The name Venice — Venetia, Venexia, Venezia — was not originally the name of the city.
In the earliest times, the city of Venice was called Rialto and it was but one of many Venetian settlements.
Venice wasn’t a city, a lagoon or even a state. Venice was a people.
The people were the Veneti — a indigenous people who lived on the mainland in Roman times and before that.
Venetian society, culture and language existed before the city, and also before the Republic of Venice, just as they exist after the republic.
The doge was not the “Doge of Venice”, but the Dux Venetiarum — the “Doge of the Venetians.”
The TL;DR History of Venice
Many history books have been written about the History of Venice, and most of them are many hundred pages.
if you just want a quick introduction to the two thousand years which has led to the Venice we have today, I have written a TL;DR version of the history of Venice,
It is about 3000 words, and can be read in 15–20 minute by most readers.
The slightly longer, but still short history
The rise and fall of the Republic of Venice, plus what came before and what came after, in seven installments, each of a around 3000 words, and 15–20 minutes reading time.
The Roman and Byzantime period (–750)
Venice during the Roman and Byzantine times — from the time of Augustus to the end of Byzantine rule in north-eastern Italy in 751 — is the story of where Venice came from, and where the Venetians themselves believed they came from.
Becoming a state (750–1000)
Venice appeared as a kind of, but not quite, sovereign polity in the late 700s and 800s. Venetian society, no longer governed by Constantinople, nor really independent, had to survive between the two super-powers of their time, Byzantium and the Carolingian Empire.
Ascendency (1000–1200)
Venice became a more important state in the 1000s and 1100s, and started to build not only their trading empire, but also more equal relations to the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope in Rome.
Wealth, power and empire (1200–1400)
Conquest, empire, naval battles, conspiracies, insurrections. The 1200s and 1300s were interesting times for Venice, which was now richer and more powerful than ever.
Changing geography (1400–1600)
The 1400s and 1500s were centuries of enormous change for Venice, and for the rest of the world. The changing geography moved Venice from a central position in European trade to the margins.
Decline and fall (1600–1800)
The 1600s and 1700s were a period of slow decline for Venice, until the Republic of Venice fell to Napoleon in 1797.
Subject city (1800–today)
The decline of Venice didn’t end with the loss of statehood. Attempts at modernising Venice have failed, and the result is an economic monoculture of mass tourism, and a constant demographic decline.