Draft:Hellenization of Anatolia

The Hellenization of Anatolia (c. 8th - 1st centuries BCE) was a largely peaceful process whereby the native populations of Anatolia became gradually Hellenized. The first Greek settlements in Anatolia originated in the 11th century BCE, and what followed was a diffusion of Hellenistic culture and religion into inner Anatolia.

Origins
The first properly Greek settlements in Anatolia originated shortly after the end of the Bronze age, around the 11th century BCE. Mycenaean settlements at Halicarnassus, Miletus, and Colophon existed before this, but Mycenaean colonization in the region was sporadic at best and not on the same scale as the later Greek colonization of Anatolia. These initial posts in the 2nd millenium BCE, however, were less colonies in the traditional sense and more akin to the factories of the Age of Exploration; that is, that they were trading posts initally established to conduct trade with Anatolian locals. By the beginning of the Archaic period, settlement of Anatolia had begun to grow at a quick rate, and proper colonies in the traditional sense were established in the form of predominantly Greek city-states (πόλεις, póleis). Extensive trade between mainland Greece and the Hellenistic portions of Anatolia was underway by the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, with fish, grain, timber, metal, and often slaves being exported from the land. The colonization of Anatolia by was likely originally motivated by a rapidly growing population density in mainland Greece.

Spread of Hellenistic culture
In ancient literature, the spread of Hellenistic culture in Anatolia is often portrayed much more violently than it might have actually happened. More probably than not, the spread of Hellenistic culture, religion, and ideas in Anatolia was a peaceful process of cultural contact. It was also probably not an immediate change, but rather a diffusion of ideas brought over by Greek traders and settlers.