ABSTRACT
The Iberian Peninsula, in the phase between the establishment ofthe Phoenician colonies (eighth century BC) and the Roman conquest (second century BC), affords us the opportunity to examine the effects of a dominant external economy upon an indigenous population. Scholars have, in the past, chosen to view the Iberian culture in this light, as a product of Greek and Phoenician influence. The settlers often remained culturally distinct, in stark contrast to the natives who began to adopt the trappings of colonial culture. The premise of this chapter is that the development of colonial settlement had important consequences for Iberian society. The growth of trade fostered aristocratic prosperity and led to the creation of Iberian communities which remained socially and politically independent of their colonial neighbours. Marginalized by the Iberian aristocracy, commercial contact with the colonial world was important and profitable, not merely to the colonists but also to the Iberians.
