Thalassocracy

Thalassocracy can act as the first stage in the formation of an empire , for example, the British , Portuguese . The main difference between thalassocracy and empire is that thalassocracy, as a rule, does not control any significant land spaces when moving further from the sea deep into the continent . Thalassocracy is mainly built on the linear chains of coastal cities - the ports in which people from the main city (metropolis) live or control. The classic Tallasocracy was the Byzantine Empire from the time of the Isaurians ( VIII century ). A powerful fleet , armed with " Greek fire ", allowed the Byzantines to control many port cities-enclaves in Italy, Greece and Dalmatia, and successfully repel the onslaught of the Lombards, Slavs and Arabs.

Minoan thalassocracy

The first recorded thalassocracy with a clear thalassocratic political and economic policy was the state of Minoan Crete . The Minoans launched an active foreign policy activity, relying on the superiority of their fleet. Their activities mainly affected the Aegean basin, however, there were well-established contacts with both the countries of the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern.

Minoan expansion spread along sea routes from the Aegean to the Eastern Mediterranean and was based on a dense network of island stations, harbors and coastal structures. The degree of their relationship with Crete and, as a consequence, the degree of Minoan influence depended on factors such as remoteness from the “parent” island, position in the distribution network, importance in terms of providing raw materials and distribution of goods, as well as the spread of technological innovations and cultural features of the region ^[1] .

Minoan navigators were both warriors and merchants, and perhaps pirates, but many ancient authors point to the fact that they dominated the sea: Herodotus, Strabo, Thucydides, Appolodor, Plutarch and others. These written testimonies are supported by an abundance of archaeological finds. The islands closest to Crete, primarily the Cyclades, of course, were the first to fall into the sphere of influence of a sea power. Evidence of this we find in ancient literature. Thucydides in History writes:

“As we know from legend, Minos was the first of the rulers to build a fleet and gained dominion over most of the present Hellenic Sea. He became the ruler of the Cyclades and the first founder of the colonies on most of them and, having expelled the Canaries, made his sons rulers there. He also began to exterminate the sea robbers in order to increase his income, as far as he could. ” (Thuc., I, 4; 8, 2).

So, according to Herodotus, on Fr. Fera landed Cadmus (Her., IV, 147-148; 156). Under the rule of Minos were Anatha and Astypalea, islands east of Fera (Ovid. Met., VII, 461 sq .; Paus., VII, 4, 1); with Icarus, son of Daedalus, Fr. Ikaria and the adjoining part of the Aegean Sea (Apollod., II, 6, 3; Diod., IV, 77, 5; Strab., XIV, 1, 19; Paus., IX, 11, 4-5); the most ancient king of Samos, Ankei was the nephew of Europe, the Cretan queen (Paus., VII, 4, 1); Ariadne, daughter of Minos, went to Naxos (Hom. Od., XI, 321-325; Diod., IV, 61, 5; Plut. Thes., 20); Minos was conquered by Paros, Sifnos, Kimolos, Serifos, Kitnos, Syros, Mykonos (Ovid. Met., VII, 463-466); Radamant traveled to Euboea (Hom. Od., VII, 321–326; Strab., IX, 3, 14); and on Chios - Enopion, the grandson of Minos (Paus., VII, 4, 8; 5, 12-13) ^[2] .

Of course, Crete was in close contact with Egypt, as evidenced by the references to the “ships of the lands of Keftiu” and the people of Keftiu, namely, the Egyptians called the Minoans in Egyptian papyrus. Minoan and Mycenaean ceramics are even found in Egyptian tombs, which indicates its high value, and in Crete, many scarabs and other artifacts from the Nile Valley were found ^[3] .

Based on objects of the Minoan type found in various archaeological areas, it is possible to identify with high accuracy the trading posts and trading outposts of the Minoan world in such places as Samotraki, Lemnos, Kasos, Karpathos and Ugarit. The areas of powerful Minoan presence are Rhodes and Kitera, but Santorini and Miletus, which can be called Minoan colonies, are most influential.

Elsewhere in the world, the artistic and cultural influence of the Minoans is recorded, for example, in the palace frescoes of Tel el-Daba in Egypt, in Tel-Cabri in Israel, as well as in Katna, Alalah and Mari in the Syro-Palestinian region, but the nature of this interaction remains to be studied .

In Kammos, in the south of the island of Crete, which is the port city of the two large palace centers of the Messara Valley, Phaistos and Aria Triada, many foreign trade items were found. Imported luxury goods are found in the large central building and houses of the entire settlement. Syropalestinian anchors from the Syrian coast and numerous amphoras, Pythos, and small vessels from Canaan, Egypt, and Cyprus were also found there ^[4] .

The Minoan thalassocracy ceased to exist in the middle of the second millennium BC. e. due to incompletely elucidated reasons (a theory that connects the decline of the civilization of ancient Crete with the eruption of Santorin volcano is quite widespread).

Phenicia

The first thalassocracy in the Mediterranean founded by the Phoenicians . The Phoenician cities of Tire , Byblos and Sidon sent a huge fleet for trade and research purposes and the establishment of new colonies on the coasts of various seas of the region.

Ancient Greek Colonization

The ancient Greek colonization of the times of early antiquity also had a typical thalassocratic character, which is why it got this name ("thalassa" in Greek means the sea, in this particular case the Mediterranean). Dorians and Ionians spread their influence throughout the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea . The southern coast was occupied mainly by the Phoenicians . The exception was Greek Cyrenaica . Then they find themselves in the Black and Azov Seas . As one of the Hellenic chroniclers of that time wrote very figuratively, "the Greeks settled around the Mediterranean, like frogs around a swamp."

However, the Greeks did not discover new lands, but followed the already beaten paths of the Phoenicians , gradually crowding out their predecessors. In addition, they did not explore new lands deep into the continents, but limited their presence to the coasts on which new colonial cities sprang up ( Olbia , Tomy , Tanais , Khersones , Naples , Massilia , etc.). The center of the colonial structure of the Greek Mediterranean in the west became Sicily and Southern Italy , in the east of the islands of Cyprus and Crete .

Typical examples of thalassocracy in medieval Europe were Venice and Genoa , then independent city-states. Venice, located on islands in the lagoon of the Adriatic Sea and Genoa, sandwiched on all sides by the spurs of the Ligurian Range, did not have any significant land resources and their male population, for the most part, was forced to engage in fishing, and later navigation.

The growth of the power of the Ottoman Empire , the increased Islamization of the region and the gradual annexation of continental lands by the Turks led to the decline of Venetian and Genoese trade. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 , however, forced the Western Atlantic powers ( Portugal , Spain ) to begin naval explorations around the coast of Africa in order to find ways to India and China . At the initial stage of these studies, the Iberian states capture many small archipelagos ( Azores , Canary Islands , Madeira , Cape Verde Islands ) and various coastal fortresses in the Maghreb countries ( Ceuta , Melilla , Tangier , Ifni , Oran , Annaba , Tunisia , etc. ) and they themselves turn into Atlantic thalassocracy.

Portuguese Indonesia , and then the Dutch East Indies in the initial stages of their existence were thalassocratic in nature, relying on fortresses (for example, Makassar and Ocusi Ambeno ) and small islands ( Flores , Timor ) to control the sea trade routes connecting the continents. The inner regions of large islands ( Borneo , Sumatra ) obeyed the Dutch only at the beginning of the 20th century.

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