II.

Ancient and Medieval Times

Colonialism has existed since antiquity. Among the most notable continental empires of the ancient world were those of Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia. The maritime traders and adventurers Phoenicia, generally acknowledged as the earliest overseas colonizers, established colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean as early as 1100 bc. Phoenician colonization was motivated principally by the desire to expand and control trade. By the 8th century bc many of the Greek city-states were rapidly expanding along the coasts of the north Aegean, the Black Sea, and southern Italy. The Greeks were impelled by the need for arable land to sustain a growing population and the desire to facilitate commerce. The two most famous Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens, were colonial powers in roughly the 6th and 5th centuries bc, the former on the Greek mainland, the latter with overseas colonies.

The city of Carthage, in present-day Tunisia, was founded as a Phoenician colony but eventually became an important colonial power itself. The Carthaginians were also interested in controlling Mediterranean trade and thus established a maritime empire that included colonies in Spain and western Sicily. Carthage and its empire were challenged and ultimately destroyed by Rome in the Punic Wars (3rd-2nd century bc); the Romans in turn ruled over much of Europe and the Middle East in the following centuries.

The Middle Ages, following the collapse of Roman power in the 5th century, was not a period of much overseas colonization. Scandinavian Vikings, however, expanded their domains considerably in the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing control over large areas of the British Isles and founding settlement colonies in Iceland and Greenland.