Turning Tides

The Republic’s commercial expansion reached the height of its developmentin the mid-fifteenth century. By then the Ottoman gaze rested firmly onVenice’s seaborne empire. With a storm brewing on the horizon, theVenetians added two new sea routes. The first transported slaves, gold, hides,and cereals from sub-Saharan to North Africa, stopping in southern Spain andBarcelona and then heading south to Sicily and Tunis before returning to Venice.(See Map 2). The second docked at Alexandria, Tunis, and the Barbary coast.However, the submission of Constantinople to the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II in1453 made Venice’s position on the Aegean and the Adriatic tenuous. Atfirst, diplomacy prevailed, but by the end of the century the Republic wasengaged in a costly war (1499–1503). Modone and Corone fell to theOttomans, who then went on to conquer Syria and Egypt in 1517. Another war brokeout between 1536 and 1540, with Venice losing the Morea and the duchy of Naxosto its political nemesis. Thirty years later, Cyprus also came under Ottomanrule, despite the Christian victory of the Holy League of Venice, Spain, and thepope at the Battle of Lepanto (1571).

Despite the series of reversals, Venice enjoyed commercial vitality through thesixteenth century, thanks to the ef orts of diplomats, merchants, laborers, andpilgrims. Moreover, the economy thrived at home, with one of the strongestindustrial bases in Europe. Venice continued to be a powerful magnet forimmigration , capable of strengthening its labor force even in the face ofdramatic demographic l uctuation. In preparation for the Battle of Lepanto in1571, for example, the Venetians built a hundred galleys with the aid of morethan 2,000 arsenal workers. The plague of 1576–7, however, produced a dramaticsetback, reducing the population of 168,000 to around 120,000, but by 1586 thenumber had climbed to 148,000. The thriving industrial base attracted droves offoreign peoples searching for employment in the merchant fleet and the navy,where new ships carrying cannon were being built; in port services; and in thecrafts.