The Rise and Fall of the Venetian Empire

Venice is one of the world’s greatest cities. In the second half of the 15th century, Venice was one of the richest and most powerful states in Europe with an empire stretching from the Alps to Cyprus and the Levant. Venice was also the center of a world-economy with trade networks extending across the Mediterranean Sea, into the Atlantic to England and Flanders, across Central Asia to China, and into the Levant and across the Indian Ocean to India and the Far East. For a century, Venice’s war fleet dominated the Mediterranean. But more importantly, the Venetian Republic was one of the most stable and long-lasting polities in history, undisturbed by major political strife, revolution, civil war, and religious conflict, earning Venice the moniker of the Serenissima – the Most Serene Republic of Saint Mark. How did the Venetians accomplish this? How did the Republic last for well over a millennium? These two lectures trace the rise (Session 1) and fall (Session 2) of Venice from the Republic’s foundation in the 5th century to its demise nearly 13 centuries later at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797.

Richard Callas is a retired 30-year career naval officer and former Executive Director of the Navy’s Surface Warfare Schools Command as a government civil servant, responsible for the training of 80,000 service members annually. He has an undergraduate degree from Boston College in Political Science and a master’s degree from Salve Regina University in International Relations. During his time in the Navy, he commanded two ships, USS AUSTIN (LPD-4) and USS IWO JIMA (LHD-7). In retirement, as an amateur historian, he has been researching and authoring a study in 16^th century geopolitics.