Rachel Stahmann
HIS 111-01
Dr. Johnston
February 21, 2023
The Phoenicians and Their Lasting Impact
Modern society is completely based on past events and experiences. The current state of all communities would be completely different if a portion of the past was rewritten and changed. The Phoenicians are just one group of people who created a lasting impact on the current society through the various trade, expansion, and ideas that they contributed during their time. Once they were given the opportunity, the Phoenicians were able to flourish and create new concepts and influence the societies around them that would then influence the future of the entire modern world.
Before 1200 B.C.E., most of the Phoenician cities were part of the Egyptian
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There were several specific areas that the Phoenicians developed and significantly impacted including the production of papyrus and textiles. One Phoenician city became the center for producing, trading, and selling papyrus, which was a valued material for writing on. In addition to papyrus, another prized material that the Phoenicians were known for was a certain purple dye that was made out of a specific type of snail shell. Overall, these people were famous for being crafty and having expertise in many areas such as metalworking, carving, and building ships. Phoenicians were also known for being expert merchants and aggressive colonists. Phoenicia originated along the east coast of the Mediterranean, but new settlements began to appear all the way across the Mediterranean such as northeast Africa and the southern part of modern-day Spain because of the aggressive nature of the migrants. Finally, the most important impact of the Phoenicians was their development of the alphabet during that time. They took the thirty-letter alphabet and condensed it into only twenty-two characters, creating a lasting impact on written language for the rest of …show more content…
First, the production of papyrus and the special purple dye created more trade opportunities and people of other cultures would then need what the Phoenicians could provide. This incorporation of cultures and ideas then would continue when the Phoenicians wanted to expand and migrate to new areas. This would cause the Phoenicians to influence other cultures in addition to these other cultures impacting and changing the Phoenicians. The amount of influence that the Phoenicians had would then aid in how their new alphabet would impact other cultures. The simpler alphabet changed how communication occurred when trading, and because of the Phoenicians’ expansion, other cultures and cities would also begin to pick up this new alphabet because of the simplicity and opportunity that it provided. Overall, the Phoenicians were able to create and provide various goods, services, and ideas that then impacted the entire surrounding area during this