Why did the Phoenicians turn to the sea to make a living?

Answer 1

Land transport was prohibitively slow and expensive. A couple of draft animals would eat out the cargo they were transporting in 1 ton carts within a week, and would only move 150 km. So for the Phoenicians, with no mechanical or air transport, had no option but to use high-capacity, relatively fast sea transport.

Answer 2

The Phoenicians tuned to the sea because their limited land could not support an expanding population, and they either had to seize other peoples' land or trade. They selected trade.

It had to be by sea as in an era of 1 ton carts for land transport, anything over 100 km was prohibitive - the draught animals would eat the equivalent of the load.

Answer 3

One major reason is that the land around their towns was not especially good for farming; they had to supplement their farm efforts with fishing.

Once you have fishing boats, it's a small step to sailing to other towns and cities to and swapping what you've got for whatever THEY have. The value of anything depends on where it is, and how scarce it is; take stuff that you have lots of, to a place that doesn't have much, and profit! It probably took a century for the Phoenicians to develop their legendary skills as sailors and navigators, but nobody else in the Mediterranean was doing it.

Answer 4

BECAUSE they dont have enough water to plant! or they have a arid and hilly land!