The overseas possessions, particularly islands such asCorfu,Crete, andCyprus, played a critical role in Venice's commercial and military leadership. In his landmark study on the Mediterranean world in the 16th century, historianFernand Braudel described these islands as "Venice's motionless fleet".[2]
The creation of Venice's overseas empire began around the year 1000 with the defeat of theNarentines by DogePietro II Orseolo and recognition of Venetian rule byDalmatian city-states, allowing theDoge to call himself "Duke of Dalmatia" for the next few decades. Control over the latter, however, would not be stabilized until the early 15th century. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Venice gradually established its rule overIstria, which lasted until the end of the Republic.
Venice's overseas domains reached its greatest nominal extent at the conclusion of theFourth Crusade in 1204, with declaration of theacquisition of three octaves of theByzantine Empire. However, most of this territory was never controlled by Venice, being held by the Greek Byzantine successor states, namely theDespotate of Epirus and especially theEmpire of Nicaea. Venice remained an important player inConstantinople, holding the key position ofPodestà until its Byzantine reconquest in 1261, and more broadly in the region during the politically complex period known as theFrankokratia. Of its Fourth Crusade acquisitions, it keptEuboea until the 15th century, theCyclades until the 16th, andCrete until the 17th.
In 1489, Venice also acquiredCyprus, which it kept until Ottoman conquest in 1570–1571. The Venetian hold over navigation in theAdriatic Sea was maintained for centuries, to the extent that it was labeled "Mare di Venezia" (sea of Venice) on maps of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.[citation needed] From the 15th century onwards, the history of Venice's overseas empire is dominated by successiveOttoman–Venetian wars. Venice lost many territories but also occasionally gained some, most notably thePeloponnese from the late 1680s to 1715 and theDalmatian Hinterland also in the 1680s. After that date, the remaining overseas domains, kept until theFall of the Republic of Venice toNapoleon I in 1797, were all in Istria, Dalmatia, and the Ionian Islands, with none left east ofKythira andAntikythera.
The locations are listed broadly from closest to farthest from Venice. Where there is a difference between the name inVenetian language andstandard Italian, the Venetian version is indicated first. Feudal lordships held by Venetians, such asAndrea Ghisi inTinos andMykonos, are included.
In today's northeastern Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia
The Eastern Mediterranean ca.1450 (before the Cyprus purchase), with Venetian domains in green and the Venice-controlled Duchy of Naxos (or of the Archipelago) in orangeThe late-17th-centuryRealm of the Morea, divided intoAchaea,Messenia,Laconia and "Romania"17th-century map of the VenetianRealm of Candia (Crete) with its four provinces (from West to East) of La Canea, Retimo, Candia and SitiaDestruction of theParthenon inAthens by Venetian commanderFrancesco Morosini in 1687, early-18th century depiction
Map by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (1501–1575)
Contemporary map
16th-century depiction of the VenetianWalls of Nicosia and their footprint in today's urban landscape.
^"Sur le grand axe de sa puissance, ces îles sont la flotte immobile de Venise."Fernand Braudel (1949).La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II, 1 : La part du milieu. Paris: Armand Colin. p. 149.
Wikimedia Commons has media related toStato da Màr.
Arbel, Benjamin (1996)."Colonie d'oltremare". In Alberto Tenenti; Ugo Tucci (eds.).Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima (in Italian). Vol. V: Il Rinascimento. Società ed economia. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 947–985.OCLC644711009.
Crowley, Roger (2011).City of Fortune - How Venice Won and lost a Naval Empire. London: Faber and Faber.ISBN978-0-571-24594-9.
Da Mosto, Andrea (1937).L'Archivio di Stato di Venezia. Rome: Biblioteca d'Arte editrice.
Gullino, Giuseppe (1996)."Le frontiere navali". In Alberto Tenenti; Ugo Tucci (eds.).Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima (in Italian). Vol. IV: Il Rinascimento. Politica e cultura. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 13–111.OCLC644711024.
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