History of Venice

An Unreasonably short history of Venice

The average “A History of Venice” book is a tome of three or four hundred pages, and many are twice that. There are many excellent reasons for that, but even an interested visitor to Venice has to be quite curious to confront such works before going on a holiday.

The Unreasonably short history of Venice is an attempt at telling the story of Venice as succinctly as possible, to make it more accessible.

I hope to have written something which can be read calmly in a few hours, on the plane, in the airport, or on a train, which will still make Venice a slightly more comprehensible place.

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There is also a TL;DR version (3k words) for those with very little time;

  • The Roman and Byzantine period

    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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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