Why did Carthage collapse?

This video is made in collaboration with Wild Scientias. Consider checking out his channel and also subscribe if you find his content interesting. The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of northwest Africa, in what is now Tunisia, as one of a number of Phoenician settlements. Carthage, unlike Rome, did not concentrate on conquering lands adjacent to the city prior to embarking on overseas ventures. Her dependence on trade and focus on protecting that trade network saw the evolution of an overseas hegemony before Carthage pushed inland to Africa. There was conflict between Carthage and the Greeks. This was due to economic factors. Every party tried to extend their own area of influence and trade. The Carthaginian Empire became the strongest power of the western Mediterranean. But in the next centuries, the rivalry with the emerging Romans will lead to their collapse after a series of wars. Considering their huge naval and trade power in the region, how did the Romans manage to conquer them? Long story short, political errors, military defeats, losing control of Mediterranean Sea, and the stubbornness of Rome to emerge as a political and military power in the region. The emergence of the Roman Republic led to sustained rivalry with the more anciently established Carthage. The island of Sicily, lying at Carthage's doorstep, became the arena in which this conflict played out. The First Punic War began in 264 BC with the Roman conquest of the Carthaginian-controlled city of Messina in Sicily, thus granting Rome a military foothold on the island. After defeating the Carthaginian fleet and forcing the troops on Sicily to give up, a peace treaty was signed in which Sicily was annexed as a Roman province. Even though Carthage lost the First War, it was still a power and its anger will be expressed in the Second Punic War. The rivalry continued between the two forces and the tensions escalated in a new conflict in 219 BC when the war began with the Carthaginian general Hannibal's conquest of the pro-Roman Iberian city of Saguntum, prompting a Roman declaration of war on Carthage in the spring of 218 BC. This was regarded by ancient historians as the greatest war in history for that period. It was waged with unparalleled resources, skill, and hatred. Hannibal, being considered one of the greatest generals of the ancient world, surprised the Romans by marching his huge army directly to the Roman mainland. During the Second Punic War, Hannibal famously led an army of war elephants across the Alps, although many of them perished in the harsh conditions. The surviving elephants were successfully used in the Battle of Trebia, where they panicked the Roman cavalry and Gallic allies. The Romans eventually developed effective anti-elephant tactics, leading to Hannibal's defeat at his final Battle of Zama in 202 BC. His elephant charge, unlike the one at the Battle of Tunis, was ineffective because the disciplined Roman soldiers simply made way for them to pass. The war elephants' main use was to charge the enemy, breaking their ranks and instilling terror among the soldiers due to their dimensions, sounds, and effectiveness. They played a critical role in several key battles in Antiquity. More details about them will be presented by Wild Scientius. This applies specifically to the elephant's scientific genus name, Eliphos. In Greek linguistics, Eliphos represents an antlered beast or stag. The roots of the word elephant in Latin is divided into two words, ele, which means arch, and phant, which means huge. Thousands of years ago, an elephant-like creature called the woolly mammoth roamed Earth. Except for fossilized bones and remains found trapped in ice, it's now gone. Modern elephants and woolly mammoths share a common ancestor that lived about 6 million years ago. Exactly how and when the species split over time, though, hasn't been clear. Now, researchers are using modern techniques to piece together ancient elephant history. The difference suggests that African elephants were the first modern species to split from the main branch of the elephant family tree. Asian elephants and woolly mammoths branched off about 440,000 years later, the scientists say. In other words, Asian elephants are more closely related to mammoths than are African elephants. The African elephant, Loxodonta, appeared about 1.5 million years ago. It is the newest elephant species in evolutionary terms and differs from the Asian elephant in its larger size and the fact that both male and females have tusks. The largest of all the elephants is the savannah or bush elephant, Loxodonta africana. The best word to describe African elephants is huge. The larger species can grow over 13 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh 13,000 pounds or more. They have a long prehensile nose called a trunk. This trunk has two lips on the end that allow it to very carefully grasp items. There is also a much smaller forest elephant called Loxodonta cyclotus which inhabits the equatorial rainforests of west and central Africa. They tend to have small rounded ears and darker skin. Interbreeding occurs between the savannah and forest elephants in areas where the two habitats meet. At one time, African elephants inhabited the whole of the African continent. Now they are found only south of the Sahara due to shrinking habitat and the effects of man's presence. Another interesting evolutionary feature of elephants, particularly relevant to African elephants, is their infrasonic hearing and moaning. This ability to hear sound waves below our own hearing level is a crucial means of communication for elephants out on the wide open plains. It allows them to talk to each other without alerting predators to their position. Through Hannibal's inability to take strategically important Italian cities, through the general loyalty Italian allies showed to Rome, and through Rome's own inability to counter Hannibal as a master general, Hannibal's campaign continued in Italy inconclusively for 16 years. Though he managed to sustain his forces for 15 years, Hannibal did so only by ravaging farmlands, keeping his army healthy, which brought anger among the Roman subject states. Realizing that Hannibal's army was outrunning its supply lines quickly, Rome took countermeasures against Hannibal's home base in Africa by sea command and stopped the flow of supplies. Hannibal quickly turned back and rushed to home defense, but suffered defeat in the Battle of Zama. After this conflict, Carthage was no longer a big power. They lost control of Iberia and of some territories in northern Africa. In the years between the Second and Third Punic War, Rome was engaged in the conquest of the Hellenistic Empires and also of the Illyrian tribes to the east and suppressing the Hispanic peoples in the west, although they had been essential to the Roman success in the Second Punic War. Carthage, stripped of allies and territory, Sicily, Sardinia, Hispania, was suffering under a large indemnity of 200 silver talents to be paid every year for 50 years. Due to Carthaginian failure to attack Rome and to win the Second Punic War, they suffered a huge decline of power. Debts and internal struggle made the situation worse. The resurgence of the struggle can be explained by growing anti-Roman agitations in Hispania and Greece and the visible improvement of Carthaginian wealth and power in the 50 years since the Second War. Carthage had no military after the last war and suffered raids from its neighbor, Numidia. Under the terms of the treaty with Rome, such disputes were arbitrated by the Roman Senate. Because Numidia was a favored client state of Rome, Roman rulings were slanted heavily in favor of the Numidians. After some 50 years of this condition, Carthage had managed to discharge its war indemnity to Rome and considered itself no longer bound by the restrictions of the treaty, although Rome believed otherwise. This started the next conflict. Carthage recreated an army to repel Numidian forces. Numidia defeated them and again the Mediterranean power had to pay debts. This newfound Punic militarism alarmed many Romans. But Rome was expanding. In 149 BC, in an attempt to draw Carthage into open conflict, Rome made a series of escalating demands, one being the surrender of 300 children of the nobility as hostages, and finally ending with the near impossible demand that the city be demolished and rebuilt away from the coast, deeper into Africa. When the Carthaginians refused this last demand, Rome declared the Third Punic War. Having previously relied on mercenaries to fight their wars for them, the Carthaginians were now forced into a more active role in the defense of their city. It's believed that they made thousands of weapons in a short time. They were able to hold off the initial Roman attack. A second offensive resulted in a three-year siege before he breached the walls, sacked the city, and systematically burned Carthage to the ground in 146 BC. When the war ended, the remaining 50,000 Carthaginians, a small part of the original pre-war population, were sold into slavery by the victors. Carthage was systematically burned for 17 days. The city's walls and buildings were utterly destroyed. The remaining Carthaginian territories were annexed by Rome and reconstituted to become the Roman province of Africa. The Third Punic War involved an extended siege of Carthage, ending in the city's thorough destruction. A century later, the site of Carthage was rebuilt as a Roman city by Julius Caesar, and would later become one of the main cities of Roman Africa. If you want to see more videos, be sure to subscribe to our channel and press the bell button in order to be notified when a new video is uploaded. We would like to give special thanks to our generous supporters on Patreon, who make it possible to create these videos. Thanks for watching and see you next time.