It was one of the three subdivisions of the
Republic of Venice's possessions, the other two being the Dogado, i.e. Venice proper, and the Domini di Terraferma in northern Italy.
The overseas possessions, particularly islands such as
Corfu,
Crete, and
Cyprus, played a critical role in Venice's commercial and military leadership. In his landmark study on the Mediterranean world in the 16th century, historian
Fernand Braudel described these islands as "Venice's motionless fleet".[2]
History
The creation of Venice's overseas empire began around the year 1000 with the defeat of the
Narentines by Doge
Pietro II Orseolo and recognition of Venetian rule by
Dalmatian city-states, allowing the
Doge 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 over
Istria, which lasted until the end of the Republic.
Venice's overseas domains reached its greatest nominal extent at the conclusion of the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, with declaration of the
acquisition of three octaves of the
Byzantine Empire. However, most of this territory was never controlled by Venice, being held by the Greek Byzantine successor states, namely the
Despotate of Epirus and especially the
Empire of Nicaea. Venice remained an important player in
Constantinople, holding the key position of Podestà until its Byzantine reconquest in 1261, and more broadly in the region during the politically complex period known as the
Frankokratia. Of its Fourth Crusade acquisitions, it kept
Euboea until the 15th century, the
Cyclades until the 16th, and
Crete until the 17th.
In 1489, Venice also acquired
Cyprus, which it kept until Ottoman conquest in 1570–1571. The Venetian hold over navigation in the
Adriatic 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 successive
Ottoman–Venetian wars. Venice lost many territories but also occasionally gained some, most notably the
Peloponnese from the late 1680s to 1715 and the
Dalmatian Hinterland also in the 1680s. After that date, the remaining overseas domains, kept until the
Fall of the Republic of Venice to
Napoleon I in 1797, were all in Istria, Dalmatia, and the Ionian Islands, with none left east of
Kythira and
Antikythera.
Domains
The locations are listed broadly from closest to farthest from Venice. Where there is a difference between the name in
Venetian language and
standard Italian, the Venetian version is indicated first. Feudal lordships held by Venetians, such as
Andrea Ghisi in
Tinos and
Mykonos, are included.
In today's northeastern Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia
Peloponnese (Morea): various outposts until Ottoman conquest in the 15th-16th centuries, then region–wide Venetian rule 1688–1715 as
Realm of the Morea
^"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.
^Gullino 1996, § La conquista della Dalmazia (1409–1420).
Bibliography
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stato 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.