History of The Republic of Venice - 15th Century

15th Century

In the early 15th century, the Venetians also began to expand in Italy, as well as along the Dalmatian coast from Istria to Albania, which was acquired from King Ladislaus of Naples. Venice installed nobility to govern the area, for example, Count Filippo Stipanov in Zara. This move by the Venetians was as a response to the threatening expansion of Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. Control over the north-east main land routes was also a necessity for the safety of the trades. By 1410, Venice had a navy of 3,300 ships (manned by 36,000 men) and taken over most of Venetia, including such important cities as Verona and Padua.

The situation in Dalmatia had been settled in 1408 by a truce with King Sigismund of Hungary. At its expiry, Venice immediately invaded the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and subjected Traù, Split, Durazzo and other Dalmatian cities. The difficulties of Hungary allowed the Republic to consolidate its Adriatic dominions.

Under doge Francesco Foscari (1423–57) the city reached the height of its power and territorial extension. In 1425 a new war broke out, this time against Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan. The victory at the Battle of Maclodio of Count of Carmagnola, commander of the Venetian army, the shift of the western border from the Adige to the Adda. However, the territorial expansion was not welcome everywhere in Venice; tension with Milan remained high, and in 1446 the Republic had to fight another league, formed by Milan, Florence, Bologna and Cremona. After an initial Venetian victory under Micheletto Attendolo at Casalmaggiore, however, Visconti died and in Milan a republic was declared. The Serenissima had then free ground to occupy Lodi and Piacenza, but was halted by Francesco Sforza; later, Sforza and the Doge allied to allow him the rule of Milan, in exchange of the cession of Brescia and Vicenza. Venice, however, again changed side when the power of Sforza seemed to became excessive: the intricate situation was settled with the Peace of Lodi (1454), which confirmed the area of Bergamo and Brescia to the Republic. At this time, the territories under the Serenissima included much of the modern Veneto, Friuli, the provinces of Bergamo, Cremona and Trento, as well as Ravenna, Istria and Dalmatia. Eastern borders were with the county of Gorizia and the ducal lands of Austria, while in the south was the Duchy of Ferrara. Oversea dominions included Euboea and Egina.

On May 29, 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, but Venice managed to maintain a colony in the city and some of the former trade privileges it had had under the Byzantines. Indeed, in 1454, the Ottomans granted the Venetians their ports and trading rights. Despite the recent Ottoman defeats against John Hunyadi of Hungary and Scanderbeg in Albania, war was however unavoidable. In 1463 the Venetian fortress of Argos was ravaged. Venice set up an alliance with Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and attacked the Greek islands by sea and Bulgaria by land. Both fronts however saw the allies forced to retreat, after several minor victories. Operations were reduced mostly to isolated ravages and guerrilla attacks, until the Ottomans moved a massive counteroffensive in 1470: this had Venice lose its main stronghold in the Aegean Sea, Negroponte. The Venetians sought an alliance with the Shah of Persia and other European powers, but, received only limited support, could make only small-scale attacks at Antalya, Halicarnassus and Smirne. However, the Ottomans conquered the Peloponnesus and launched an offensive in Venetian mainland, closing in on the important centre of Udine. The Persians, together with the Caramanian amir, were severely defeated at Terdguin, and the Republic was left alone. Further, much of Albania went lost after Scanderbeg's death. However, the heroic resistance of Scutari under Antonio Loredan forced the Ottomans to retire from Albania, while a revolt in Cyprus gave back the island to the Cornaro family and, subsequently, to the Serenissima (1473). Its prestige seemed reassured, but Scutari fell anyway two years later, and Friuli was again invaded and ravaged. On January 24, 1479, a treaty of peace was finally signed with the Ottomans. Venice had to cede Argo, Negroponte, Lemnos and Scutari, and pay an annual tribute of 10,000 golden ducati. Five years later the agreement was confirmed by Mehmed II's successor, Bayezid II, with the peaceful exchange of the islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia between the two sides.

In 1482 Venice allied with Pope Sixtus IV in his attempt to conquer Ferrara, opposed to Florence, Naples, Milan and Ercole d'Este (see War of Ferrara). When Papal-Venetian milices were smashed at the Battle of Campomorto, Sixtus changed side. Again alone, the Venetians were defeated in the Veronese by Alfonso of Calabria, but conquered Gallipoli, in Puglia, by sea. The balance was changed by Ludovico Sforza of Milan, who passed on the side of Venice: this led to a quick peace, which was signed near Brescia on 7 August 1484. In spite of the numerous setbacks suffered in the campaign, Venice obtained the Polesine and Rovigo, and increased its prestige in the Italian peninsula, at the expense of Florence especially. In the late 1480s, Venice fought two brief campaigns against the new Pope Innocent VIII and Sigismund of Austria. Venetian troops were also present at the Battle of Fornovo, which saw the Italian League against Charles VIII of France. Alliance with Spain/Aragon in the following reconquest of the Kingdom of Naples granted it the control of the Apulian ports, important strategic bases commanding the lower Adriatic and the Ionian islands.

Despite the setbacks in the struggle against the Turks, at the end of 15th century, with 180,000 inhabitants, Venice was the second largest city in Europe after Paris and probably the richest in the world. The territory of the Republic of Venice extended over approximately 70,000 km2 (27,000 sq mi) with 2.1 million inhabitants (for a comparative example in the same time England hosted 3 million, the whole of Italy 11, France 13, Portugal 1.7, Spain 6, Germany/Holy Roman Empire 10).

Administratively the territory was divided in three main parts:

1. the Dogado (literally the territory under the Doge) comprising the islets of the city and the original lands around the lagoon;
2. the Stato da Mar (the Sea State) comprising Istria, Dalmatia, the Albanian coasts, the Apulian ports, the Venetian Ionian Islands, Crete, the Aegean Archipelago, Cyprus and many fortress and commercial colonies in the major cities and ports around south-east Europe and the Middle East;
3. the Stato di Terraferma (the Mainland State) comprising Veneto, Friuli, Venetia Iulia, East Lombardy and Romagna.

In 1485, the French ambassador, Philippe de Commines, wrote of Venice,