Relationships
Relationships between the maritime republics originates from their nature of commerce oriented States. These relationships concerned political or economical agreements, aimed at reciprocal profit gain from a trade route or to decide not to hinder reciprocally.
However, often the competition for the trade routes control with the East and in the Mediterranean sparked rivalries that could not be settled on diplomatic grounds and there were several clashes among the maritime republics.
Read more about this topic: Maritime Republics