History of Venice

Venice  is  a city that rose to become a powerful State for over one Millennium, and it is at the same time the only city in the world which lives on water.

Venice fought battles against  big powers like the Franks, the Turks and the Genoese and extended its control all the way down the Adriatic Sea.

But how did such a small city become so powerful?

After the end of the Roman Empire, Northern Italy was invaded by the barbarians, and the people who lived near the Venetian lagoon sought safety among the inhabited islets, deserting the mainland in order to escape devastations.

Thanks to their unquenchable will and desperate need to survive they were able to dig canals and use the material thus excavated to raise the level of the islets, consolidating their work by driving in wooden piles, on which they built durable dwelling of bricks.

The lagoonar Venice was subjected to the Eastern Empire and Byzantine domination, from which it escaped little by little , enlarging progressively its autonomy and settling down a firm regulation, essential for the development of their future fortune.

Venice rose from the water spreading on an archipelago of about 200 islets, all joined by bridges thrown over a thick web of canals which dictated the seafaring life of the inhabitants and in the same way also the disposition and stylistic conception of their dwellings.

For their own means of subsistence, the Venetians turned elsewhere, first they sailed along the rivers inside the Veneto mainland, selling or bartering their only product, salt, which was nevertheless a prime need for everybody.

Soon they were able to develop an active trade with their neighbours, and later it was the control of the Adriatic sea to become essential for their seafaring, thus for their very existence.

When the Venetians started to trade down the Adriatic sea, they faced danger from the Slavonic attacking their merchant ships, thus damaging their vital activity, the trade.

Through payment of tributes it was possible to ensure a safety to the sea trade in the Adriatic. Later the Venetians engaged a fight against the slave pirates, and the dalmatic people acknowledged to Venice a kind of protectorate, which very soon became a real domination.

Giants of that time could not accept such a small city-state settled inside their possession and tried to trap her from any side to prevent her from acquiring fabulous riches through her ability in trading.

At the beginning of the 9th century Venice had to face the menace of the Franks who wanted to annex that territory. The Venetians were not numerous but fiercely resolute to face the Frankish fleet. They possessed an only defensive weapon: their formidable mastery of their waters.

When the Frankish fleet appeared at large the Venetians sent a small fleet to diverse and molest the enemy and to keep them engaged in the open sea. After few hours they simulated a flight pursued by the gigantic enemy galleys, but after entering the lagoon the situation changed dramatically: while the small and agile boats of the Venetians could be manoeuvred easily, the huge galleys of the Franks were trapped and stranded as the tide ebbed away.

After the attack of the threat of the Franks, Rialto became the administrative and government centre of the city.

The relics of St. Mark were brought to the town and the subsequent building of the Basilica made Rialto the centre of civil and religious Venetian life.

At the beginning of the 11th century Venice was already mistress of the Adriatic.

Venice showed formidable diplomatic skill maintaining relations and trade with Byzantium even when it was at war with the Arabs, who were the masters of the Mediterranan and of the routes to the far East, the profitable ways of the silk and spices.

They shaped a community of prince-merchants, clever in their dealing, shrewd administrators, skilled navigators, valiant commanders and soldiers, bold explorers, subtle ambassadors and diplomats.

Venetians were driven by a passionate love of their city-state and were very proud to be Venetians.

Venetians tried to prevent tyranny not only by force but through power limitation of their own leader. The doge was a constitutional leader, symbol of the state, who represented the Venetians and could not become an autocrat.

Around the year 1100 the doge and his judges founded a Major Council to prevent the raising of a personal power. The office of the Doge  was seen not like a personal propriety, but as a public one. He became simply a magistrate, although first among all others.

The political power was kept within the great original families who, while enjoying such honour, ought to stand also the heavy weight of it, and meet squarely their responsibilities. No social grade distinguished the Venetians, only their different luck and wealth.

The only title of which they were extremely proud was “noble man” and Venetian patrician. At the end of 13th Century each patrician at 25 years of age entered by right and by duty the Major Council, thus had the obligation to undertake any task assigned to him, which might be very heavy and which he could not refuse.

The dedication to the public duties was total, the honour and the love for their town, above everything. The ambassadors received from the Senate a derisive salary which was not even sufficient to pay their own house-servant, so that they used not only the personal wealth but the riches of all the family to face everything ,and the expenses sometimes were so huge that all the family was reduced to poverty.

Venice traded along the rivers in the Veneto mainland and the coastal shores of the Adriatic sea but very important for Venice was the overseas trade, so it was essential to defend its routes. Byzantium gave ample customs exemption in those regions which where under Byzantine control.

It was with the fourth crusade that the Republic could build its powerful maritime empire, reaching the merchant supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Venetians took the obligation of transporting the crusaders to the Holy Land, in exchange for the  help  of the Church in the re-conquest of Zara. Constantinople fell in crusader hands and Venice acquired many lands useful to its trading.

In the 1300 Venice was compelled to fight against Genoa, as both these seafaring Republics were aspiring the control of the trading with the East. Genoa was defeated and left Venice ready for its glorious four hundred’s expansion.

In their dealing, the Venetians traded in anything that came they way, thereby inducing other people to come out of their narrow autarchic economic system and produce more for trading. Everywhere they went, they established permanent connections and found great trading houses, called fondacos, which were often where they had their merchant centres, and where rose the famous fairs.

They traded in almost every commodity, from the lead, copper, silver of central Europe, to skin, leather, fur and amber of the North, and to the pepper, spices, perfumes dyestuff, pearls, precious stones, cotton, silk and slaves from the East.

Manufactured goods were too expensive to import, and as early as the 9th Century Venetians selected groups of Byzantine artists and craftsmen who were invited to Venice to pass their skill to a real army of Venetians, who afterwards became extremely skilled goldsmiths, glassblowers, mosaicists, ebonists, stone-cutters, carvers, weavers of silks, damasks and especially of those veils laminated in gold and silver, so sought after in the Levant.

Another lucrative activity was established: the finishing of rough fabrics and woollen cloth woven in central Europe, especially in Flanders. In Venice they were clipped, cleaned, softened and coloured so as to be transformed into those splendid thick woollen cloths so much prized in Middle East.

Venetians favoured in every kind their own economic development, with a series of legislative and military orders, by which Venice was imposed as privileged commercial port serving all the Adriatic sphere. By the 14th and 15th century Venice had become a great and rich Power and a very active trading centre, the real key of the Eastern and Mediterranean merchant seafaring.

In the 13th century more than two hundred palaces had already rose along the Grand Canal alone, but also on the shore of minor canals were built majestic and refined buildings. Not only did the Venetian ply the routes of the spices and silk, unceasingly transporting anything for third parties without discrimination, but from their journeys besides precious merchandise, they brought carved marble, columns and masterpieces of art that happened to fall into their hands to contribute the embellishment of the palaces that they were building.

At the beginning of the four hundreds Venice was at the top of the power, besides the sea lordship, she had started to build up her land-dominion over the cities of Treviso, Belluno, Bassano, Verona, Vicenza, Padova and Udine.

The world events of the 1400's marked the beginning of the decline of the Republic of  Venice. In 1453  Constantinople was seized by the Turks , the new world was discovered by Columbus in 1492, and in 1497 the opening of the way to India by Vasco Da Gama  deprived her for good of her merchant supremacy.

In spite of Constantinople fall, Venice was able to keep her own colony in that great town, but then was compelled to pay tributes to the Turks for permission to trade.

From then until the 18th century Venice lived a slow decline caused mainly by the continual wars with the Turks, loss of lands and troubles caused by various European alliances hostile to her.

The limitation of Venice in front of the development of the modern states like France and Spain caused her to remain as far as possible out of the European events, and keeping her own institutional and social order. At the beginning of the 16th century the Pope excommunicated the Republic because it wanted to control it, pirates attacked the city and in 1630-1 the plague worsened the situation.

During the 17th century Venice lost really her authority as a merchant intermediary of the Mediterranean and was reduced simply to a regional port. Her small forces were overcome by the Turkish hordes, who destroyed forever her mercantile empire.

In the 18th the Venetians threw themselves into a frivolous, thoughtless life, as to distract themselves from all thought on impeding catastrophe, the arts that always flourished, protected and supported, had a real magnificent explosion in all their fields. And this was also the century in which  reformations plans in all directions were discussed.

At the end of the 18th century Italy became a field for the French-Austrian war and on 12 may 1797 the Napoleonic army entered Venice and the Major Council abdicated its power, accepting a temporary democratic government.

The treaty of Campo Formio of 17 October 1797 put and end to the French –Austrian war and granted the Austrians the territory of the Republic.

At the beginning of 1806 the Veneto was attached to the Italian Kingdom, but it became again an Austrian province through the Vienna congress until 1866 when at the end of the third independence war, was finally Italian land.

Napoleonic and Austrians occupation caused despoliations and destructions to the Venetian fortunes. Rare art pieces, jewellery , enormous riches were stolen by the occupants.

The glorious insularity of Venice ended with the construction of a bridge to the mainland, which initially was only for trains (1846), and then also for cars (1932).

In Venice there are still beautiful palaces, churches and art masterpieces, and the city maintains a unique charm, appreciated every year by 15 million tourists.