Turks+09

Venice is a city in Italy. It is known as the "City of Water" or "City of Bridges," due to the fact that it is situated in a lagoon, theirby requirering its residents to use boats and bridges for transportation. . During the sixteenth century, it was known as the Duchy of Venice, or the Venusian republic, it was ruled by members of the upper class, and by a Doge (Duke). It was formed after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 400's as a place for refugees of the barbarian invasion of Italy. During the middle ages Venice held a firm monopoly over trade in the Mediterranean, due to their acquisitions of several colonies in the Aegean, most predominantly Crete and Cyprus. Thus giving their merchant fleet safe havens along the rout to the Ottoman Empire, and the Egyptian Sultanate. Their power ley in their nave which at its high contain over 400 ships of the line. In the 17th century their power began to decline, due to many wars fought with shifting coalitions between, Venice, France, and the Papal States, in which their fleet took many casualties. Their final decline occurred when the Turks, an old adversary in the arena of trade, declared war and captured Cyprus, and several other Aegean islands. The Ottomans showed ruthlessness, the main example of this was the execution by flaying used on the commander of the final stronghold of Cyprus. After the wars with the Turks the Venetian fleet was only a whisper of its once mighty strength. Venice finally fell, when it was captured by napoleon and merged with Austria.

Republic of Venice-Venice's territories are shown in the Red and Pink. The Ottoman Empire is represented by the Green and the Purple signifies trading posts.