Mediterranean Sea


The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea situated between Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe, and on the south by North Africa. To its west it is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Strait of Gibraltar that separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa by only ; additionally, it is connected to the Black Sea through the Bosporus strait that intersects Turkey in the northeast and the Red Sea via the Suez Canal in the southeast.
The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about, representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface; it includes fifteen marginal seas, including the Aegean, Adriatic, Tyrrhenian, and Marmara. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.
The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies; it is sometimes described as an "incubator of Western civilization". and saw the emergence of some of the earliest and most advanced civilisations, including those of Egypt, Greece, and the Fertile Crescent. The Levant in the Eastern Mediterranean was among the first regions in the world to display permanent human habitation as early as 12,000 BC. The Mediterranean Sea was an important route for merchants, travellers, and migrants in antiquity, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between various peoples as well as colonisation and conquest. The Roman Empire maintained nautical hegemony over the sea for centuries and is the only state to have ever controlled all of its coast.
The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of and the deepest recorded point is in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. It lies between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west–east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Alexandretta, on the southeastern coast of Turkey, is about. The north–south length varies greatly between different shorelines and whether only straight routes are considered. Also including longitudinal changes, the shortest shipping route between the multinational Gulf of Trieste and the Libyan coastline of the Gulf of Sidra is about. The water temperatures are mild in winter and warm in summer and give name to the Mediterranean climate type due to the majority of precipitation falling in the cooler months. Its southern and eastern coastlines are lined with hot deserts not far inland, but the immediate coastline on all sides of the Mediterranean tends to have strong maritime moderation.
The countries surrounding the Mediterranean and its marginal seas in clockwise order are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco; Cyprus and Malta are island countries in the sea. In addition, Northern Cyprus and two overseas territories of the United Kingdom also have coastlines along the Mediterranean Sea. The drainage basin encompasses a large number of other countries, the Nile being the longest river ending in the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean Sea encompasses a vast number of islands, some of them of volcanic origin. The two largest islands, in both area and population, are Sicily and Sardinia.

Names and etymology

  • Romans called the Mediterranean Mare Magnum or Mare Internum and, starting with the Roman Empire, Mare Nostrum. The term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later: Solinus apparently used this in the 3rd century, but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville. It means 'in the middle of land, inland' in Latin, a compound of medius, terra, and -āneus. The Latin word is a calque of Greek μεσόγειος, from μέσος and γήινος, from γῆ. The original meaning may have been 'the sea in the middle of the earth', rather than 'the sea enclosed by land'.
  • In Modern Arabic, it is known as 'the Middle Sea'. In Islamic and older Arabic literature, it was 'the Sea of the Romans' or 'the Roman Sea'. At first, that name referred to only the Eastern Mediterranean, but it was later extended to the whole Mediterranean. Other Arabic names were and .
  • The Ancient Egyptians called the Mediterranean Wadj-wr/''Wadj-Wer/Wadj-Ur. This term was the name given by the Ancient Egyptians to the semi-solid, semi-aquatic region characterized by papyrus forests to the north of the cultivated Nile Delta, and, by extension, the sea beyond.
  • The Carthaginians called it the "Syrian Sea". In ancient Syriac texts, Phoenician epics and in the Hebrew Bible, it was primarily known as the "Great Sea", הים הגדול,, or simply as "The Sea". However, it has also been called the "Hinder Sea" because of its location on the west coast of the region of Syria or the Holy Land, which is sometimes translated as "Western Sea". Another name was the "Sea of the Philistines",. In Modern Hebrew, it is called הים התיכון, 'the Middle Sea'.
  • The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean simply ἡ θάλασσα or sometimes ἡ μεγάλη θάλασσα, ἡ ἡμετέρα θάλασσα, or ἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ'ἡμᾶς. According to Johann Knobloch, in classical antiquity, cultures in the Levant used colors to refer to the cardinal points: black referred to the north, yellow or blue to east, red to south, and white to west. This would explain the Greek, the Bulgarian, the Turkish Akdeniz, and the Arab nomenclature described above, "White Sea".
  • The Old English name for the Mediterranean was the Wendel-sæ, or "Vandal Sea", after the Vandals who had occupied the shores of North Africa in the Migration Period.
  • One name for the Mediterranean in Old Norse appears to have been Jórsalahaf, the "Sea of Jerusalem". The "Hreiðsea", Hreiðmarar'', mentioned on the Rök runestone might also refer to the Mediterranean.
  • Ancient Iranians called it the "Roman Sea", in Classic Persian texts was called which may be from Middle Persian form, "The Western Sea" or "Syrian Sea".
  • In Turkish, it is the Akdeniz 'the White Sea'; in Ottoman, ﺁق دكز, which sometimes means only the Aegean Sea. The name is thought to be coming from the colors associated with the cardinal directions in Turkic tradition, where "Ak" stands for the west. It may be to contrast with the Black Sea. In Persian, the name was translated as, which was also used in later Ottoman Turkish. It is probably the origin of the colloquial Greek phrase.

    History

Ancient civilizations

Major ancient civilizations were located around the Mediterranean. The sea provided routes for trade, colonization, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages. The earliest advanced civilizations in the Mediterranean were the Egyptians and the Minoans, who traded extensively with each other. Around 1200 BC the eastern Mediterranean was greatly affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, which resulted in the destruction of many cities and trade routes.
Two other notable Mediterranean civilizations in classical antiquity are the Greek city-states and Phoenicians, both of whom extensively colonized the coastlines of the Mediterranean.
Darius I of Persia, who conquered Ancient Egypt, built a canal linking the Red Sea to the Nile, and thus the Mediterranean. Darius's canal was wide enough for two triremes to pass each other with oars extended and required four days to traverse.
Following the Punic Wars in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Roman Republic defeated the Carthaginians to become the preeminent power in the Western Mediterranean region. When Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum. For the next 400 years, the Roman Empire completely controlled the Mediterranean Sea and virtually all its coastal regions from Gibraltar to the Levant, giving the lake the nickname "Roman Lake".

Middle Ages and empires

The Western Roman Empire collapsed around 476 AD. The east was again dominant as Roman power still existed on in the Byzantine Empire formed in the 4th century from the eastern half of the Roman Empire. During that time, another power arose in the 7th century, and with it the religion of Islam, which soon swept across from the east; at its greatest extent, the Arabs, under the Umayyads, controlled the Iberian Peninsula, making a new phase of art and culture in the region.
File:The port and fleet of Genoa, early 14th century.jpg|thumb|right|The port and fleet of Genoa in the early 14th century, by Quinto Cenni
A variety of foodstuffs, spices and crops were introduced to the western Mediterranean's Spain and Sicily during Arab rule, via the commercial networks of the Islamic world. These include sugarcane, rice, cotton, alfalfa, oranges, lemons, apricots, spinach, eggplants, carrots, saffron and bananas. The Arabs also continued extensive cultivation and production of olive oil, and pomegranates from classical Greco-Roman times.
The Arab invasions disrupted the trade relations between Western and Eastern Europe while disrupting trade routes with Eastern Asian Empires. This, however, had the indirect effect of promoting trade across the Caspian Sea. The export of grains from Egypt was re-routed towards the Eastern world. Products from East Asian empires, like silk and spices, were carried from Egypt to ports like Venice and Constantinople by sailors and Jewish merchants. The Viking raids further disrupted the trade in western Europe and brought it to a halt. However, the Norsemen developed the trade from Norway to the White Sea, while also trading in luxury goods from Spain and the Mediterranean. The Byzantines in the mid-8th century retook control of the area around the north-eastern part of the Mediterranean. Venetian ships from the 9th century armed themselves to counter the harassment by Arabs while concentrating trade of Asian goods in Venice.File:Battle of Lepanto 1571.jpg|thumb|left|The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.
The Fatimids maintained trade relations with the Italian city-states like Amalfi and Genoa before the Crusades, according to the Cairo Geniza documents. A document dated 996 mentions Amalfian merchants living in Cairo. Another letter states that the Genoese had traded with Alexandria. The caliph al-Mustansir had allowed Amalfian merchants to reside in Jerusalem about 1060 in place of the Latin hospice.
The Crusades led to the flourishing of trade between Europe and the outremer region. Genoa, Venice and Pisa created colonies in regions controlled by the Crusaders and came to control the trade with the Orient. These colonies also allowed them to trade with the Eastern world. Though the fall of the Crusader states and attempts at banning of trade relations with Muslim states by the Popes temporarily disrupted the trade with the Orient, it however continued. Europe started to revive, however, when there was gradual centralization of state power in the Renaissance of the 12th century.
File:De Engels-Nederlandse vloot in de Baai van Algiers ter ondersteuning van het ultimatum tot vrijlating van blanke slaven, 26 augustus 1816. Rijksmuseum SK-A-1377.jpeg|thumb|The bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in support of an ultimatum to release European slaves, August 1816
Ottoman power based in Anatolia continued to grow, and in 1453 extinguished the Byzantine Empire with the Conquest of Constantinople. Hayreddin Barbarossa, the Ottoman captain is a symbol of this domination with the victory of the Battle of Preveza, opening up Tripoli and the eastern Mediterranean to Ottoman rule. As the naval prowess of the European powers increased, they confronted Ottoman expansion in the region when the Battle of Lepanto damaging the power of the Ottoman Navy. This was the last naval battle to be fought primarily between galleys.
The Barbary pirates of Northwest Africa preyed on Christian shipping and coastlines in the Western Mediterranean Sea. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th centuries, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves.
The development of oceanic shipping began to affect the entire Mediterranean. Once, most of the trade between Western Europe and the East was passing through the region, but after the 1490s the development of a sea route to the Indian Ocean allowed the importation of Asian spices and other goods through the Atlantic ports of western Europe.
File:Cena da Batalha do Nilo, 1 a 3 de Agosto de 1798.png|thumb|Battle of the Nile during the French campaign in Egypt, August 1798
The sea remained strategically important. British mastery of Gibraltar ensured their influence in Africa and Southwest Asia. Especially after the naval battles of Abukir and Trafalgar, the British had for a long time strengthened their dominance in the Mediterranean. Wars included Naval warfare in the Mediterranean during World War I and Mediterranean theatre of World War II.
With the opening of the lockless Suez Canal in 1869, the flow of trade between Europe and Asia changed fundamentally. The fastest route now led through the Mediterranean towards East Africa and Asia. This led to a preference for the Mediterranean countries and their ports like Trieste with direct connections to Central and Eastern Europe experienced a rapid economic rise. In the 20th century, the 1st and 2nd World Wars as well as the Suez Crisis and the Cold War led to a shift of trade routes to the European northern ports, which changed again towards the southern ports through European integration, the activation of the Silk Road and free world trade.