Kingdom of the Morea
Kingdom of the Morea Regno di Morea | |||||||||
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Colony of the Republic of Venice | |||||||||
1688–1715 | |||||||||
Coat of arms of the Regno di Morea[1]
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Provveditore Generale di Morea | |||||||||
• 1688–1690 | Giacomo Corner | ||||||||
• 1714–1715 | Alessandro Bon | ||||||||
Historical era | Early Modern | ||||||||
1685–1687 | |||||||||
• Established | 1688 | ||||||||
1715 | |||||||||
1718 | |||||||||
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Today part of | Greece |
The Kingdom of the Morea or Realm of the Morea (Italian: Regno di Morea) was the official name the Republic of Venice gave to the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece (which was more widely known as the Morea until the 19th century) when it was conquered from the Ottoman Empire during the Morean War in 1684–99. The Venetians tried, with considerable success, to repopulate the country and reinvigorate its agriculture and economy, but were unable to gain the allegiance of the bulk of the population, nor to secure their new possession militarily. As a result, it was lost again to the Ottomans in a brief campaign in June–September 1715.
Background
Venice had a long history of interaction with the Morea, dating back to the aftermath of the
Organization of the new province
Administration
Already in 1688, with their control of the country practically complete, the Venetians appointed Giacomo Corner as the governor-general (
Under Corner's oversight, a committee of three
- Romania, in the northeastern Peloponnese, with capital at Nauplia (Napoli di Romania), and the districts of Argos, Corinth, Tripoli, and Hagios Petros in Tsakonia
- Passavas and Zarnata
- Messenia, in the southwest, with capital at Navarino, and the districts of Modon, Coron, Androusa, Kalamata, Leontari, Karytaina, Fanari, Kyparissia and Navarino
- and Patras
Each province and district was headed by a provveditore, who combined civil and military authority, and was aided by a rector (rettore) in charge of justice and a chamberlain (camerlingo) in charge of financial affairs.
List of the provveditori generali of the Morea
The formal title of the Venetian governor-general of the Morea was Provveditore generale delle Armi ("Superintendent-general of the Arms"), with his seat in Nauplia.[14] In the first period after the conquest, he was assisted by two provveditori extraordinary.[14] The provveditori generali appointed during the duration of the Kingdom of the Morea are known through their relazioni, the reports they submitted to the Venetian government on their deeds.[15] These were:
- Giacomo Corner (1688–1690)[15]
- Tadeo Gradenigo, provveditore estraordinario (1690–1692)[15]
- Antonio Molin, provveditore estraordinario (1692–1693)[16]
- Marin Michiel (1694–1695)
- Agostino Sagredo (1695–1697)
- Paolo Nani (1697)
- Francesco Grimani (1698–1701)[16]
- Giacomo da Mosto (1701–1703)
- Antonio Nani (1703–1705)
- Angelo Emo (1705–1708)[16]
- Marco Loredan (1708–1711)[16]
- Antonio Loredan (1711–1714)[16]
- Alessandro Bon (1714–1715)[17]
Economic and social development
To restore the province, settlers were encouraged to immigrate from the other Greek lands with the lure of considerable land grants, chiefly from
The Venetians engaged in a concerted effort to revive and improve the country's agriculture and commerce. Thus the settler families were given 60
Due to the extensive influx of migrants, the Venetian period was marked by intense social mobility. Although in general both the original inhabitants and the new settlers remained in the social class to which they had belonged originally, the policies of the Venetian authorities with their continual land grants to their supporters—including the hereditary quasi-fiefs known as conteas ("countships")—coupled with the economic upturn, brought about the emergence, for the first time after the disbandment of the Christian sipahis of the Peloponnese in the early 1570s, of a new affluent class of merchants and land-holders, many of whom were from Athens, Chios and the Ionian islands. According to the Greek historian Apostolos Vakalopoulos, here lies the origin of the oligarchy of the kodjabashis, who dominated the peninsula's affairs from the late 18th century until the Greek War of Independence.[24][25] By contrast, for the mass of the peasants, both natives and immigrants, the situation progressively worsened; whether due to debts, transgressions of officials, the exactions of corvée or the increasing scarcity of land, many peasants, especially those who had migrated from Central Greece, chose to flee to the Ottoman-held territories across the Gulf of Corinth. They were welcomed by the Ottoman authorities, while the Venetian authorities were forced to institute military patrols to stop them.[26] This demonstrates a deepening gulf in Moreot society: when the Turks returned in 1715, the bulk of the population remained unaffected, and only the better-off such as the contea possessors actively supported Venice, and in many cases abandoned the peninsula for Italy following the Venetian defeat.[27]
The depredations and turmoil of the war and its aftermath also brought about a rise in banditry across the country. To combat it, the Venetian authorities raised a provincial gendarmerie, the meidani, but also armed the villagers and formed local militias, echoing the
Church affairs
The Venetians left the local
The Venetians showed more vigour in their efforts to impose the Catholic Church in the country, with conversions of mosques to Catholic churches as well as the construction of new ones, and the establishment of monks from various religious orders across the peninsula. Among the most notable events was the foundation of a
Security
Despite the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Ottomans were unreconciled to the loss of the Morea, and already in 1702 there were rumours of impending war, with troops and supplies sent to the Ottoman provinces adjoining the Morea.
Ottoman reconquest
Following their victory in the
References
- ^ As depicted in Vincenzo Coronelli's Blasone Veneto (1706). Most likely derived from those of the medieval Principality of Achaea. cf. Aldrighetti & de Biasi (1998), p. 274.
- ^ Davies & Davis (2007), pp. 25–29
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 15–23
- ^ Chasiotis (1975), pp. 19–27
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 23–35, 39–42
- ^ Chasiotis (1975), pp. 27–36
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 48–49
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1975), pp. 206–207
- ^ Topping (2000), p. 32
- ^ a b Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 52–53
- ^ a b c Vakalopoulos (1975), p. 207
- ^ Setton (1991), p. 398
- ^ a b Davies & Davis (2007), p. 28
- ^ a b Da Mosto (1940), p. 20
- ^ a b c von Ranke 1862, p. 555.
- ^ a b c d e von Ranke 1862, p. 556.
- ^ von Ranke 1862, p. 557.
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 55–57
- ^ Malliaris (2007), pp. 98ff.
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 60–62
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1975), pp. 208–209
- ^ a b Setton (1991), p. 400
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), p. 48
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 62–63
- ^ Malliaris (2007), pp. 103–105
- ^ Malliaris (2007), pp. 105–107
- ^ Malliaris (2007), p. 107
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 58–59
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 50–51
- ^ a b Vakalopoulos (1975), p. 209
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 50, 51
- ^ Setton (1991), pp. 412ff.
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 59–60
- ^ Setton (1991), p. 418
- ^ Setton (1991), p. 399
- ^ Setton (1991), pp. 339, 430–431
- ^ Chasiotis (1975), pp. 39–43
- ^ Setton (1991), pp. 426–432
- ^ Vakalopoulos (1973), pp. 76–78
- ^ Davies & Davis (2007), p. 29
Sources
- Aldrighetti, Giorgio; de Biasi, Mario (1998). Il Gonfalone di San Marco: analisi storico-araldica dello stemma, gonfalone, sigillo e bandiera della Citta di Venezia (in Italian). Venice: Filippi.
- Chasiotis, Ioannis (1975). "Η κάμψη της Οθωμανικής δυνάμεως" [The decline of Ottoman power]. In Christopoulos, Georgios A. & Bastias, Ioannis K. (eds.). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΑ΄: Ο Ελληνισμός υπό ξένη κυριαρχία (περίοδος 1669 - 1821), Τουρκοκρατία - Λατινοκρατία [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XI: Hellenism under Foreign Rule (Period 1669 - 1821), Turkocracy – Latinocracy] (in Greek). Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon. pp. 8–51. ISBN 978-960-213-100-8.
- Da Mosto, Andrea (1940). L'Archivio di Stato di Venezia. Indice Generale, Storico, Descrittivo ed Analitico. Tomo II: Archivi dell'Amministrazione Provinciale della Repubblica Veneta, archivi delle rappresentanze diplomatiche e consolari, archivi dei governi succeduti alla Repubblica Veneta, archivi degli istituti religiosi e archivi minori (PDF) (in Italian). Rome: Biblioteca d'arte editrice. OCLC 889222113. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- Davies, Siriol; Davis, J.L. (2007). "Greeks, Venice, and the Ottoman Empire". In Davies, Siriol; Davis, Jack L. (eds.). Between Venice and Istanbul: Colonial Landscapes in Early Modern Greece. American School of Classical Studies at Athens. pp. 25–31. ISBN 978-0-87661-540-9.
- Malliaris, Alexis (2007). "Population Exchange and Integration of Immigrant Communities in the Venetian Morea, 1687–1715". In Davies, Siriol; Davis, Jack L. (eds.). Between Venice and Istanbul: Colonial Landscapes in Early Modern Greece. American School of Classical Studies at Athens. pp. 97–108. ISBN 978-0-87661-540-9.
- Dokos, Konstantinos; Panagopoulos, Georgios (1993). Το Βενετικό Κτηματολόγιο της Βοστίτσας [The Venetian Cadaster of Vostitsa] (in Greek). Athens: Cultural Institute of the National Bank of Greece.
- von Ranke, Leopold (1862). "Περί τῆς ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ Ἐνετοκρατίας (1685–1715)" [On the Venetian rule in the Peloponnese (1685–1715)]. Pandora (in Greek). Translated by Kalligas, Pavlos. Issue 287, pp. 553–557; Issue 288, pp. 577–583; Issue 289, pp. 1–9; Issue 290, pp. 25–34.
- ISSN 0065-9738.
- Topping, Peter (1976). "Premodern Peloponnesus: The Land and the People Under Venetian Rule (1685–1715)". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 268 (1): 92–108. S2CID 83944891.
- Topping, Peter W. (2000). "The Southern Argolid from Byzantine to Ottoman Times". In Sutton, Susan Buck (ed.). Contingent Countryside: Settlement, Economy, and Land Use in the Southern Argolid Since 1700. Stanford University Press. pp. 25–40. ISBN 978-0-804733151.
- Vakalopoulos, Apostolos E. (1973). Ιστορία του νέου ελληνισμού, Τόμος Δ': Τουρκοκρατία 1669–1812 – Η οικονομική άνοδος και ο φωτισμός του γένους (Έκδοση Β') [History of modern Hellenism, Volume IV: Turkish rule 1669–1812 – Economic upturn and enlightenment of the nation (2nd Edition)] (in Greek). Thessaloniki: Emm. Sfakianakis & Sons.
- ISBN 978-960-213-100-8.
Further reading
- Mario Infelise – Anastasia Stouraiti (a cura di), Venezia e la guerra di Morea. Guerra, politica e cultura alla fine del '600 (Milano: Franco Angeli, 2005)
- Davies, Siriol (2004). "The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, Part VI: Administration and Settlement in Venetian Navarino A.D. 1700". Hesperia. 73 (1): 59–120. S2CID 154808941.
- Kalliga, Charis, ed. (1998). Η εκστρατεία του Morosini και το Regno di Morea. Γ' Συμπόσιο ιστορίας και τέχνης, 20–22 Ιουλίου 1990 [Morosini's Campaign and the Regno di Morea. III Symposium of History and Art, 20–22 July 1990] (in Greek). Athens: Βιβλιοπωλείον της Εστίας. ISBN 978-960-05-0803-1.
- Moro, Giovanni Battista; Coronelli, Vincenzo (1687). "Memorie Istoriografiche Della Morea Riacquistata Dall'Armi Venete Del Regno Di Negroponte E degli altri luoghi circonuicini e di quelli c'hanno sottomeßo nella Dalmacia, e nell'Epiro Dal principio della Guera intimata al Turco in Constantinopoli nel 1684 sin'all'anno persente 1687: colla descrizione delle fortezze di Castel Nuovo, e Chnin; consacrate all Eccellenza del Signor Pietro Foscarini in Venezia MDCLXXXVII" (in Italian). Venice. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
- Zarinebaf, Fariba; Bennet, John; Davis, Jack L. (2005). A Historical and Economic Geography of Ottoman Greece: The Southwestern Morea in the 18th Century. Hesperia Supplement 34. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. ISBN 0-87661-534-5.