A brief history of Mediterranean migration

This brief study relies on two key words:‘Mediterranean’and ‘migration’. As regards the Mediterranean region, reference will be made in general to the countries with access to that sea, but whose borders and zones of influence have frequently changed, also significantly, in the course of history. We shall therefore have to use highly elastic geographical references, considering Europe (or part of it), a Middle-Eastern area of varying dimensions, and northern Africa. As regards migration, the first distinction will be between historical and modern migrations: in the former case, we shall refer to those which modified the territorial order, and which over the centuries (and the millennia) have assumed very different connotations. Moreover, we shall distinguish invasions from colonizations: in all cases, however, they involved peoples in search of new territories which were already inhabited. With the migrations that we shall call ‘modern’, even if mass migrations, migratory projects have concerned individual families (or persons) in search of a better life. The analysis conducted in sections 2 to 4 will not necessarily follow a historical sequence. Our objective will be to identify some critical junctures with significant influences on the history of the region, and sometimes on that of humanity as a whole. We shall seek to show their causes by referring to factors of both expulsion and attraction. We will also look for possible similarities with modern migrations, and particularly with those currently changing, once again, the image of the world and the peoples that inhabit it.