Republic of Venice

La Serenissima - the Most Serene Republic of Venice - was the dominant maritime and commercial power of the medieval Mediterranean. Its empire of trading posts and colonies stretched from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was a catastrophe for Venice, which lost its privileged trading rights in the Ottoman Empire and much of its Aegean colonial network over the following decades.

• Existed: 697 CE – 1797 CE
• Type: Entity
• Government: Oligarchic Republic
• Capital: Venice