The Genoesecolonies were a series of economic and trade posts in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Some of them had been established directly under the patronage of the republican authorities to support the economy of the local merchants (especially after privileges obtained during 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.
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 Genoese Fleet in the Crusades (particularly the conquests of Antioch and Acre) enriched it enormously. During the First Crusade, the Genoese Republic obtained Acre (one third of the port's incomes) and Gibelet (present-day Byblos, Lebanon), which become a familiar possession of the Embriaco family, who styled themselves as Lords of Gibelet (1100 – late 13th century).[2]
Other small colonies were formed in Tartous (Syria), Tripoli (Libya), and Beirut (Lebanon). However, the Muslim reconquest in the following century removed Genoese presence from the Holy Land. Genoa also established colonies on the Spanish Mediterranean coast from 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]
Direct territorial expansion of Genoa began in the 13th century with the occupation of Corsica (annexed in 1284 and kept until the 18th century) and northern Sardinia. Genoa remained dominant in the Tyrrhenian Sea after the decisive naval victory against Pisa in the 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 Treaty of Nymphaeum (1261) with the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, which, in exchange for the aid to the Byzantine reconquest of Constantinople, actually ousted the Venetians from the straits leading to the Black Sea. The main Genoese commercial bases were Chios and Mytilene in the Aegean Sea, and Caffa, the major trading center between Mongol-ruled Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Western Europe. Other colonies included Cembalo (modern Balaklava), Soldaio (Sudak), Vosporo (Kerch), while other were located on the Azov Sea, including Tana[6] (Azov), Matrega (Taman), Mapa (Anapa), Bata (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]
During the greatest period of expansion, between the 13th and 15th centuries, 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 Galata (Pera), facing Constantinople, by emperor Manuel Komnenos, although in the following century the relationship with the Byzantine Empire were often strained. In 1201 the city also obtained privileges and quarters from the Kingdom of Armenia. Pera fell to the Ottoman forces in 1453, when all of Constantinople was captured. Meanwhile, Chios remained a fief of the Giustiniani family until the Ottoman conquest in 1566.[10] There were some 33,000 descendants of the Genoese colonists in Constantinople and İzmir 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 Taman, Copa, Bata, Maurolaca and Mapa, most of them would survive under Genoese rule until the late 15th century.[12]
Construction of the warehouse of the Genoese in Trebizond. Painting by 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 Taman Peninsula, which had belonged to the noble Ghisolfi family. Other losses included the commercial bases of Licostomo in Moldavia and Moncastro near Odesa. The fall of the eastern colonies caused a deep economical crisis which eventually turned into an unstoppable decline for the Republic of Genoa as a major European power.[13] It thus moved its interests in the western Mediterranean, establishing flourishing communities in Cadiz and Lisbon. Genoa, in particular, became an efficient banking base of Habsburg Spain; supplying loans and organizing slave trade as holders of an 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.
Azov, previously known as Azak , is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Don River just 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) from the Sea of Azov, which derives its name from the town. Population: 81,924 (2021 Census); 82,937 (2010 Census); 82,090 (2002 Census); 80,297 (1989 Soviet census).
Feodosia, also called in English Theodosia, is a city on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. Feodosia serves as the administrative center of Feodosia Municipality, one of the regions into which Crimea is divided. During much of its history, the city was a significant settlement known as Caffa or Kaffa. According to the 2014 census, its population was 69,145.
The Latin Church of the Catholic Church has several dispersed populations of members in the Middle East, notably in Turkey, Cyprus and the Levant. Latin Catholics employ the Latin liturgical rites, in contrast to Eastern Catholics who fall under their respective church's patriarchs and employ distinct Eastern Catholic liturgies, while being in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church. Latin Catholics in the Middle East are often of European descent, particularly from the medieval Crusader era and later the 20th-century colonial period.
The Republic of Genoa was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in both the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, it was one of the major financial centres in Europe.
Gazaria was the name given to the colonial possessions of the Republic of Genoa in Crimea and around the Black Sea coasts in the territories of the modern regions of Russia, Ukraine and Romania, from the mid-13th century to the late 15th century. The Genoese rule was represented by a consul, and the capital of the Gazaria was the city of Kaffa in the Crimean peninsula.
The maritime republics, also called merchant republics, were Italian thalassocratic port cities which, starting from the Middle Ages, enjoyed political autonomy and economic prosperity brought about by their maritime activities. The term, coined during the 19th century, generally refers to four Italian cities, whose coats of arms have been shown since 1947 on the flags of the Italian Navy and the Italian Merchant Navy: Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. In addition to the four best known cities, Ancona, Gaeta, Noli, and, in Dalmatia, Ragusa, are also considered maritime republics; in certain historical periods, they had no secondary importance compared to some of the better known cities.
The Venetian–Genoese Wars were four conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa which took place between 1256 and 1381. Each was resolved almost entirely through naval clashes, and they were connected to each other by interludes during which episodes of piracy and violence between the two Italian trading communities in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea were commonplace, in a "cold war" climate.
The Delle Piane family is an old Genoese noble family first recorded in Polcevera in 1121. Over the past ten centuries it has produced many distinguished government officials, clerics, diplomats, soldiers and patrons.
Giovanni da Carignano was a priest and a pioneering cartographer from Genoa.
Pietro Campofregoso was Doge of Genoa from 1450 to 1458.
Genoa is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2023, 558,745 people lived within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 813,626 inhabitants, more than 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera.
The Genoese navy was the naval contingent of the Republic of Genoa's military. From the 11th century onward the Genoese navy protected the interests of the republic and projected its power throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It played a crucial role in the history of the republic as a thalassocracy and a maritime trading power.
Paolo Giustiniani Moneglia was the 67th Doge of the Republic of Genoa.
The War of the Straits (1350-1355) was a third conflict fought in the series of the Venetian-Genoese wars. There were three causes for the outbreak of the war: the Genoese hegemony over the Black Sea, the capture by Genoa of Chios and Phocaea and the Latin war which caused the Byzantine Empire to lose control over the straits of the Black Sea, thus making it more difficult for the Venetians to reach the Asian ports.
Dondedeo de' Giusti was the Consul of Caffa, a colony of the Republic of Genoa in what is the current day city of Feodosia in Crimea, in 1343.
The Genoese–Mongol Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Republic of Genoa, the Mongol Empire and its successor states, most notedly the Golden Horde and Crimean Khanate. The wars were fought over control of trade and political influence in the Black Sea and Crimean peninsula during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.
Fiorenzo Toso was an Italian academic, linguist, and dialectologist.
The siege of Caffa was a 14th-century military encounter when Jani Beg of the Golden Horde sieged the city of Caffa, between two periods in the 1340s. The city of Caffa, a Genoese colony, was a vital trading hub located in Crimea. The city was then part of Gazaria, a group of seven ports located in Crimea and belonging to the maritime empire of the Republic of Genoa. The event is historically significant primarily because it is believed to be one of the earliest instances of biological warfare.
Antoniotto da Cabella, also known as Antoniotto della Cabella or della Gabella was a Genoese statesman, politician and merchant, the last consul to represent the Genoese Republic in its Crimean colonies.
The Genoese slave trade refers to the slave trade conducted by the Republic of Genoa, which was a major business during primarily the Middle Ages.
References
↑ Mallone Di Novi, Cesare Cattaneo (1987). I "Politici" del Medioevo genovese: il Liber Civilitatis del 1528 (in Italian). pp.184–193.
↑ 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
↑ Heyd, Guglielmo. Le Colonie Commerciali Degli Italiani in Oriente Nel Medio Evo (in Italian). HardPress Publishing. p.97.
↑ 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.
Airaldi, Gabriella (2006). Blu come il mare - Guglielmo e la saga degli Embriaci. Genoa: Fratelli Frilli Editori. ISBN88-7563-174-3.
Chirikba, Viacheslav (2020). Abkhazia and Italian City-States (XIII—XV centuries). Essays on Relationships. Foreword by V.S. Tomelleri. – Sankt Petersburg: Aleteya, – 212 p., ill. ISBN978-5-00165-119-2
Ossian De Negri, Teofilo (2003). Storia di Genova: Mediterraneo, Europa, Atlantico. Florence: Giunti Editore. ISBN978-88-09-02932-3.
Гавриленко О. А., Сівальньов О. М., Цибулькін В. В. Генуезька спадщина на теренах України; етнодержавознавчий вимір. — Харків: Точка, 2017.— 260 с. — ISBN978-617-669-209-6
Khvalkov E.The colonies of Genoa in the Black Sea region: evolution and transformation. L., New York: Routledge, 2017[1]
Khvalkov E. "Evoluzione della struttura della migrazione dei liguri e dei corsi nelle colonie genovesi tra Trecento e Quattrocento", in Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria, Nuova Serie'. 2017. Vol. 57 / 131 . -pp.67–79.
Khvalkov E. I piemontesi nelle colonie genovesi sul Mar Nero: popolazione del Piemonte a Caffa secondo i dati delle Massariae Caffae ad annum del 1423 e del 1461. In: Studi Piemontesi. 2017. No. 2. pp.623–628.
Khvalkov E. Campania, Puglia e Basilicata nella colonizzazione genovese dell'Oltremare nei secoli XIV – XV: Caffa genovese secondo i dati dei libri contabili. In: Rassegna Storica Salernitana. 2016. Vol. 65. pp.11–16.
Khvalkov E. 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. Vol. LXXIII, 2016. - pp.237–240.[2]
Khvalkov E. Il progetto coloniale genovese sul Mar Nero, la dinamica della migrazione Latina a Caffa e la gente catalanoaragonese, siciliana e sarda nel Medio Evo. In: Archivio Storico Sardo. 2015. Vol. 50. No. 1. pp.265–279.[3][4]
Khvalkov E. Trading Diasporas in the Venetian and Genoese Trading Stations in Tana, 1430 – 1440. In: Union in Separation. Diasporic Groups and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100–1800). Heidelberg: Springer, 2015. pp.311–327.
Khvalkov E. "Everyday Life and Material Culture in the Venetian and Genoese Trading Stations of Tana in the 1430s (Based on the Study of Notarial Documents)", in Medium Aevum Quotidianum. 2012. Vol. 64. pp.84–93.
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