Greeks versus Persians

The organization of the mainland Greeks into cities inaugurated a period of stability, wealth, further population expansion, and social and economic experimentation which made of Greece a great force in the Mediterranean. Greek traders and colonists ranged over the entire Mediterranean basin in the late seventh century BC, spreading westward to Sicily, southern Italy, France and Spain; eastward to Asia Minor; southward to North Africa in the areas not already claimed by the Phoenicians; and northward to the Black Sea. Trade with the colonies allowed many of the cities in Hellas to transform themselves into manufacturing centers or to concentrate on the development of specialized crops such as the grape and the olive, products that could be traded for grain, minerals, and furs with the colonial frontiersmen. [Ancient Greece]