Editing Magna Graecia (section)

==Context==
{{main|Greek colonisation}}

There were several reasons for the Greeks to establish overseas colonies; demographic crises (famine, overcrowding, etc.), ''[[Stasis (political history)|stasis]]'', a developing need for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland after wars.

During the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]], the Greek [[Classical demography#Ancient Greece and Greek colonies|population]] grew beyond the capacity of the limited [[arable land]] of Greece proper, resulting in the [[Greek colonisation|large-scale establishment of colonies]] elsewhere: according to one estimate, the population of the widening area of Greek settlement increased roughly tenfold from 800 BC to 400 BC, from 800,000 to as many as {{frac|7|1|2}}-10&nbsp;million.<ref>[http://www.umsystem.edu/upress/fall2006/hansen.htm Population of the Greek city-states] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070305112612/http://www.umsystem.edu/upress/fall2006/hansen.htm |date=5 March 2007 }}</ref> This was not simply for trade, but also to found settlements. These [[Greek colonies]] were not, as Roman colonies were, dependent on their mother-city, but were independent city-states in their own right.<ref name=BoardmanHammond-xiii>{{harvnb|Boardman|Hammond|1982|p=xiii}}</ref>
[[File:Greek Colonization Archaic Period.svg|thumb|upright=1.75|[[Greek colonisation|Ancient Greek colonies]]]]

Another reason was the strong economic growth with the consequent overpopulation of the motherland.<ref name="ragazzi"/> The terrain that some of these Greek city-states were in could not support a large city. Politics was also the reason as refugees from Greek city-states tended to settle away from these cities in the colonies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Descœudres |first=Jean-Paul |date=2013-02-04 |title=Greek colonization movement, 8th–6th centuries |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm260 |journal=The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration |doi=10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm260|isbn=9781444334890}}</ref>

Greeks settled outside of Greece in two distinct ways.  The first was in permanent settlements founded by the Greeks, which formed as independent poleis. The second form was in what historians refer to as ''[[emporium (antiquity)|emporia]]''; trading posts which were occupied by both Greeks and non-Greeks and which were primarily concerned with the manufacture and sale of goods.  Examples of this latter type of settlement are found at [[Al Mina]] in the east and [[Pithekoussai]] in the west.<ref>{{harvnb|Antonaccio|2007|p=203}}</ref>

From about 750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions.