What are the impacts of the Punic wars to the people of North Africa

Punic were a Semitic speaking people from Carthage in North Africa who traced their origins to Phoenicians and North African Berbers, in archaeological and Linguistic usage. Punic refers to a Hellenistic and later era culture and dialect from Carthage that had developed into distinct form, from the Phoenicians of the mother cities of Tyre, Sidon and Byblos. Phoenicians also settled in North Africa and other areas under Carthaginians rule and their culture and political organization were a distinct form. The Punic religion was based on that of their Phoenician forefathers, who worshipped Baal-hamon being clearly the most important Punic deity . The reasons for these Carthaginians’ and Phoenicians to shift from their original place to North Africa were the series of wars which termed as Punic wars. 

These series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had ever taken place, much like today's World Wars. The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus which stands for Phoenicians and Carthaginians. Carthage was a large city located on the coast of modern Tunisia which founded by the Phoenicians in the mid-9th century B.C it was a powerful isocratic city state with a vast commercial network as well as great city state in the western Mediterranean; only Rome rivaled it in power, wealth, and population. While Carthage's navy was the largest in the ancient world at the time, it did not maintain a large permanent standing army. Instead the Carthage relied mostly on mercenaries especially the indigenous Numidia and Berbers to fight its wars.

However, most of the officers who commanded the armies were Carthaginian citizens. The Carthaginians were famed for their abilities as sailors and unlike their armies, many Carthaginians from the lower classes served in their navy, which provided them with a stable income and career. In 200 B.C the Roman Republic had gained control of the Italian peninsula. Unlike Carthage, Rome had large disciplined armed forces. On the other hand at the start of the First Punic War the Romans had no navy and were thus at a disadvantage until they began to construct their own large fleets during the war. Because of this armament done by the Romans led the first war against Carthaginians was due to the following reasons;

The three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome took place over nearly a century, beginning in 264 B.C. and ending with the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. By the time the First Punic War broke out, Rome become the dominant power throughout the Italian peninsula while Carthage as a powerful city state in northern Africa, had established itself as the leading maritime power in the world. The First Punic War broke out in 264 B.C when Rome interfered in a dispute on the Carthaginian controlled island of Sicily. The war ended with Rome in control of both Sicily and Corsica and marked the empire’s emergence as a naval as well as a land power. In the Second Punic War the great Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy and scored great victories at Lake Trasimene and Cannae before his eventual defeat at the hands of Rome’s Scipio Africanus in 202 B.C left Rome in control of the western Mediterranean and much of Spain. In the Third Punic War, the Romans, led by Scipio the Younger captured and destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 B.C, turning Africa into yet another province of the mighty Roman Empire .

The fight of interests between existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman Republic. The Romans there were initially interested in expansion via Sicily which at that time was a cultural melting pot which lay under Carthaginian control. At the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was the rapidly ascending power in Italy, but lacked the naval power of Carthage.

In 264 B.C, Rome decided to intervene in a dispute on the western coast of the island of Sicily then a Carthaginian province involving an attack by soldiers from the city of Syracuse against the city of Messina. While Carthage supported Syracuse, Rome supported Messina and the struggle soon exploded into a direct conflict between the two powers with control of Sicily at stake. Over the course of nearly 20 years, Rome rebuilt its entire fleet in order to confront Carthage’s powerful navy. Though its invasion of North Africa that same year ended in defeat, Rome refused to give up and in 241 B.C. the Roman fleet was able to win a decisive victory against the Carthaginians at sea, breaking their legendary naval superiority. At the end of the First Punic War, Sicily became Rome’s first overseas province.

The conflicts between Roman and the Carthaginian in Spain, Carthage was able to establish a new base of influence in Spain beginning in 237 B.C, Hannibal took command of Carthaginian forces in Spain. Two years later, he marched his army across the Ebro River into Saguntum, an Iberian city under Roman protection, effectively declaring war on Rome .For instance in 229 B.C, The Second Punic War saw Hannibal and his troops including as many as 90,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and a number of elephants march from Spain across the Alps and into Italy, where they scored a string of victories over Roman troops at Ticinus, Trebia and Trasimene. Hannibal’s daring invasion of Rome reached its height at Cannae in 216 B.C. where he used his superior cavalry to surround a Roman army twice the size of his own and inflict massive casualties.

The Third Punic War, by far the most controversial of the three conflicts between Rome and Carthage was the result of efforts by Cato the Elder and other hawkish members of the Roman Senate to convince their colleagues that Carthage even in its weakened state was a continuing threat to Rome’s supremacy in the region . In 149 B.C after Carthage technically broke its treaty with Rome by declaring war against the neighboring state of Numidia, the Romans sent an army to North Africa as the beginning of the Third Punic War and was the remarkable end of the war and the total destruction of Carthage city in North Africa. After looking some of the causes of Punic spread in North Africa, the following are the impacts which led by the presence of Punic in North Africa as explained bellow:- 

The impacts of the Punic wars led to the presence of Punic in North Africa who led to the positive and negative impacts in North Africa. The influence of Carthage on Ibiza was marked by deep transformations in the social, economic, political, ideological and religious spheres. These changes included an apparent demographic growth, colonization of the rural landscape and agricultural exploitation, changes in the funerary rite, intensive production of goods and the creation of a coin mint . 

The wars against Carthage changed Rome; due to the Senate had gained in power and prestige relative to the people's assemblies. The Romans emerged from the Punic wars with the widespread understanding that ultimate authority over the military lay with the Senate, that it was the Senate's job to know, advise and guide, and the Senate's job to decide the question of war or peace and other foreign policy matters. 

Depopulation, by the end of the third war, after more than a hundred years and the loss of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome's second war against Carthage reduced the number of people in the Italian countryside. People had died and people had moved to the cities to escape war. Some people had left the countryside to work in the arms industry and some had left for Rome looking for subsistence. The new arrivals in Rome enjoyed the festivals and other public entertainment that were created to maintain public morale during the dark days of the war.

Led to the growth of Roman Empire, the Roman Empire now considered Carthage as its possession, and it began when would become a long struggle to conquer Carthaginians and other inhabitants. Rome becoming the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean in 188 B.C of the eastern sea, Rome emerged as the dominant Mediterranean power and one of the most powerful cities in classical antiquity. The Roman victories over Carthage in these wars gave Rome a preeminent status it would retain until the 5th century AD. 

Decline of Carthaginians influence in trading activities in North Mediterranean sea, from 5th century of the Carthaginian presence in North Africa Carthage people rose the tremendously change of the trading activities. The trade was largely influenced by their marine technological and Agricultural advancement in the coast of the Algeria, after the long wars with Romans, Carthage lost the influence in trading cities like Sicily and south of the Italy was no longer in their influence in trade activities.

Strong spread of the Roman Catholic churches in North Africa; the Carthaginian in North Africa had no influence in religion but was only in trading activities and the reforms in agricultural activities . Aftermath of the Punic wars Carthaginians loosed influence in North Africa and the Romans gained momentum of spreading their culture and religion as well. Roman Catholic Church rose tremendously and converted many indigenous and the Punic into the Christianity religion it was the period of 650 A.D were the churches in North Africa spread in many cities especially that of Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt.

Destruction of Carthaginians power, Romans had conquered Carthage's empire and completely destroyed the city as the wars of Punic involve the fighting then the system of Carthaginians were destroyed by Romans as decided to came and settle in North Africa after being defeated by Romans, hence Phoenicians and Carthaginians started to bring the impacts in north Africa after being established the settlement .

The spreading of Punic settlements in western Sardinia since the 4th century BC is associated with peasant, in agriculture they introduced new system of agriculture, they introduced new crops like flax, and they introduced large agricultural estates owned by leading citizens of the Punic cities and by members of the indigenous elite constituted the cornerstone of the Carthaginian territorial policy. Therefore the agricultural activities also were owned by the Carthaginian in North Africa. 

Led to expansion of trade activities in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean areas, with the urban Centre of Cadiz in southern Spain taking a central role and founding trading posts in Ibiza, North Africa and other parts of the Iberian Peninsula was where trading activities took place. At this time, Ibiza became an important Centre in an international trade network. Considering the winds and sea currents, it stood in the direct path of several east-west and north-south Phoenician trade routes, its importance also relied partly on its central location within the western Mediterranean as well as on its resources, such as salt , they exchanged gold, tin, silver with the manufactured goods such as purple dye, glass as well as lumber.

The Carthaginians introduced a new tax on citizens to fund the next war indemnity installment this led to Hannibal being elected sufete, no doubt on a programme of reforming abuses and with an unknown but compliant colleague. Not only were the indemnity installments but also paid without trouble in 191 B.C, when Rome was at war with Antiochus, the Carthaginian authorities sent an offer to repay at once the remaining forty years. The Romans preferred to keep the large symbolic dependence of year by year payments and they also paid for rather than accept as a gift quantities of grained.

Therefore, changes that took place in North Africa was not only the role played by Punic presence in North Africa but also the indigenous of the place initiated a lot of changes as well as played a great role to the history of North Africa, the Berbers were the indigenous of the place who also engaged in agricultural activities, religious issues, political issues as well as engaged in trading activities (trading with the foreigners).   

REFERENCES

Cornell. Et al (1996). The Second Punic War: A Reappraisal. London: Institute of Classical Studies. 

Craven, B. (1980). The Punic Wars. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 

Jackson, J. Spielvogel (1999). World History: the human odyssey, Canada: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group Inc. 

Nicholas (2005). The Presence of African Individuals in Punic Populations from the Island of Ibiza (Spain), Contributions From Physical Anthropology, University of Oxford.

Tailor and Francis  (2010). The Carthaginians. New York. Routlege Publisher.