Genoese colonies

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Genoese colonies
Colonie genovesi (
Gazaria
1266
• Fall of most of the Eastern Mediterranean colonies
Late 15th century
• Fall of Tabarka
1742
1768
• Disestablished
1768

The Genoese colonies were a series of economic and trade posts in the

Crusades), while others originated as feudal possessions of Genoese nobles, or had been founded by powerful private institutions, such as the Bank of Saint George
.

History

Background

Feodosiya in Crimea
.

During the Early Middle Ages, Genoa was a small, poor fishing village of 4,000 inhabitants. By slowly building its merchant fleet, it rose as the leading commercial carrier of the Western Mediterranean, starting to become independent from the Holy Roman Empire around the 11th century. A meeting of all the city's trade associations (compagnie) and the noble lords of the surrounding valleys and coasts eventually signaled the birth of Genoese government. The then-born city-state was known as Compagna Communis. The local organization maintained a political and social significance for centuries.[1]

Possessions

The participation of the

Embriaco family, who styled themselves as Lords of Gibelet (1100 – late 13th century).[2]

Other small colonies were formed in

Valencia to Gibraltar, but these were also short-lived.[3] These colonies consisted usually of a city quarter (or even a single square) with wooden single- or double-floor houses with workshops in the lower floor.[4]

The Genoese fortress of Sudak in the Crimea.

Direct territorial expansion of Genoa began in the 13th century with the occupation of

Battle of Meloria (1284). Genoa had also started to form colonies of Ligurians in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea in second half of the 13th century. The Genoese presence was not based on military occupation, but on economic "concessions" of Genoese and Ligurian families associated with the local traders and dominant classes.[5]

Genoese fort in Tabarka, Tunisia

In the eastern Mediterranean, Genoa was greatly advanced by the

Novorossijsk) and others, on the Abkhazian coast, such as Savastopoli (Sukhumi), or on the Ukrainian coast, such as Salmastro or Moncastro (Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi), Ginestra (now part of Odesa).[7]

Galata Tower (1348) at the northern apex of the medieval Genoese citadel of Galata (Pera) in Istanbul, Turkey.

During the greatest period of expansion, between the 13th and 15th century, the Republic of Genoa had many colonies and commercial/military ports in the region where is now present-day Romania. The largest Genoese colonies in the region were Calafat, Licostomo, Galați (Caladda), Constanța, Giurgiu (San Giorgio) and Vicina. These Genoese settlements served primarily to protect the maritime trade routes that made the Republic a power in this area.[8][9]

In 1155, Genoa was given a fondaco (store and market quarter) at

Izmir in 1933.[11] Genoa had also conquered the island of Tabarka off the Tunisian coast, which was held by the Lomellini family from 1540 to 1742. Part of the latter's citizens later moved to Carloforte
in Sardinia.

In addition to its possessions in Crimea, the most important Genoese colonies in the Black Sea area were

Copa, Bata, Maurolaca and Mapa, most of them would survive under Genoese rule until the late 15th century.[12]

Luca Cambiasi
, c.1571, in the Palazzo Lercari-Parodi in Genoa

The decline of the Genoese colonies in Crimea coincided with the Ottoman expansion in the late 15th century. Aside from the Crimean cities, Genoa also lost its lands in the

Asiento. Genoese traders were active in Old Panama one of the main ports on the Pacific, at least until 1671. The Spanish governor of Panama Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera even recruited Peruvians, Panamanians, and Genoese in Panama to found Zamboanga City after its conquest from the Muslim Sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao at the Philippines.[14]

The last Genoese colonies disappeared in the 18th century: Tabarka was occupied by the Ottoman Empire (1742), and Corsica was annexed by France after the Treaty of Versailles in 1768. The Republic itself ended in 1797, when it was conquered by the French First Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic.

See also

References

  1. ^ Mallone Di Novi, Cesare Cattaneo (1987). I "Politici" del Medioevo genovese: il Liber Civilitatis del 1528 (in Italian). pp. 184–193.
  2. ISBN 9782914266048
    .
  3. ^ Page at History of Genoa website
  4. ^ Structure of the Genoese colonies. Page at www.giustiniani.info (in Italian)
  5. ^ The first Genoese settlers Archived 2017-03-24 at the Wayback Machine. Page at imperobizantino.it
  6. ^ Khvalkov, E. "A Regionalization or Long-Distance Trade? Transformations and Shifts in the Role of Tana in the Black Sea Trade in the First Half of the Fifteenth Century". European Review of History. 2016. Vol. 23. No. 3. pp. 508–525
  7. ^ Genoese colonies in Romania and Moldavia
  8. ^ Heyd, Guglielmo. Le Colonie Commerciali Degli Italiani in Oriente Nel Medio Evo (in Italian). HardPress Publishing. p. 97.
  9. ^ Iliescu, Octavian. Revue Roumaine d'Histoire (Contributions à l'histoire des colonies génoises en Roumanie aux XIIIe – XVe siècles). Editions de l'Académie de la République socialiste de Roumanie. pp. 25–52.
  10. ^ The Turkish possessions of the Giustiani family (in Italian)
  11. ^ Alessandro Pannuti, "Cenni sugli italiani a Istanbul e la Levantinità Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "🕵 Северный Кавказ в древние времена. Шаги племён — Исторический Черкесск". Cherkessk.SU — Исторический Черкесск (in Russian). 2016-05-01. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  13. ^ Ossian De Negri, Teofilo. Storia di Genova.
  14. ^ "Imperial Ambition in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Genoese Merchants and the Spanish Crown" By Céline Dauverd (Published by Cambridge University Press) Chapter 2, Page 68.

Bibliography

External links

  1. LCCN 2017028228
    .
  2. ^ Khvalkov, Evgeny (2019). "Italia settentrionale e centrale nel progetto coloniale genovese sul Mar Nero: gente di Padania e Toscana a Caffa genovese nei secoli XIII – XV secondo i dati delle Massariae Caffae ad annum 1423 e 1461. In: Studi veneziani. 2016. Vol. 73. P. 237-240. Khvalkov E." SPb HSE (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  3. ISSN 2037-5514
    .
  4. ^ "KVK-Volltitel". kvk.bibliothek.kit.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  5. ^ "Società Messinese di Storia Patria. Archivio Storico Messinese, Volume 96". www.societamessinesedistoriapatria.it. 2015. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
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