What Were The Nature and Purpose of Greek Settlements Abroad Between The Mid 8Th and Late 6Th Centuries?

What were the nature and purpose of Greek settlements abroad between the mid 8th and late 6th centuries?

The usual assumption about the expansion of a civilization abroad is that they are directed by a central state, which directs the movement of the expansion. Additionally the establishment of external colonies is often seen as an aggressive, expansionist policy, which has clear links with colonialism and imperialism. However when examining Greek expansion in this period it isn’t possible to use the same analysis. For a start the terms colonization is almost inextricably linked to imperialism of western powers within the 19th and with oppression of local freedoms[1], Greek expansion has virtually no connection with imperial expansion in the modern era as the Greek goal wasn’t the creation of an empire. The reason for this was simple, for the establishment of an empire what is absolutely vital is a unified state for which the empire was based around, Greek settlements in this period were not a unified state. Each different city was it’s own individual state known as a city-state and each one only controlled a very small amount of land. Secondly the expansion as a whole avoided confrontation with existing powers, they were developed in areas of either land not claimed by any civilization or in areas in which a civilization had very little control over “Greeks were not able to establish settlements in the territory of an advanced organized state”[2].  Finally although empire is an incredibly difficult word to define as it is highly emotionally charged and has large historical connotations around it, there are often certain characteristics that link most empires together. One of high importance is the ability to determine a central authority that has control of a subordinate periphery or at least a degree of control over their sovereignty. In Greek expansion the colonies had complete political, economic and social autonomy from the original Greek city-states and were complete equals as such there is no distinction between dominant core and subordinate periphery “If there is no relation of domination between “core” and “periphery”, then the system is not an empire”[3] This lack of aggression by the Greek’s combined with Greek civilizations unique structure of state organization means that the idea of this expansion being linked to the idea of empire building is virtually redundant.