black Berber peoples and equatorial Africans, as well. Over the centuries, there has been some intermariage between Maghreb Berbers, who generally are classified as "Caucasoid," with black Africans, producing a population with a wide range of phenotypical characteristisc, including skin color and hair texture. Most Maghreb Berbers outside much of Morocco and parts of Algeria, identify themselves as Arabs and no longer speak Tamazight, their original language, and speak Arabic. Far more Tuareg Berbers speak Tamazight, an Afro-Asiatic language; but they, too, have been Arabized culturally, though to far a lesser extent than have the Maghreb Berbers.

Culture

North Africa is naturally divided into three rather distinct cultural regions: the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), the Sahara, and the Nile Valley. The culture of the Maghreb and the Sahara combines indigenous Berber and Arab elements. Most Maghrebis and Saharans have mixed Berber, Arab, and sometimes also black African, ancestry. They speak either Arabic or Berber, and follow Islam; however, the dialects of the Sahara (Arabic and Berber) are in general notably more conservative than those of the coast. These two languages are related, both being members of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Maghreb (Northwest Africa) is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers since the beginning of recorded history. However, Berbers were influenced by other cultures that came in contact with them: Nubians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and lately Europeans. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary oasis inhabitants and nomadic Bedouin and Tuareg is particularly marked. The Nile Valley, tracing its heritage back to the Pharaohs, has more recently been inhabited by Arabic-speakers, most of them Muslims, though some - the Copts - are Christians. In Nubia, straddling Egypt and Sudan, a significant population retains the Nubian language. Further down the Nile Valley, in the southern Sudan, the culturally entirely distinct world of the largely non-Muslim Nilotic and Nuba peoples begins. North Africa formerly had a large Jewish population, a large portion of which emigrated to France or Israel when the North African nations gained independence. Prior to the modern establishment of Israel, there were about 600,000-700,000 Jews in North Africa, including both Sfardīm (immigrants from France, Spain and Portugal from the Renaissance era) as well as indigenous . Today, less than fifteen thousand remain in the region, and are mostly part of a French-speaking urban elite. (See Jewish exodus from Arab lands.)

History

After the Middle Ages the area was loosely under the control of the Ottoman Empire, except Morocco. After the 19th century, it was colonized by France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. During the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, all of the North African states gained independence, except for a few small Spanish colonies on the far northern tip of Morocco, and the Western Sahara, which went from Spanish to Moroccan rule.

See also


- Northern Africa Railroad Development ko:북아프리카 ja:北アフリカ

Asia Minor

Anatolia

Tunisia

The Tunisian Republic (الجمهرية التونسية), or Tunisia, is a Muslim country situated on the North African Mediterranean coast. It is the easternmost and smallest of the nations situated along the Atlas mountain range, bordering Algeria, to the west, and Libya to the south and east. Forty percent of the country is comprised by the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil, with easily accessible coasts. Both played a prominent role in ancient times, first with the famous Phoenician city of Carthage, and later, as the Africa Province, it became known as the bread basket of the Roman Empire. It is thought that the name Tunis originated from Berber, meaning either a geographical promontory, or, "to spend the night."

History

Main article: History of Tunisia History of Tunisia] History of Tunisia History of Tunisia At the beginning of recorded history, Tunisia was inhabited by Berber tribes. Its coast was settled by Phoenicians starting as early as the 10th century BC. In the 6th century BC, Carthage rose to power, but it was conquered by Rome (2nd century BC), and the region became one of the granaries of Rome. It was held by the Vandals (5th century AD) and Byzantines (6th century). In the 7th century it was conquered by Arab Muslims, who founded Al Qayrawan. Successive Muslim dynasties ruled, interrupted by Berber rebellions. The reigns of the Aghlabids (9th century) and of the Zirids (from 972), Berber followers of the Fatimids, were especially prosperous. When the Zirids angered the Fatimids in Cairo (1050), the latter sent in the Banu Hilal to ravage Tunisia. The coasts were held briefly by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th century. In 1159, Tunisia was conquered by the Almohad caliphs of Morocco. They were succeeded by the Berber Hafsids (c.1230–1574), under whom Tunisia prospered. In the last years of the Hafsids, Spain seized many of the coastal cities, but these were recovered for Islam by the Ottoman Empire. Under its Turkish governors, the Beys, Tunisia attained virtual independence. The Hussein dynasty of Beys, established in 1705, lasted until 1957. In the late 16th Century the coast became a pirate stronghold (see: Barbary States). It was made a French protectorate on May 12, 1881. Tunisia became independent in 1956, and has had two presidents since.

Politics

1956 1956 Main article: Politics of Tunisia Tunisia is a republic with a strong presidential system dominated by a single political party. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been in office since 1987 when he deposed Habib Bourguiba, who had been President since Tunisia's independence from France in 1956. The ruling party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), was the sole legal party for 25 years--when it was known as the Socialist Destourian Party (PSD) - and still dominates political life . The President is elected to 5-year terms—with virtually no opposition—and appoints a Prime Minister and cabinet, who play a strong role in the execution of policy. Regional governors and local administrators also are appointed by the central government; largely consultative mayors and municipal councils are elected. There is a unicameral legislative body, the Chamber of Deputies, which has 182 seats, 20% of which are reserved for the opposition. It plays a growing role as an arena for debate on national policy but never originates legislation and virtually always passes bills presented by the executive with only minor changes. The judiciary is nominally independent but responds to executive direction especially in political cases. The military is professional and does not play a role in politics. There are currently six legal opposition parties. Tunisia is going for its Municipal Elections in May 2005. See also:
- Foreign relations of Tunisia Image:Kelibya.jpg|Kelibya Image:Nabeul.jpg|Nabeul

Governorates

Main article: Governorates of Tunisia Tunisia is subdivided into 24 governorates.

Geography

governorate Main article: Geography of Tunisia Tunisia is in north Africa, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert and between Algeria and Libya. Much of the land is semi-arid and desert. There are mountains in the north. The climate is temperate in the north, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The desert is in the south. See also:
- List of cities in Tunisia

Economy

Main article: Economy of Tunisia Economy of Tunisia Tunisia has a diverse economy, with important agricultural, mining, energy, tourism, and manufacturing sectors. Governmental control of economic affairs while still heavy has gradually lessened over the past decade with increasing privatization, simplification of the tax structure, and a prudent approach to debt. Real growth averaged 5.0% in the 1990s, and inflation is slowing. Growth in tourism and increased trade have been key elements in this steady growth. Tunisia's association agreement with the European Union (EU) entered into force on March 1 1998, the first such accord between the EU and Mediterranean countries to be activated. Under the agreement Tunisia will gradually remove barriers to trade with the EU over the next decade. Broader privatization, further liberalization of the investment code to increase foreign investment, and improvements in government efficiency are among the challenges for the future. In 2008, Tunisia will be a completely associated member of the E.U. (comparable to the status of Norway or Iceland).

Culture of Tunisia

Main article: Culture of Tunisia See also:
- Islam in Tunisia
- Music of Tunisia
- Tunisian Arabic

Demographics of Tunisia

Main article: Demographics of Tunisia Demographics of Tunisia Modern Tunisians are the descendants of indigenous Berbers and of people from numerous civilizations that have invaded, migrated to, and been assimilated into the population over the millennia. Recorded history in Tunisia begins with the arrival of Phoenicians, who founded Carthage and other North African settlements in the 8th century BC. Carthage became a major sea power, clashing with Rome for control of the Mediterranean until it was defeated and captured by the Romans in 146 B.C. The Romans ruled and settled in North Africa until the 5th century when the Roman Empire fell and Tunisia was invaded by European tribes, including the Vandals. The Muslim conquest in the 7th century transformed Tunisia and the make-up of its population, with subsequent waves of migration from around the Arab and Ottoman world, including significant numbers of Spanish Moors and Jews at the end of the 15th century. Tunisia became a center of Arab culture and learning and was assimilated into the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. It was a French protectorate from 1881 until independence in 1956, and retains close political, economic, and cultural ties with France. Nearly all Tunisians (98% of the population) are Muslim. There has been a Jewish population on the southern island of Djerba for 2000 years, and though considerably diminished, there remains a small Jewish population in Tunis which is descended from those who fled Spain in the late 15th century. There is no indigenous Christian population. Small nomadic indigenous minorities have been mostly assimilated into the larger population. There is also a minority black African population around the island of Djerba.

Education

Main article: List of universities in Tunisia Colleges and universities in Tunisia include:
- International University of Tunis
- Universite Libre de Tunis
- University of Aviation and Technology, Tunisia

Miscellaneous Topics

University of Aviation and Technology, Tunisia University of Aviation and Technology, Tunisia
- Communications in Tunisia
- History of the Jews in Tunisia
- Military of Tunisia
- Transportation of Tunisia

External links

Government


- [http://www.ministeres.tn/ Tunisia Government] official site (French)
- [http://www.chambre-dep.tn/ Tunisia Chamber of Deputies] official site (Arabic)

News


- [http://allafrica.com/tunisia/ AllAfrica.com - Tunisia] news headline links
- [http://www.tunisiaonline.com/news/ Tunisia Media Online] government-sourced
- [http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm The North Africa Journal] business news

Overviews


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/791969.stm BBC News Country Profile - Tunisia]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ts.html CIA World Factbook - Tunisia]

Tourism


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Other


- [http://www.nawaat.org Nawaat]
- [http://www.yezzi.org Tunisian online demonstration as protest against dictatorship]
- [http://www.plpp.org For the liberation of Political Prisoners in Tunisia]
- [http://www.tunisiaonline.com TunisiaOnline]
- [http://en.jurispedia.org/index.php/Tunisia The tunisian law] from Jurispedia
- [http://www.tunisiadaily.com Tunisia Daily]
- [http://tunis.pbwiki.com/ David Weekly's Tunisian travelwiki] Category:African Union member states Category:Arab League zh-min-nan:Tunisia ko:튀니지 ms:Tunisia ja:チュニジア simple:Tunisia th:ประเทศตูนิเซีย

Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria, between the Lebanon Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland. Although the people of the region called themselves the Canaani or Kenaani, the name Phoenicia became common thanks to the Greeks who called them the Phoiniki - Φοινίκη (Phoiníkē; see also List of traditional Greek place names); the Greek word for Phoenician was synonymous with the colour purple/red or crimson, φοῖνιξ (phoinix), through its close association with the famous dye Tyrian purple (cf also Phoenix). The dye was used in ancient textile trade, and highly desired. The Phoenicians became known as the 'Purple People'. The Phoenicians, most likely a Semitic people, spoke the Phoenician language, later called Punic since the Roman word for purple was Puniceus. In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians, contrary to some reports, wrote many books that have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. Furthermore, the Phoenician Punic colonies of North Africa continued to be a source of knowledge about the Phoenicians. Saint Augustine (who spoke Punic, and calls it "our language") refers to their books as containing much wisdom.

Origins

Herodotus's account (written c. 440 BC) refers to a faint memory from 1000 years earlier, and so may be subject to question (History, I:1): :"According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began to quarrel. This people, who had formerly reached the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean from an unknown origin and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria..." But this is merely a legendary introduction to Herodotus' brief retelling of some mythic Hellene-Phoenician interactions: he follows directly with succinct accounts of the abduction of Io from Pylos, and the retaliatory abduction of Europa by the Cretans. "The Cretans say that it was not they who did this act, but, rather, Zeus, enamored of the fair Europa, who disguised himself as a bull, gained the maiden's affections, and thence carried her off to Crete, where she bore three sons by Zeus: Sarpedon, Rhadamanthys, and Minos, later king of all Crete." Few modern archaeologists would confuse this myth with history. In terms of archaeology, language, and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other local cultures of Canaan. However, they are unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements. Indeed, in the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC they call themselves Kenaani or Kinaani (Canaanites); and even much later in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα, a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix". To many archaeologists therefore, the Phoenicians are simply indistinguishable from the descendants of coastal-dwelling Canaanites, who over the centuries developed a particular seagoing culture and skills. But others believe equally firmly, like Herodotus, that the Phoenician culture must have been inspired from an external source. All manner of suggestions have been made: that the Phoenicians were sea-traders from the Land of Punt who co-opted the Canaanite population; or that they were connected with the Minoans; or the Sea Peoples or the Philistines further south; or on the other side of the fence, that they represent the activities of supposed coastal maritime Israelite tribes like Dan. While the Semitic language of the Phoenicians, and some evidence of invasion at the site of Byblos, suggest origins in the wave of Semitic migration that hit the Fertile Crescent between 2300 and 2100 BC, many scholars, including Sabatino Moscati believe that the Phoenicians evolved from a prior non-Semitic people of the area, suggesting a mixture between the two populations. Historian Gerhard Herm further asserts that, because the Phoenicians' legendary sailing abilities are not well attested before the invasions of the Sea Peoples around 1200 BC, that these Sea Peoples would have merged with the local population to produce the Phoenicians, who seemingly gained these abilities rather suddenly at that time. This idea is backed up by archaeological evidence that the Philistines, often thought of as related to the Sea Peoples, were culturally linked to Mycenaean Greeks, who were also known to be great sailors even in this period. And so the debate has persisted. Professional archaeologists have now been at work on the origins of the Phoenicians for generations, basing their analysis in the mainstream of excavated sites, the remains of material culture, contemporary texts set into contemporary contexts, and the even more slippery slopes of linguistics. Modern cultural agendas, both personal and national, have been brought to bear. But ultimately, the origins of the Phoenicians are still unknown: where they came from and just when (or if) they arrived, and under what circumstances, are all still energetically disputed. Some Lebanese, Syrians, Maltese, Tunisians, Algerians and a small percentage of Somalis, along with certain other island folk in the Mediterranean, still consider themselves descendants of Phoenicians.

The cultural and economic "empire"

Fernand Braudel remarked (in The Perspective of the World) that Phoenicia was an early example of a "world-economy" surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and seapower is usually placed ca 1200 – 800 BC. Many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this: Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Aradus and Berytus all appear in the Amarna tablets; and indeed, the first appearance in archaeology of cultural elements clearly identifiable with the Phoenician zenith is sometimes dated as early as the third millennium BC. This league of independent city-state ports, with others on the islands and along other coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, was ideally suited for trade between the Levant area, rich in natural resources, and the rest of the ancient world. Suddenly, during the early Iron Age, in around 1200 BC, an unknown event occurred, historically associated with the appearance of the Sea Peoples. The powers that had previously dominated the area, notably the Egyptians and the Hittites, became weakened or destroyed; and in the resulting power vacuum a number of Phoenician cities established themselves as significant maritime powers. Authority seems to have stabilized because it derived from three power-bases: the king; the temple and its priests; and councils of elders. Byblos soon became the predominant centre from where they proceeded to dominate the Mediterranean and Erythraean (Red) Sea routes. However, Byblos was attacked by successive invaders, and by around 1000 BC Tyre and Sidon had taken its place. The collection of city-kingdoms constituting Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians themselves as Sidonia or Tyria, and Phoenicians and Canaanites alike came to be called Zidonians or Tyrians, as one Phoenician conquest came to prominence after another.

Phoenician Trade

In the centuries following 1200 BC, the Phoenicians formed the major naval and trading power of the region. Perhaps it was through these merchants that the Hebrew word kena'ani ('Canaanite') came to have the secondary, and apt, meaning of "merchant". The Greek term "Tyrian purple" describes the dye they were especially famous for, and their port town Tyre. Phoenician trade was founded on this violet-purple dye derived from the Murex sea-snail's shell, once profusely available in coastal waters but exploited to local extinction. James B. Pritchard's excavations at Sarepta in Lebanon revealed crushed Murex shells and pottery containers stained with the dye that was being produced at the site. Brilliant textiles were a part of Phoenician wealth. Phoenician glass was another export ware. Phoenicians seem to have first discovered the technique of producing transparent glass. Phoenicians also shipped tall Lebanon cedars to Egypt, that consumed more wood than it could produce. Indeed, the Amarna tablets suggest that in this manner the Phoenicians paid tribute to Egypt in the 14th century. From elsewhere they got many other materials, perhaps the most important being tin from Spain and from Cornwall in Britain, that together with copper (from Cyprus) was used to make bronze. Trade routes from Asia converged on the Phoenician coast as well, enabling the Phoenicians to govern trade between Mesopotamia on the one side, and Egypt and Arabia on the other. The Phoenicians established commercial outposts throughout the Mediterranean, the most notable being Carthage in North Africa, with others in Cyprus, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, and elsewhere. (The name Spain comes from the Phoenician word I-Shaphan, meaning, thanks to an early double misidentification, 'island of hyraxes'.) The date when many of these cities were founded has been very controversial. Greek sources put the foundation of many cities very early. Gades (Cadiz) in Spain was traditionally founded in 1110 BC, while Utica in Africa was supposedly founded in 1101. However, no archaeological remains have been dated to such a remote era. The traditional dates may reflect the establishment of rudimentary way stations that left little archaeological trace, and only grew into full cities centuries later. (The World of the Phoenicians, Sabatino Moscati, 1965). Alternatively, the early dates may reflect Greek historians' belief that the legends of Troy (mentioning these cities) were historically reliable. Phoenician ships used to ply the coast southern Spain up along the coast of present-day Portugal. The fishermen of Nazaré and Aveiro in Portugal are traditionally of Phoenician descent. This can be seen today in the unusual and ancient design of their boats ‑ soaring pointed bows with mystical symbols painted on. Other ventured north into the Atlantic ocean as far as Britain, where the tin mines in what is now Cornwall provided them with important materials. They also sailed south along the coast of Africa. A Carthaginian expedition led by Hanno the Navigator explored and colonized the Atlantic coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of Guinea; and according to Herodotus, a Phoenician expedition sent out by pharaoh Necho II of Egypt even circumnavigated Africa. The Phoenicians were not an agricultural people, because most of the land was not arable; therefore, they focused on commerce and trading instead. They did, however, raise sheep and sell them and their wool. The Phoenicians exerted considerable influence on the other groups around the Mediterranean, notably the Greeks, who later became their main commercial rivals. They appear in Greek mythology. Traditionally, the city of Thebes was founded by a Phoenician prince named Cadmus when he set out to look for his sister Europa, who had been kidnapped by Zeus. In the Bible, king Hiram I of Tyre is mentioned as co-operating with Solomon in mounting an expedition on the Red Sea and on building the temple. The temple of Solomon is considered to be built according to Phoenician design, and its description is considered the best description of what a Phoenician temple looked like. Phoenicians from Syria were also called Syrophenicians. The Phoenician alphabet was developed around 1200 BC from an earlier Semitic prototype that also gave rise to the Ugaritic alphabet. It was used mainly for commercial notes. The Greek alphabet, that forms the basis of all European alphabets, was derived from the Phoenician one. The alphabets of the Middle East and India are also thought to derive, directly or indirectly, from the Phoenician alphabet. Ironically, the Phoenicians themselves are largely silent on their own history. Other than inscriptions on stone, Phoenician writing has largely perished. They are described by Sallust and Augustine as possessing an extensive literature, but of this only a single work survives, in Latin translation: Mago's Agriculture. What we know of them comes mainly from their neighbors, the Greeks and Hebrews. With the rise of Assyria, the Phoenician cities one by one lost their independence, and were afterwards dominated by Babylonia and then Persia. They remained very important, however, and provided these powers with their main source of naval strength. The stacked warships, such as triremes and quinqueremes, were probably Phoenician inventions, though eagerly adopted by the Greeks.

Decline

Phoenicia accepted rule by the Persians. Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 538 BC. Phoenician influence declined and later the culture that they were known for disappeared.

Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia

Information on Phoenician cities and their hinterlands under the Achaemenid Persians is sparse. The famous event is the revolt of Sidon against Achaemenid rule in 345 BC and its destruction, dramatically (perhaps too dramatically) described by Diodorus Siculus. The arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 – 332 BC is the main turning point, for Hellenistic Phoenicia lost its influential mercantile role, and the distinctive culture of its cities was Hellenized under Alexander and his Macedonian successors. The responses of the individual Phoenician cities to Alexander's conquest of Persia varied: the ruler of Aradus submitted; the king of Sidon was overthrown (perhaps by internal plotters who valued the city more than their king). Tyre resisted with the most energy. It was captured after a prolonged siege, one of the most famous sieges in Antiquity (see Siege of Tyre), and Alexander was exceptionally harsh. He executed 2000 of the leading citizens, but maintained the king in power. A popular king who owed everything to Alexander, made for a more secure city than a deeply-rooted local oligarchy. If Tyre was meant to set an example, it was effective: the Phoenician resistance was utterly broken, and no Phoenician city thereafter seems to have resisted occupation. In the following decades, shifting frontiers between Ptolemaic armies, and Antigonid or Seleucid forces, required some flexible diplomacy and alacrity in accepting a new alliance. This is the period when the cult of Tyche, goddess of Fortune, reached a prominence it had never enjoyed before. In 287 – 225 BC, after decades of meaningless violence and small empty victories that simply ravaged the countryside, the Ptolemies regained some stabilized control of the cities (except for Aradus), and the last of the old Phoenician city-kings disappeared. In their new forms, the cities were scarcely different from the Greek cities interspersed along the coastal plain - all nominal republics with a very limited suffrage, and autonomy that was formal and local, while they were ruled from a distance by a great king at Alexandria. The center of Phoenician power had shifted westward to the Tyrian colony of Carthage, that had not merely gained its independence, but had become a major power in the Western Mediterranean in its own right. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, the Seleucid monarchy had finally reasserted its primacy on the former Phoenician coast, but the last Seleucid kings' local power was increasingly a fiction, as the cities, now thoroughly Hellenistic, regained local independence.

Important Phoenician Cities & Colonies

From the 10th century BC, their expansive culture established cities and colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Canaanite deities like Baal and Astarte were being worshipped from Cyprus to Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, and most notably at Carthage in modern Tunisia. In the Phoenician homeland:
- Batroun
- Berytos
- Byblos
- Safita
- Sidon
- Tyre
- Arwad
- Tripoli
- Arka
- Zemar (Sumur) Phoenician colonies (this list is very incomplete):
- Carthage
- Tripoli
- Palermo
- three cities dependent on Carthage, known by their later Hellenic and Roman names:
  - Oea
  - Sabrata
  - Leptis Magna
- Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia)
- Abdera (Adra, Spain)
- Acra (Morocco)
- Arambys (Morocco)
- Caricus Murus (Morocco)
- Nova Cartago, now Cartagena, Spain
- Cerne Mauritania
- Gadir (Cádiz)
- Gytta (Morocco)
- Kition (Cyprus)
- Lixus (Morocco)
- Malaca (Málaga, Spain)
- Melitta(Melilla) (Spain)
- Motya (Sicily)
- Onoba (Huelva, Spain)
- Sexi (Almuñecár, Spain)
- Utica
- Coastal Sardinia
- Tingis(Tanger (Morocco)
- Thymiaterium (Morocco)

Language & Literature

See main articles: Phoenician language, Phoenician alphabet, Alphabet. Though the Phoenicians are credited with developing the Phoenician alphabet, their alphabet is actually what is termed an abjad (different from an alphabet, in that it contains no vowels). The Phoenician abjad, first making its appearance in the 11th century BC, evolved out of the proto-Canaanite abjad, that originated around the 17th century BC. A cuneiform abjad originated to the north in Ugarit, a Canaanite city of northern Syria, in the 14th century BC. Phoenician traders disseminated the concept along Aegean trade routes, to coastal Anatolia, Crete and eventually Mycenean Greece. Classical Greeks remembered that the alphabet arrived in Greece with the mythical founder of Thebes, Cadmus. Their language, Phoenician, was a Northwest Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup. Its later descendant in North Africa is termed Punic. The Amarna letters, dated to the 14th century BC, although written in Akkadian, the language of diplomacy at the time, contain solecisms that are not 'mistakes', but actually early Canaanite words and phrases. Because of their Lebanese provenance, some identify these as Phoenician; however, most scholars reserve that term for a later era. The earliest known inscriptions in Phoenician come from Byblos and date back to ca. 1000 BC. Phoenician inscriptions are found in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Cyprus and other locations, as late as the early centuries of the Christian Era. Punic, a language that developed from Phoenician in Phoenician colonies around the western Mediterranean beginning in the 9th century BC, slowly supplanted Phoenician, similar to the way Italian supplanted Latin. Punic Phoenician was still spoken in the 5th century CE: St. Augustine, for example, grew up in North Africa and was familiar with the language.

External link


- [http://phoenicia.org/semlang.html The Semitic languages, including Phoenician.]

Phoenicians in the Bible

In the Old Testament there is no reference to the Greek term Phoenicia; instead, the inhabitants of the coastal are identified by their city of origin, most often as Sidonians (Gen. x. 15; Judges iii. 3; x. 6, xviii. 7; I Kings v. 20, xvi. 31). Early relations between Israelites and the Canaanites were cordial: Hiram of Tyre a Phoenician, by modern assessment, furnished architects, workmen and cedar timbers for the temple of his ally Solomon at Jerusalem. Later, reforming prophets railed against the practice of drawing royal wives from among foreigners: Elijah execrated Jezebel, the princess from Tyre who became a consort of King Ahab and introduced the worship of her gods. Long after Phoenician culture had flourished, or Phoenicia had existed as any political entity, Hellenized natives of the region where Canaanites still lived were referred to as "Syro-Phoenician", as in the Gospel of Mark 7:26: "The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter."

See also


- Phoenician chronology

External links


- [http://phoenicia.org/index.shtml Encyclopedia Phoeniciana website] largest and most comprehensive website on Phoenicia about 1,000 pages
- [http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Canaan/Phoenicians.html University of Pennsylvania Museum offers simplified but unbiased information on Canaan and Phoenicians, emphasizing common aspects of culture among Israel and the other kingdoms in Canaan.]
- [http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2587/phoenicia.html Phoenician history, from a patriotic Lebanese point of view.]
- [http://www.lost-civilizations.net/phoenicians-overview.html Phoenicians overview] by Genry Joil.

References


- The History of Phoenicia, first published in 1889 by George Rawlinson is available under Project Gutenberg at: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2331 Rawlinson's 19th century text needs updating for modern improvements in historical understanding.
- Maria Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, tr. Mary Turton ([http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-12-17.html Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2001: review)] Category:Ancient Roman provinces Category:Ancient peoples Category:History of Lebanon Category:History of Syria
- ja:フェニキア

4th century BC

(2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) ----

Overview

Events


- Invasion of the Celts into Ireland
- Battle of the Allia and subsequent Gaulish sack of Rome
- 383 BCE Second Buddhist Councel at Vesali. 100 years after the Parimirvana.
- 312 BCE Seleucus I Nicator established himself in Babylon. Begins the Seleucid Empire.
- 323 BCE Alexander the Great conqueres the Persian Empire.
- Kingdom of Macedon conquers Persian empire
- The Scythians are beginning to be absorbed into the Sarmatian people.
- The Romans conquer the Abruzzi region, decline of the Etruscan civilization

Significant persons


- Marcus Furius Camillus, Roman dictator (c.446–365 BC).
- Plato, philosopher (c.427–347 BC).
- Tollund Man, Human sacrifice victim on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark, possibly the earliest known evidence for worship of Odin.
- Aristotle, philosopher and scientist (384–322 BC).
- Philip II of Macedon (born 382, reigned 359–336 BC).
- Darius III of Persia, last King of the Achaemenid dynasty (born 380, reigned 359–330 BC).
- Mencius, Chinese philosopher and sage (371–289 BC).
- Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty (c.367–283 BC).
- Shang Yang, Prime Minister of Qin, his reform helped Qin to become the strongest country and later unified China (term 361–338 BC).
- Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire (c.358–281 BC).
- Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, invades Asia Minor, Persia and reaches India (born 356, reigned 336–323 BC).
- Brennus, Gaulish chieftain

Inventions, discoveries, introductions


- Oldest Brahmi script dates from this period (Brahmi is the ancestor of Indic scripts)
- Romans build first aqueduct
- Chinese use bellows

Decades and years

Category:4th century BC ko:기원전 4세기 ja:紀元前4世紀

Roman Empire

:For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation) The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. Roman Empire is also used as translation of the expression Imperium Romanum, probably the best known Latin expression where the word "imperium" is used in the meaning of a territory, the "Roman Empire", as that part of the world where Rome ruled. The expansion of this Roman territory beyond the borders of the initial city-state of Rome had started long before the state organisation turned into an Empire. One of the first historians to describe this expansion of the Roman territory was the Greek Polybius, writing in the Epoch of the Roman Republic. In the centuries before the autocracy of Augustus, Rome had already accumulated a collection of tribute-states beyond the Italian Peninsula, including former Mediterranean competitors Syracuse and Carthage. In the late Republic Augustus (then still "Octavian") added Egypt definitively to the Imperium Romanum. The remainder of this article treats the Roman Empire as Imperial state (see Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic for development of the territory in earlier times). Augustus' reforms turning the Roman state into an Empire survived mostly unchanged until the Diocletian reform at end of the 3rd century, which turned the empire into a tetrarchy. While the political form given by Diocletian was short-lived, it led to the division of the Empire into two halves. This allowed Roman rule to continue for two more centuries over the whole empire, although divided into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire. The end of the Western Empire is traditionally set in 476, when Odovacar deposed the last Emperor and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople; henceforth he nominally ruled as dux on behalf of Constantinople. After another millennium, in 1453, the Eastern Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks. From Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire Rome dominated the region of Western Eurasia, comprising over half its population. The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, military, and monumental architecture, as well as many other aspects of Western life remains inescapable. The Greeks adopted the Roman name in the Middle Ages and were known as Romans, a trend that survives until today in Greece, a result of their cultural position (see Names of the Greeks). Roman titles of power were adopted by successor states and other entities with imperial pretensions, including the Frankish kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the first and second Bulgarian empires, the Russian/Kiev dynasties, and the German Empire. See also Roman culture.

Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome

Because the empire of Rome lasted for such a long period of time (31 BC–1453), there are certain alternative names used by historians to distinguish various semantic periods or eras. Such names include Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire, which are used interchangeably throughout this article to mean the same as Roman Empire (or the Western or Eastern part thereof). For many years historians made a distinction between the Principate, the period from Augustus until the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Dominate, the period from Diocletian until the end of the Empire in the West. According to this theory, during the Principate (from the Latin word princeps, meaning "first citizen", the only title Augustus would permit himself) the realities of dictatorship were concealed behind Republican forms; while during the Dominate (from the word dominus, meaning "Master") imperial power showed its naked face, with golden crowns and ornate imperial ritual. More recently historians established that the situation was far more nuanced: certain historical forms continued until the Byzantine period, more than one thousand years after they were created, and displays of imperial majesty were common from the earliest days of the Empire.

Age of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)

Political developments

Latin As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is held to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been destroyed over the preceding century and Rome had been in continuous crisis with periods of dictatorial rule since Sulla. The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus greatly changed the view toward hereditary monarchy. Rome–the city that had not too long before assassinated its leader, Julius Caesar, when his ambitions seemed to threaten the republic–now placidly accepted one man rule. Augustus' reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:
- Creation of an hereditary office, which we refer to as Emperor of Rome.
- Fixation of the payscale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one.
- Creation of the Praetorian Guard, which would make and unmake emperors for centuries.
- Expansion to the natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus' death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years.
- Development of trade links with regions as far as India and China.
- Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority.
- Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy.
- Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine, who was made both a Roman god and "the Thirteenth Apostle" upon his death.

Cultural developments

:Main article: Roman culture The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in Romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were traditionally within the Roman sphere of influence.

Sources

The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus' reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:
- Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus' highly partisan autobiography,
- Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
- Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder. Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions. Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus' Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus' reign.

Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs

Augustus, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia from her first marriage. Augustus was a scion of the gens Julia (the Julian family), one of the most ancient patrician clans of Rome, while Tiberius was a scion of the gens Claudia, only slightly less ancient than the Julians. Their three immediate successors were all descended both from the gens Claudia, through Tiberius' brother Nero Claudius Drusus, and from gens Julia, either through Julia Caesaris, Augustus' daughter from his first marriage (Caligula and Nero), or through Augustus' sister Octavia (Claudius). Historians thus refer to their dynasty as "Julio-Claudian".

Tiberius (14–37)

The early years of Tiberius' reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched her treasury. However, Tiberius' reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In 19, he was popularly blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In 23 his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with relish. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was hoist by his own petard: the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued until Tiberius' death in 37.

Caligula (37–41)

At the time of Tiberius' death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius' own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus' son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was probably insane. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was another nephew of Tiberius', Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, better known as the emperor Claudius.

Claudius (41–54)

Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. In Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather. On the home front, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably killed him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitius, or, as he was known by this time, Nero.

Nero (54–69)

Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power increased; he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britain, Armenia, Parthia, and Judaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero is best remembered by the rumour that he played the lyre and sang during the Great Fire of Rome, and hence "fiddled while Rome burned" (though the fiddle had yet to be invented). Nero is also remembered for his immense rebuilding of Rome following the fires. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 (known as the Year of the Four Emperors) was a year of civil war, with the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ruling in quick succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to