City of Venice - Home - City of Venice - History and curiosities upon


Main Website	General Index	Feedbacks	Link to us

HISTORY OF VENICE Chronology
THE ORIGINS
	In the 1st century BC, the name Venetia designated an administrative region within the Roman Empire, including the present Veneto, Friuli and Trentino areas. In 568 the Lombards encroached from the north and between the 6th and 7th centuries the population of the Veneto (by now a province of Byzantium) was pushed back to the coast and the islands. Conventional wisdom has it that Venice was founded by these forced migrants, but some now think it was already a flourishing Roman port well before then. No one knows for sure.
330	Transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople.
306-37	Reign of Costantine
401	Start of the barbarian invasions.
493-553	The Ostrogoth kings rule in Northern Italy.
554	Justinian, the Byzantine Emperor restores imperial authority on the peninsula with Ravenna as capital.
697	Election of first Doge.
TOWARDS POLITICAL AUTONOMY
	In the 7th century, the Christian patriarch resided at Grado and the Byzantine administration at Heracleia; the latter subsequently moved to Malamocco. Those inhabiting the Lagoon began to elect their own governors, though the links with Byzantium were still close and the Byzantine fleet defended them when the Franks invaded in . A pact was made with the Franks and the Lagoon was confirmed as part of the Byzantine Empire.
727-8	Revolt against Byzantium in Italy.
751	The Lombards occupy Ravenna.
800	Charlemagne is crowned Emperor in Rome.
809	Pepin's attack on Venice.
THE BIRTH OF A STATE
	At the same time, the elected governor - or Doge, from the Latin dux, or leader - left Malamocco for Rivoaltus in the heart of the Lagoon. The archipelago came under the religious authority of Aquileia, and found itself again threatened with Frankish domination. Invigorated by this psychological coup, the Realtine Islands achieved religious independence from Grado and established political autonomy. St Mark's emblem, the lion, became the symbol of the new state, and the first stable forms of government were put in place. By the 10^th century, the city of Venice had emerged.
828	Two merchants from Torcello stole the body of St Mark the Evangelist in Alexandria and brought it home. St Mark became the patron saint of Venice.
936	Otto I is crowned Emperor. Italy is assimilated with Germany.
960	Dalmatians raid Venice.
976	Basilica burnt
997	War against Dalmatians.
997	The Wedding of Venice to the Sea.
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
	Venice was soon dealing with its former Byzantine masters on equal terms. In return for her financial and military support in the struggle against Islam and the Normans, Venice received commercial advantages in the Byzantine controlled Orient. Her influence soon spread along the Dalmatian coast, and her war galleys dominated the Adriatic. Like other maritime republics, such as Genoa and Pisa, Venice took advantage of the crusades by supplying ships, food and money to the Christian forces, and opening commercial exchanges around the Mediterranean. By the 12th century, the city's rulers were powerful enough to act as mediators between Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who signed a peace treaty in Venice in 1177. In 1204 the Doge Enrico Dandolo took advantage of Constantinople's growing weakness to demand the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade pay for their Venetian transportation by laying siege to the capital of the Eastern Empire. Constantinople fell and another empire was installed, of which the Venetians took the lion's share. But Genoa, envious of the success of its rival, formed an alliance with the deposed Byzantine emperors and reconquered the Eastern Empire in 1261. The Venetians lost a portion of their territory and most of their commercial privileges. After a truce lasting from 1270-90, the struggle with Genoa resumed until 1299, when a fresh peace was concluded. Despite the defeat of the Venetians at the Battle of Curzola in 1298 neither of the adversaries gained a decisive advantage.
	[Top]
Early Century	First Norman invaders appear in Southern Italy and are defeated by the Venetians.
1001	Otto III in Venice
1054	Schism in the East
1075	The Turks conquer Jerusalem.
1080	The principal cities of Northern and Central Italy win their independence: the comuni.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS.
	Meanwhile, economic expansion had modified the social structure of the city. A wave of newly rich families were eager to take their mace in government alongside older patrician clans. The quasi-monarchical authority of the Doge was also becoming irksome at a time when free cities were prospering elsewhere in Italy. Councils of "Sages" were set up between 1130 and 1148 to curb the Doge's powers, and in 1172 a committee was formed to monitor his election. But Venice's incessant warfare with Genoa and Constantinople -trade domestic unity a strong priority, and this probably explains the famous measure of 1297 to "close" the Grand Council, after which only members of families inscribed in the Golden Book (containing the record of births and marriages of the Venetian nobility) could be admitted. In this way Venice endowed herself with a tightly knit political class, with powerful bodies like the Council of Ten (established in 1310) to complement it.
1096-9	The First Crusade.
1154-83	Wars between Barbarossa and the comuni. Treaty of Constantinople in which the freedoms of the comuni are confirmed.
1177	Pope Alexander III meets Barbarossa
A DIFFICULT 14TH CENTURY.
	Venice lost half her population to the Black Death of 1348. A serious economic crisis followed, and Ludwig I of Hungary seized the opportunity to annexe Dalmatia from Venice. At the same time the rulers of Padua and Ferrara, and especially the powerful Viscontis of Milan, began to threaten Venetian interests. The ancestral struggle with Genoa, which had allied itself with Florence, Padua and Hungary, intensified from 1378 onwards.
A THREAT TO SURVIVAL.
	In 1379, the Genoese fleet penetrated the Lagoon and seized Chioggia, but the Venetian forces made a desperate counterattack which enabled them to conclude a peace at Turin in 1381 and save the situation. The treaty strongly favored Venice's enemies; but Genoa, exhausted by the conflict and wracked by domestic strife, never again posed a serious threat to the Venetians.
1202	Fourth Crusade
1297	Establishment of patrician autocracy.
1309-77	The papacy is transferred to Avignon
1335	Council of Ten instituted.
1373	Jews arrive in Venice
1385-1437	Hapsburg expansion into Northern Italy.
1414-18	End of the Great Schism.
1421	Birth of Gentile Bellini
1426	Birth of Giovanni Bellini
	[Top]
1434	The Medicis assume control in Florence.
1435	Birth of Verrocchio
1450	Birth of Carpaccio
1453	Constantinople falls to the Ottomans and becomes Istanbul.
1472	Birth of Giorgione
1479	Birth of Sansovino
1480	Birth of Palma il Vecchio
1488	Bartolomeo Diaz reaches the Cape of Good Hope.
1494	Charles VIII sets out to conquer the kingdom of Naples: the start of the Italian Wars.
1494-8	Piero de Medici leaves Florence. The establishment of Savonarola's republican government.
1497	Christopher Columbus discovers America.
1498	da Gama's voyage to India.
THE DEFENCE OF THE LEVANT.
	Venice steadily extended her Mediterranean Empire. Taking advantage of the Genoese decline, she once again took control of the Adriatic, which for many centuries thereafter became known as the Gulf of Venice. Corfu fell in 1386, the Albanian coast submitted a few years later and Dalmatia was finally reconquered between 1409 and 1420. But now another threat was looming in the shape of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish fleet had been defeated in 1407, but went on to victory in a battle of 1429. The Turkish army captured Constantinople in 1453, advanced into the Balkans, and seized Negroponte (Euboea) from Venice in 1470. Nevertheless the Republic not only maintained but also strengthened its positions in 1434 the eastern Mediterranean, extending its domination to Cyprus in 1489, although fresh defeats by the Turks were in store between 1499 and 1503. In the late 15th century expansionism and the safeguarding of one's own interests could be justified as the defence of Christianity.
THE CONQUEST OF THE MAINLAND.
	At the close of the 14th century, Venice formed an alliance with Florence to counter the expansionist politics of the Viscontis in Northern Italy. It was important to the keep her powerful Milanese neighbours in their place if Venice was to control the trade routes into Northern Europe and protect the assets of the wealthy Venetian families which had invested in mainland property. But to do so meant she was obliged to abandon her isolation. Although Treviso and the surrounding countryside had been overrun in 1339, Venice's first real effort to extend her authority deep into mainland Italy did not begin until 1404. Within twenty years she had annexed Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Belluna, Feltre and all of Friuli. The Venetian government now divided its activities into two spheres: the stato da mar (the colonial sea-state) and the stato da terra (the land-state).Venice's advance along the Po valley resumed in 1425-6, and before long the Republic's boundaries had reached the banks of the river Adda, a state of affairs officially sanctioned in 1454 by the Treaty of Lodi. War with Ferrara (1481-4) led to yet another attempt at expansion, which failed in the face of combined resistance from Florence, Milan and Naples. By now, the Italian powers were profoundly suspicious of Venetian ambitions to upset the balance of power and dominate the peninsula: the threat from Milan was forgotten.
	[Top]
1512	Birth of da Ponte.
1512	Birth of Tintoretto.
1513	Birth of Paris-Bordone.
1517	Martin Luther proclaims his reform
1518	Birth of Palladio
1519	Charles V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1525	Francis I is defeated at Pavia.
1527	Sack of Rome by the imperial troops.
1528	Birth of Veronese
THE ITALIAN WARS
	Taking advantage of the confusion seated by the French invasion of Italy in 1494, Venice attempted to seize control of the ports of Apulia and to annexe Pisa, which had risen in revolt against Florence. After this the Republic sought to overrun papal Romagna, and this was the last straw. At Cambrai in 1508 the monarchs of Europe and the Italian city-states formed an alliance against Venice under the aegis of Pope Julius II. The army of the Republic was routed at Agnadello on May 14, 1509; part of Venice's mainland empire was occupied by French and Imperial forces, and the rest rose in revolt. For a few weeks, the fall of the Venetian state appeared inevitable.
1530	Venice refuses to acknowledge the dominion of Charles V.
1539	Council of Three instituted.
1544	Birth of Palma il Giovane.
1545	The Council of Trent. Start of the Counter Reformation.
1556	Abdication of Charles V. Italy ceded to Spain.
1559	Treaty of Cateau Cambrésis: France renounces all claim to Italy.
1574	Visit of Henry III of France
1580	Birth of Longhena
THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.
	Thanks to the support of Pope Julius II, who switched alliances as soon as the Papacy was assured of retaining Romagna, Venice was able to take advantage of the rivalries between her Imperial, French and Spanish enemies. By playing off Francis I of France and the Emperor Charles V against each other, within ten years she contrived to regain and consolidate all her lost possessions, relinquishing only Cremona and the Venetian claim to the ports of Apulia.
16I8-48	The Thirty Years' War between the great European powers.
1693	Birth of Tiepolo
1697	Birth of Canaletto
[Top]
VENETIAN NEUTRALITY.
	After this episode, Venice opted for armed neutrality. Over the next two centuries she : remained a force to be reckoned with but never again took sides in the quarrels of the great European monarchies.
THE GOLDEN AGE.
	After Florence and Rome, the Venice of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese became the third great centre of the Italian Renaissance, while the stability of her institutions became a byword in Europe.
RETREAT FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN.
	The state of Venice's maritime empire was less promising. From the beginning of the 16th century, the islands of the Aegean had been falling into the hands of the Turks. The fruit of a Venetian alliance with Spain and Rome, the victory of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, had no lasting effect and Cyprus was effectively lost. Corsairs on the Bosnian and Dalmatian harried Venetian shipping on the Adriatic, and the city's resources were steadily depleted by the wars. The government ran deep into debt and had to impose heavy taxes on the economy
THE START OF A DECLINE.
	An economic crisis beginning in 1620 followed by the great plague of 1630 heralded the start of an irreversible decline. Europe's commercial focus shifted to the North Sea, the volume of shipping in Venice dropped, and the city's luxury industries began to suffer from French competition. In the 17th century Venice's attempts to influence European politics met with failure though for a while she held her own against Ottoman encroachment in the East. Her loss of Crete (1645-69) was balanced by the reconquest of Morea and Athens at the end of the century; but both fell back into Turkish hands between 1714 and 1718.
1702	Birth of Longhi
1702-12	War of the Spanish Succession between France and a coalition of European powers.
1706-7	French setbacks in Italy. Austria conquers Milan and the kingdom of Naples.
1712	Birth of Guardi
1751	Murazzi completed
1757	Birth of Canova
1776	Independence of the United States
1784	Campaign against the Barbary pirates
1789	The French Revolution.
1797	French take Venice
1798	Venice ceded to Austria
[Top]
VENICE BONAPARTE' S PLAYTHING.
	Venice's decision in 1793 to adopt a policy of "unarmed neutrality" was such an admission of weakness that in 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte marched into the Veneto, ostensibly to fight the Austrians. In April 1797 he "ceded" part of Venice's territory to the Hapsburgs and then, on May 1, 1797, he declared war on Venice herself. Before long French forces were picketed before the Doge's Palace and Bonaparte was offering peace on his own conditions - with the proviso that the Venetians "reform" their government which they hurriedly did on May 12. At the subsequent Treaty of Campo Formio, the French abandoned Venice to Austria, whose armies entered the city on January 18, 1798.
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE.
	The ruinous conflict with the Turks had, on several occasions, obliged the Venetian ruling class to open its ranks to newly enriched families, in exchange for lump payments to the state. However the number of candidates for this honour fell sharply during the course of the 18th century - a sign that confidence was eroding. In fact, the social and political fabric of Venice was in crisis, and the tentative reforms of the second half of the century came too late. Almost inevitably, the Republic was swept away in the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars.
1800	Papal Conclave in Venice
1802	Napoleon Bonaparte becomes president of the Italian Republic.
1806	Return of French to Venice
FOREIGN DOMINATION.
	Venice was reconquered by French troops in January 1806; the French were driven out again by the Austrians in April 1814. The creation of a free port provided only temporary relief from the city's inexorable decline between 1830and 1848. An insurrection led by Daniele Manin and Nicolò Tommaseo on May 22, 1848, temporarily expelled the Austrians, who responded in 1849 by laying siege to the city. On August 24, the provisional government fell, and the Austrians, returning for the third time, punished Venice by stripping her of administrative authority over the Veneto. Over the next two decades, Austria governed the city with increasing severity.
1814	Return of Austrians to Venice
1814-15	Fall of Napoleon and restoration of the old regimes in Italy.
1831	Several Italian cities rebel and Austrian forces intervene.
1846	Railway causeway built.
1846-7	Economic crisis and famine in Europe.
1848	Revolution spreads throughout Europe. The first Italian War Independence ends with an Austrian victory.
1859	The second Italian War of independence ends with the victory for the piedmontese.
1861	Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
VENICE REVERTS TO ITALY.
	Venice was finally absorbed by the new Italian monarchy in 1866, when the king received Venice and the Veneto after the Austrian defeat at Sadowa, in return for his support of Prussia. [Top]