Mediterranean medieval era colonizations

Abstract

Colonization is a multifaceted phenomenon which features many variants situated between the “classical model” of Greek colonization and the standard pattern of modern colonialism. In the first case a mother city emits colonists to create an outpost in another region. In the second case a nation‐state imposes itself on another country or region with the aid of sophisticated military and administrative machinery which is used to exploit the colony for economic and strategic reasons and to the benefit of the mother country. A standardized definition of the term, accepted by historians working on all periods from Antiquity to our times, does not exist: The lowest common denominator which describes colonization as the spatial expansion of a social system seems as vague as the arbitrary classification of various forms of migration and expansion as colonization (Torró 2000).