Venetian–Genoese War

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Venetian-Genoese War
partof=


caption=
date=1350 and 1381 ("First part", 1350 and 1355; "Second part", 1378 and 1381)
place=Aegean Sea ("First part"); Italian peninsula ("Second part")
casus=
territory=
result=Genoa victorious ("First part"); Venice victorious ("Second part")
combatant1="'
combatant2="'
commander1= Niccolò Pisani, Andrea Dandolo
commander2= Paganino Doria
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=
casualties2=The Venetian-Genoese War was a long conflict between the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice for dominance in the eastern Mediterranean Sea between 1350 and 1381. It occurred in two spurts of open warfare. The first, occurring between 1350 and 1355, was won by Genoa and was fought primarily in the Aegean Sea. The second, occurring between 1378 and 1381 was a victory for Venice and was fought mostly in Italy.

War of 1350–1355

Since 1348 the Genoese had been at war with the Byzantine Greek Emperor John VI in Galata and Chios. In 1350 they found themselves at war with the Venetians, who sought to undermine Genoa's mercantile activity in the eastern Mediterranean. Genoa meanwhile had been aiding the adversaries of Aragon in Sardinia and Peter thus entered the war on the side of Venice and Byzantium. Genoa was forced into an alliance with the growing Ottoman Empire and even made an assault on Constantinople. On 16 January 1351, a treaty was signed in Venice between the Republic and the Crown of Aragon "for the confusion, destruction, and final extermination of the Genoese." [Setton, 69.] Pope Clement VI tried to prevent fighting, but with no effect.

Under their general Niccolò Pisani, the Venetians burned Galata in the early summer of 1351 and forced the emperor to join the alliance against Genoa. On 12 September the Doge of Venice, Andrea Dandolo, ratified the treaty with Aragon. The treaty specified that Aragon was responsible for disrupting Genoese activities in the western Mediterranean and Italy while Venice would take responsibility for the eastern sea and the Levant.

A Genoese armada of sixty two ships under the command of Paganino Doria sailed into the Aegean not long after the loss of Galata and besieged the Venetian fortress of Oreos on their third of Euboea, where Pisani was staying. A body of three hundred horse and a large infantry contingent was dispatched from the Duchy of Athens to hold Oreos. The siege lasted from 15 August until 20 October 1351, when Doria was forced to lift the siege by the arrival of a Catalan fleet led by Pons de Catapan and the assistance the garrison received from Venice. Pteleum was ravaged and looted and the entire archipelago suffered a spate of Genoese piracy.

In January 1352, Venice drew the Republic of Pisa into the war on side against Genoa, which had defeated the Pisans at the Battle of Meloria three generations earlier, putting an end to their power in the Mediterranean. On 13 February, a Venetian-Aragonese fleet met the Genoese near Constantinople in the indecisive Battle of Bosphorus and inflicted heavy losses on both sides, but in the end Venice had to abandon the Bosphorus and the Aragonese fleet was hardest hit. On 6 May, the emperor had no choice but to come to terms of peace with Paganino Doria. Venice responded by paying his son-in-law, John V Palaeologus, to enter the war against his father and the Genoese. John VI then began a campaign for papal support and the union of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Pope Innocent VI responded with enthusiastic support for the Byzantine emperor in a letter of 15 March 1353 and in another of 29 September, addressed to Genoa, urged the city-state to make peace with Venice and Aragon. The pope's enthusiasm quickly abated as John Palaeologus entered Constantinople the next year (1354). On 29 August 1354, the Genoese were defeated at Alghero on Sardinia and forced to submit to Giovanni Visconti, Lord of Milan, who then financed a fleet with which to send Doria back to the east, where he defeated Venice and captured thirty five galleys at Zonklon. This last defeat was a factor in the deposition of doge Marino Faliero. Venice made peace with Genoa on 1 June 1355.

War of 1378–1381

In 1378 open fighting broke out again between Venice and Genoa over possession of the Greek island of Tenedos. It is generally called the "War of Chioggia" after the battle which was fought there in 1381. This conflict saw the first use of shipborne cannons in support of amphibious assault operations, and perhaps against Genoese galleys. The conflict was nearly disastrous for both sides, and Genoa was certainly crippled. Venice might have suffered as badly, were it not for its admirals Vettor Pisani and Carlo Zeno.

In 1379, the Genoese defeated the Venetians off Pula, but the Venetians trapped them in the lagoons of Chioggia and destroyed their fleet in 1380 in the Battle of Chioggia. Through the mediation of the "Green Count" of Savoy, Amadeus VI, the two sides made a peace treaty at Turin which, due to Genoa's ruin, was to last a good time.

References

*Setton, Kenneth M. "Catalan Domination of Athens 1311–1380". Revised edition. London: Variorum, 1975.
*Norwich, John Julius. "A History of Venice". New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982.
*Rodón i Oller, Francesch. "Fets de la Marina de guerra catalana". Barcelona: 1898.

Notes