Description

During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era the Aegean was almost incessantly the scene of bloody clashes between the Mediterranean powers, among them the Byzantines, Arabs, Knights of St. John, Ottomans, Genoeses and – Venetians.

Especially the Republic of St. Marc – after the coup of 1204, when the crusaders under the command of the Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo conquered Constantinople – set itself up as the real ruler of the Eastern Mediterranean. From that time on the Serenissima had been pursuing a committed overseas colonial policy. Venice’s primary goal was the control of the whole Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, because on its waves swam the wealth of the city: countless ships with tremendous treasures in their bellies. By traffic in all kinds of goods they connected the shores of the Mediterranean region as a whole, above all, however, those of the Aegean, and these businesses were exceptionally profitable for Venice itself.

Again and again challenged in its rule, the city has been succeeding by skills and calculation in maintaining its supremacy for almost half a millennium, before loosing its Aegean sphere of influence step by step again – duchies, count’s lands, and colonies, as the last the big islands Negroponte, Cyprus, and Crete.

This exciting scenario – in literature widely disregarded so far – is thrillingly described in this present informative book. The author’s, a former military attaché, newest work conveys to the interested reader not only a comprehensive survey of Aegean history, but allowes to look at the many and diverse cultural connecting lines which were passing through that area.

2008, 248 pages, hardcover, many coloured illustrations, map, 17 x 24 cm;
ISBN: 978-3-938533-23-9