The Hanseatic League of Northern Germany
Notes for a future study.
Contents:
1. Where is Sidon?
2. Sidon in Switzerland? Not likely, but perhaps of interest?
3. The Hanseatic League (1356-1862 CE) of Northern Europe
4. Phoenician Sidon in North Germany
5. Nordwestblock and Sidon
6. Theo Venneman and the Carthaginian Canaanites in Germany
7. Iben Ezra and the Canaanites in Germany Adjoining Returning Israelites in the End Times!
8. More Sources on the Hanseatic League
9. The Hanseatic League and Big German Money
10. Was Hamburg Originally Named after "Sidon"? Hamburg (Caudinge- "Sauding" -"Sidon"), Bremen, and Lubeck, Canninefates.
11. More Evidence of a Phoenician-Carthaginian Presence in Germany
"Shillings, gods and runes..." by Robert Mailhammer, Extracts:
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1. Where is Sidon?
Genesis 49:
13 Zebulun shall dwell on the Shores of the Sea; and He shall become a haven for ships, And his border shall adjoin Sidon.
The Phoenicians were a branch of the Canaanites. They dwelt along the coasts of what now are known as Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.The two chief cities of Phoenicia were Tyre (in Hebrew "Tsur") and Sidon (in Hebrew, "Tsidon"). The City of Tyre was probably the most important but Sidon was considered the "Mother" of Tyre.
The name Phoenicia is from the Greek and means "Red." The Edomites also have a name meaning "Red" and Edomites were considered to have helped found the city of Tyre and were part of the Phoenician complex.
The Phoenicians however considered themselves to be Canaanites and in their inscriptions that is how they referred to themselves.
The Prophecy of Jacob (Genesis 49:13) concerning Zebulon gives us Three main guiding points:
1. Dwell on the Shores of the Sea. This is what the Dutch do and they are the ONLY nation in the world that does it.
# Netherlands literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) above sea level, and nearly 17% falling below sea level. #
More than 50% of the population dwell on reclaimed sea-land in some for or other. The subsoil in most populated areas is sea -sand.
2. A Haven for Ships. The Dutch dwell on the shores of the sea and their chief cities are major ports for ships from all over the world.
# Rotterdam is Europe's largest seaport. In 2020, it had a population of 651,446 and is home to over 180 nationalities. #
The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside Asia
# In 2004 Shanghai took over as the world's busiest port. In 2006, Rotterdam was the world's seventh largest container port in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) handled.#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam
3. "His border shall adjoin Sidon" (Genesis 49:13). The Ancient Territory of the Tribe of Zebulon adjoined the Sea of Galilee though in some opinions (which we support) a strip of land pertaining to Zebulon extended to the Mediterranean Coast probably close to Sidon. At all events the main import of the Blessing in Genesis 49 pertained to the End Times.
cf.
Genesis (NKJV) 49:
1 And Jacob called his sons and said, 'Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:'
How could the prophecy "his border shall adjoin Sidon" apply in our time and be compactible with the identifying signs already noticed?
[ WE also have numerous proofs along the same lines as explained in related articles.]
[ In Northern Frisia the Geography of Ptolemy (ca. 100-170 CE) noted the presence of a people known as "Sebulingoi" i.e. "People of Zebulon!" ]
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2. Sidon in Switzerland? Not likely, but perhaps of interest?
Perhaps some area close to the Netherlands may be identifiable with "Sidon"?
In southwest Switzerland (canton of Valais) there is an area known as "Sion" and as "Sidon."
# Sion was the capital of the Seduni, one of the four Celtic tribes of the Valais. #
This may be a possibility but it is not exactly adjacent to the Netherlands and may not fit for other reasons.
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3. The Hanseatic League (1356-1962 CE) of Northern Europe
In our opinion the area of the former Hanseatic League in northern Germany adjoining the Netherlands is "Sidon" in our time.
The Hanseatic League (1356-1862 CE) was centered on the north German cities of Lubeck (east of Denmark), Hamburg (southwest of Denmark), and Bremen (west of Hamburg).
At one stage it had a membership of 200 cities and towns. It waged wars of its own at times being in conflict with Denmark and other principalities. IT HAD SOMETHING OF A MONOPOLIZING APPROACH TO TRADE WHICH CREATED FICTION. The Hanseatic League traded in copper, fish, flax, furs, grain, honey, iron, resin, salt, and textiles, among other goods. It had trade links ranging from Kievan Rus (Russia) through the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Britain.
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https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hanseatic_League
The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea, during the Late Middle Ages and Early modern period (circa thirteenth-seventeenth centuries). Rival cities cooperated within the League to defend themselves from pirates as well as to compete against larger economic powers. The League is widely regarded as a forerunner of the European Community both as a free trade zone and as an entity that had to balance the interests of the larger polity with the identities and interests of its members on the other. For almost four centuries, the League maintained its own military, an exchange mechanism, regulated tariffs and even had a Parliament (Diet, the Hansetage), although this met infrequently. There were also regional and district diets.
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In the 1400s all of Northern Europe suffered from a general decline in prosperity and the League along with it.
Bruges (Flanders, Belgium) and settlements in the Netherlands challenged the Hanseatic League 's monopolistic approach.
The herring trade, which had been one of the League's early monopolies, was lost to the Hansa because climate change caused the fish to change their spawning patterns, bringing them closer in proximity to the Netherlands and non-league merchants.
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The League's decline has been attributed to increased competition from England, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden as these states grew more powerful and to social unrest resulting from the Protestant Reformation.
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Eventually it disintegrated.
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# Of the nearly 200 cities and towns which once made up the league, only a handful remained and only three, Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, continued to honor the original alliance through the 19th century CE. The Hanseatic League was formally disbanded in 1862 CE. #
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4. Phoenician Sidon in North Germany
Parallels between the Hanseatic League and the Phoenicians have been remarked upon by others:
The Origin and Early History of Insurance: Including the Contract of Bottomry
By Charles Farley Trenerry
p.287
# Phoenicia was a combination of certain towns inhabited by people of the same blood, speaking the same language and having like trading interests. 3
3 # Cf. Similar combinations of settlements in the Island of Rhodes and in the Hanseatic League of the Netherlands cities in the 13th to 15th centuries
p. 290 The influence of the Phoenician skill in seafaring matters on Greece was so great that practically the whole of the maritime commerce of Classical Greece was based on the lines laid down by the Phoenicians to whom they owed, inter alia, their sailing charts (Berard, V), and astronomical knowledge for sailing by night.
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5. Nordwestblock and Sidon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordwestblock
# The Nordwestblock ("Northwest Block") is a hypothetical Northwestern European cultural region that several scholars propose as a prehistoric culture in the present-day Netherlands, Belgium, northern France, and northwestern Germany... possibly extending to the eastern part of what is now England during the Bronze and Iron Ages.... #
Tentatives dates ascribed it to ca. 3000 to 100 BCE.
# The theory was first proposed by two authors working independently: Hans Kuhn and Maurits Gysseling, whose proposal included research indicating that another language may have existed somewhere in between Germanic and Celtic in the Belgian region.The term Nordwestblock itself was coined by Hans Kuhn, who considered the inhabitants of the area neither Germanic nor Celtic and so attributed it to the people a distinct ethnicity or culture up to the Iron Age. #
Place-names considered typical of this area are similar to those of early Myceanean (or related) civilization in the Middle East.
An early French scholar independently noted some of these names in the area of Spain.
He suggested that they be considered Phoenician. The Phoenician-Canaanites as we know them spoke a Semitic dialect remotely similar to Hebrew.
His claim was that the "Semitic" tongue of the Phoenicians had been acquired by them from others and that their original speech had been of what we would now term a "Nordwestblock" type.
The Nordwestblock area overlaps both that of the Netherlands and of the Hanseatic League cities.
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6. Theo Venneman and the Carthaginian Canaanites in Germany
We also have studies of Theo Venneman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Vennemann
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasconic_substrate_hypothesis
Vennemann correctly noted that Hebrew is a substratum of Celtic Languages.
Hebrews were indeed in this area but so were Phoenicians and Carthaginians. The Carthaginian came from Carthage in North Africa. This city had been founded by Phoenicians led by Queen Dido (aka "Elissa") from Tyre.
# Punic, the Semitic language spoken in classical Carthage, is a superstratum of the Germanic languages. According to Vennemann, Carthaginians colonized the North Sea region between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC; this is evidenced by numerous Semitic loanwords in the Germanic languages as well as structural features such as strong verbs and similarities between Norse religion and Semitic religion. #
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Vennemann
Putting the Nordwestblock East Mediterranean and Original Phoenicians Proposal together with that of Venneman We get the idea of a group who had adopted a Semitic tongue but whose language still retained elements from their former one.
It is to be noted that the Prophet Amos ( 1:6, 8, 9, 19, 11 and 4:1-3 in the Hebrew ) describes Edomites, Philistines, and Phoenicians from Tyre as agents of the Assyrians in the Exile and re-settlement overseas of Israelites from the Ten Tribes. Phoenicians from Sidon may also have been involved and they settled in Northern Germany in the Hanseatic League region. Later the Tribe of Zebulon came and settled in the area with its border reaching unto that of Sidon.
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7. Iben Ezra and the Canaanites in Germany Adjoining Returning Israelites in the End Times!
The Medieval Commentator, Rabbi Abraham Iben Ezra (1088-1164) said (on Obadiah 1:20) that the Canaanites who fled from the Israelites under Joshua went to Germany.
Iben Ezra on the Biblical Book of Obadiah 1:20:
Obadiah (NASB) 1:
And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad Will possess the cities of the Negev.Alternate Translation. Obadiah (Yair Davidiy based on Rabbinical Commentaries) 1:
And this First Exile of the Children of Israel, Who stretch from the Canaanites as far as Zarephath...
Rabbi Avraham Iben Ezra (1089-1167):
" `..from the Canaanites': We have heard from great men that the Land of Allemagne [i.e.Germany] are the Canaanites who fled from before the children of Israel when they came into the land. So too, Zeraphath means France..."
It should also be mentioned that the German Province of Westphalia to the east and south of the Netherlands was in former times known as "the Country of Amor," and the name "Amor" was synonymous with Canaan.
"Wise One of the Mountain. Subterranean Smith : a Study in Folklore," by
Lotte Motz, 1983:
# We may note furthermore, a special set of laws, extant in two tenth-century manuscripts... The code itself does not name the tribe... but directs itself to the 'Franks who live in the country of Amor, who appear as neighbors of the Frisians and the Saxons. The laws are concerned, more than other Germanic codes, with the upkeep of bridges and of sluices, and we may understand that the laws deal with an area which lay open to inundation. The document further offers an impression of a population occupied, above all else, with the raising of domestic animals, such as cows and pigs. # This would be, I gather, 10th century Westphalia.
" The "Amori" (Amorites) were a branch of the Canaanites.Their name, Amorites," together with the name "Canaan," is used not only for a particular people mamong the Canaanites but also as a generic term for all of them (Genesis 15:16, 48:22, Deuteronomy 1:27, Joshua 24:8).
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8. More Sources on the Hanseatic League
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(a)
https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/a-medieval-european-union-why-the-hanseatic-league-still-matters/
For all the benefits that Hansa membership offered European traders, it's important to remember that these benefits weren't designed for everyone. The Hansa was not aiming to create a free trade utopia but rather to protect its privileges. Members used their collective power to try to negotiate the most favourable terms possible for trade in foreign markets, terms designed to give them an advantage over their rivals. The Hansa as a group could try to enforce its will by boycotting its enemies commercially, notably against Flanders in the 14th century. And if that didn't work, they sometimes resorted to force.
So merchants became not only traders but sometimes soldiers. A 19th-century historian of the Hansa, Helen Zimmern, wrote that in a typical Lubeck merchant's house it was usual to see helmet, armour and sword hanging up above stores of codfish, bales of herrings, casks of beer, bales of cloth, or what not besides.
But, during the Napoleonic invasions of German territory, the memory of the Hansa was revived as an ideal of robust Germanic independence. The Prussians and Nazis also attempted to exploit Hanseatic history as an example of Germanic racial expansion.
It is the purely economic achievements of the Hansa that are the focus today, as northern German towns and cities such as Lubeck, Bremen and Hamburg proudly proclaim their Hanseatic roots. The name lives on too in the German airline Lufthansa and the football team Hansa Rostock. And along the eastern Baltic coast the memory is still potent. In the Estonian capital, Tallinn, the Hanseatic past is celebrated through architecture and cuisine in a way shrewdly designed to appeal to German tourists.
Champions of the European Union have tried to celebrate the Hanseatic League as a kind of prototype version of continental unification. .
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(b)
There are opinions that Cities of the Hanseatic League gave rise to a liberal anti-Prussian attitude in Germany, see:
An Excerpt from:
The SS Brotherhood of the Bell: NASA's Nazis, JFK, and Majic-12
https://books.google.co.il/books?id=ycsmUU0DXhIC&pg=PA432&lpg=PA432&dq=hanseatic+league+and+nazis&source=bl&ots=g546VVO-O_&sig=ACfU3U1at9-iU_WVDK13mKI7Wi0_IaYsoA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPgNHgqqfqAhXM0KQKHfjyD2c4ChDoATAGegQIBxAB#v=onepage&q=hanseatic%20league%20and%20nazis&f=false
By Joseph P. Farrell
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(c)
Hitler's Stormtroopers and the Attack on the German Republic, 1919-1933, By Otis C. Mitchell
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(d)
PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY Nico Voigtlaender Hans-Joachim Voth
http://pinguet.free.fr/nber17113.pdf
We demonstrate that in our sample, persistence disappears for a subset of locations where the costs of discriminating
against outsiders was particularly high: Members of the Hanseatic League, which specialized in
long-distance trade, show no persistence of anti-Semitism. The same is true for towns and cities
that experienced high rates of population growth between the Middle Ages and the early 20th
century. This suggests that economic incentives as well as migration can overwhelm the
influence of local customs and beliefs.
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9. The Hanseatic League and Big German Money
There are opinions, see 8(d) above, that former Hanseatic League areas were more liberal and less "Nazi"-like than other places in Germany.
That may be so. These regions are closer to the Netherlands, to Britain, and France, and possibly influenced by them.
On the other hand these are also prosperous mercantile and industrial regions.
These are the ones who bankrolled Hitler, robbed Jewish dead, and made their fortunes from the suffering of other people all the while blaming the victim for their own vices.
See:
How Big Business Bailed Out the Nazis
by Ciara Torres-Spelliscy
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-big-business-bailed-out-nazis
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10. Was Hamburg Originally Named after "Sidon"? Hamburg (Caudinge- "Sauding" -"Sidon"), Bremen, and Lubeck. Cannenfates
The Hanseatic league at one stage had 200 member cities it was built around only three of them, Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck. These three cities still bear the term "Hanseatic" in their official names: the "Hanseatic City of Lubeck," "Free Hanseatic City of Bremen," and "Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg."
Though these locations were relatively close to each other attempts to find a common ethnic basis between them are not easy.
Lubeck to the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula (Denmark) seems to have been founded by the Obodrites. These were a Slavic People of the Wend family also known as "Sorbs" and distant relatives of the Serbians of Serbia. The Obodrites eventually adopted the German tongue and aspects of German Culture and considered themselves Germanic. The population of Lubeck is about 200,000. Though in a region that was strongly supportive of the Nazis, Lubeck was also the place where 3 Protestant Pastors and one Catholic priest defied the Nazis and were executed together. They are known as the "Lubeck Martyrs."
Hamburg is west of Lubeck, south of the Jutland Peninsula, and to the east of Bremen.
Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 7th largest city in the European Union with a population of over 1.84 million.
Historically Hamburg is built around a castle constructed in 808 CE by the Emperor Charlemagne.
Long before that however the Geographer Ptolemy (100 CE) may have registered a settlement by name CAUDINGE ON THE SITE OF HAMBURG!
This is to be seen on the Map based on Ptolemy of Scandinavia as interpreted by Marcus-Beneventanus (1460-1533).
https://www.sanderusmaps.com/our-catalogue/antique-maps/europe/northern-europe/old-antique-ptolemy-map-of-scandinavia-by-marcus-beneventanus-4035
see Illustration.
"Caudinge" is at the bottom of the picture besides the red dot.
The name Caudinge may have been pronounced as "Sauding" which is similar to the name "Sidon" or "Tsidon" as pronounced in Biblical Hebrew. The Hebrew letter "Ts" with which the name of Tsidon" begins is much harder than an "S." This would explain why Caudinge" begins with a "C." Not only that but in Hebrew-Aramaic dialects to the east and north of the center of Israel we find the "TS" letter exchanged for "K." The name "Netser" for instance with the "ts" (Tsere) letter is written as "NeKer." With this in mind it is quite clear that "Caudinge" could easily be a form of the name "Sidon."
The Saxons, Langobards (Lombards), Cauci were all in the region at different times. The city of Hamburg accepted the Lutheran Faith. Hamburg raised two military units to fight against Napoleon. They were the Hamburg Citizen Militia and the Hanseatic Legion. In Latin Hamburg is referred to as "Hammonia." Like the rest of German Hamburg supported the Nazis but liberal elements were also present and expressed themselves more freely that was acceptable inthe rest of Germany. Hamburg had been known as being relatively liberal in outlook and even "English" in type. When the Allies started their massive bombing campaign against German cities it was more common (than elsewhere) for the inhabitants of Hamburg to see it as Divine Retribution for what had been done to the Jews.
Bremen is, together with Oldenburg and Bremerhaven, part of the Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region, with 2.5 million people.
The first inhabitants of Bremen in the time of Charlemagne were Saxons. These were Germans and not necessarily related to the Angles and Saxons who dwelt more to the west and had different culture and customs.
Bremen and Hamburg are quite close and both occupy the ancient "CAUDINGE" region which may have been that of "Sidon." The asrea is also not far fromthe border with the Netherlands thus fulfilling the Prophecy concerning Zebulon "his border shall adjoin Sidon" (Genesis 49:13).
The inhabitants of Sidon of the Phoenicians considered themselves Canaanites. The Israelite Tribe of Asher received the regions of both Tyre and Sidon on the Phoenican coast but apparently did not replace all the native Canaanite inhabitants. In "The Tribes" we traced Clans of the Israelite Tribe of Asher to the Vandals and other peoples. We noticed groups with names recalling "Sidon" in their proximity e.g. Sedussi (Seduci), Sidini, Sidones. This too may link up with Zebulon and the Netherlands.
Another link of Zebulon and the Netherlands with Canaanites may involve the Cananefates. The name, "Cananefates," says Wikipedia, is said to mean "leek masters."
"Apparently, the name had its origins in the fact that the Cananefates lived on sandy soils that were considered excellent for growing Alliums such as leeks and onions."
"They were a Germanic tribe, who lived in the Rhine delta, in western Batavia (later Betuwe), in the Roman province of Germania Inferior (now in the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland), before and during the Roman conquest."
The Cananefates shared an island with the Batavi and served as mercenary auxiliary troops in Roman armies. In some accounts the Cananifates and Batavi laid the foundations for what later became the Netherlands Nation.
The name of the Cananefates in Latin could also connote "League of Canaanites."
The Batavi were often referred to in old writings as "Bethaven" which was another name for the settlements of Beth-el in Ancient Israel. In Biblical times "Beth-el " was actually the name given to two separate communities both alongside each other. One was in the territory of Benjamin and the other in that of Ephraim. In our own time the Jews established a township in the area named "Bait-el" i.e. "Beth-el." This settlement later split into two relatively large and succesful neighboring communities known as "Beit-el-A" (Aleph) and "Beit-el-B" (Bet).
11. More Evidence of a Phoenician-Carthaginian Presence in Germany
Important New Article forwarded by AnaRina Heymann
"Shillings, gods and runes: clues in language suggest a Semitic superpower in ancient northern Europe
https://theconversation.com/shillings-gods-and-runes-clues-in-language-suggest-a-semitic-superpower-in-ancient-northern-europe-139381
by Robert Mailhammer, Associate Dean, Research, Western Sydney University
Extracts:
The city of Carthage, in modern-day Tunisia, was founded in the 9th century BCE by the Phoenicians. The Carthaginian Empire took over the Phoenician sphere of influence, with its own sphere of influence from the Mediterranean in the east to the Atlantic in the west and further into Africa in the south. The empire was destroyed in 146 BCE after an epic struggle against the Romans.
By studying the origin of key Germanic words and other parts of Germanic languages, Theo Vennemann and I have found traces of such a physical presence, giving us a completely new understanding of the influence of this Semitic superpower in northern Europe.
In antiquity, coins were used in the Mediterranean. One major coin minted in Carthage was the shekel, the current name for currency of Israel. We think this is the historical origin of the word 'shilling' because of the specific way the Carthaginians pronounced 'shekel', which is different from how it is pronounced in Hebrew.
The pronunciation of Punic can be reasonably inferred from Greek and Latin spellings, as the sounds of Greek and Latin letters are well known. Punic placed a strong emphasis on the second syllable of shekel and had a plain 's' at the beginning, instead of the 'esh' sound in Hebrew.
But to speakers of Proto-Germanic - who normally put the emphasis on the first syllable of words, it would have sounded like 'skel'. This is exactly how the crucial first part of the word 'shilling' is constructed. The second part, '-(l)ing', is undoubtedly Germanic. It was added to express an individuating meaning, as in Old German silbarling, literally 'piece of silver'.
This combining of languages in one word shows early Germanic people must have been familiar with Punic.
One area of Carthage leadership was agricultural technology. Our work traces the word 'plough' back to a Punic verb root meaning 'divide'. Importantly, 'plough'was used by Proto-Germanic speakers to refer to a more advanced type of plough than the old scratch plough, or ard.
This new evidence suggests many early Germanic people learnt Punic and worked for the Carthaginians, married into their families, and had bilingual and bicultural children.
When Carthage was destroyed this connection was eventually lost. But the traces of this Semitic superpower remain in modern Germanic languages, their culture and their ancient letters.