Talk:Carthaginian Iberia

This page attempts to portray that the Carthaginians invaded Spain to conquer the lands and peoples and to rule them as a royal king might their subjects. It repeatedly uses the term “annex” and “annexation” to claim conquered lands were made part of Carthage, and this conquest was to replace lands lost in Sicily during the first Punic War. All these characterizations lack any significant (and any credible) historical basis.

Carthage never annexed lands overseas into their republic.

Carthage didn’t arrive in Spain to replace land lost in Sicily. Hamilcar Barca went to Spain to maximize revenues from the Spanish silver mines that Phoenicians first, then Carthaginians later, had been mining for centuries by then.

The need to maximize and exploit those mines was to replace trade revenue lost by Carthage 1) when it surrendered Sicily, Sardinia, and other Mediterranean Sea trade routes and ports to Rome to end the First Punic War and 2) to pay the war indemnity due from the war with Rome.

They never really acted as “colonizers” in the sense of the word today (like Britain). They were not even colonizers in the sense that the Greeks and Romans were during Antiquity/Classical History. Carthage established trading posts and ports. It would certainly defend those with armed authority if/when necessary, but there were no large influxes of settlers into the foreign lands. In fact, those Carthaginians who were to remain at such ports/posts were expected to marry into local/native tribes.

The wiki article appears to recognize this at some point by claiming Hamilcar went there to raise a new army (a claim for which there is also no historical basis) even though it is said earlier in the wiki article that he led a large army to Spain!

Hamilcar certainly did battle with some local tribes in Spain — those that were harassing the coastal region where local tribes had cooperated, traded, and had been aligned with Carthage (and Phoenicia earlier) for centuries and those that had been raiding and robbing caravans along roads/trail that had been created to facilitate travel/ shipping from the Southern Spanish coast to the Western Spanish coast. Hamilcar’s preference was always a negotiated peace, trade engagement, and shared prosperity for those so engaged.

There is also some bizarre reference to Carthaginian conquest of Numidia and incorporation of its famed cavalry into Carthage’s army. Carthage had no standing army. Numidia was an independent kingdom that aligned with Carthage from the earliest days of the city’s existence. Its cavalry certainly fought alongside Carthage’s contracted armies of soldiers (usually Spartan/Greek) from various kingdoms and individual mercenaries signed up (from anywhere in the known world). Numidia’s cavalry, however, was always led by its own commander and officers who could decline participation in battle. The same can be said of the contingent of Balearic slingers.

This wiki article is simply too nonfactual; it is too deceptive, misleading, beyond saving, and unworthy of saving. In my opinion, it appears an attempt to apply 21st century common understandings, perceptions, and feelings about conquest and colonization to a society that did not engage in either. In doing so, it fundamentally fails anyone and everyone who seeks to learn anything about the history of Phoenicia, Carthage, & Spain, the Punic Wars and conflicts with Rome, the emergence and evolution of exploration, sea trade, and commerce in the Mediterranean and beyond during Antiquity and Ancient History, and more — I’ve droned on enough though do goodnight. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.48.231.224 (talk) 01:16, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: The Phoenicians - Cunning Seafarers

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 January 2024 and 15 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Carthaginian123 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Tyre123, Kevin-birenbaum13.

— Assignment last updated by MotoMoto1952 (talk) 13:08, 15 April 2024 (UTC)