15. A Disaster Followed by a Power Vacuum
In addition to the immediate devastation of Thera and nearby islands, the eruption produced powerful tsunamis that devastated Crete. That contributed to the decline of the island’s Minoan civilization, and paved the way for its extinction. At the time, the Minoans were the Mediterranean’s greatest naval power, as well as the dominant power of the Aegean, including what became Greece and the Greek world. A trading power, the Minoans were oriented towards Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean, and were strongly influenced by those civilizations. While the Minoans flourished, the Aegean world in their thrall was by necessity oriented in the same direction, and strongly influenced by the Egyptian and eastern civilizations as well. The Thera eruption weakened Crete and the Minoans so much that a power vacuum was created in the Aegean. It was filled by the emerging Mycenaeans in mainland Greece.
