The Origins of Venice Italy

According to the tradition, Venice was founded in 421 AD on April 25th, Saint Mark’s day, who is the patron saint of Venice. during the Romanic period Venice was not the name of the city we know now but it was the name given to the northern region of Italy. It was just after the fall of the Empire and the arriving of the Longobards that the name started to be used in indicating the settlements that born in a group of small islands in the lagoon. For nearly 1400 years, the two or three miles of shallow water separating Venice from mainland Italy, had protected and isolated Venice from invaders and from the Italian political life. 

Untouched by the Pope and imperialism warfare, feudalism and territorial squabbles, they fixed their attention toward the East and the rich market of Levantine and Constantinople. It was in this way that started the grand trade empire of the Venetian Republic. After having fight against Romans, Arabs and pirates to maintain its autonomy, in 1000 Venice started spreading its commercial boundaries. Then Venice took part to the Crusade to enlarge its business opportunity. Manu works of art were taken to Venice as a booty: for instance, the four bronze horses of St. Mark’s.

The territorial expansion of Venice

At the beginning of the XIV century, Venice started to rapidly expand toward the interior part of the Veneto, Friuli, and the Lombard cities of Brescia and Bergamo.Due to the attacks moved by other European countries, between the end of the 14^th Century and the beginning of the 15^th century, Venice started its decline and expansionism either in Italy and in East while the discovery of the American turned the attention of many merchants to the new world. But we have to wait till 1866 to see Venice jointed together with Italy.

The Origins of Venice

Venice developed a creation myth that it was founded by people fleeing Troy, but it was probably formed in the sixth century CE, when Italian refugees fleeing Lombard invaders camped on the islands in the Venice lagoon. There is evidence for a settlement in 600 CE, and this grew, having its own bishopric by the end of the 7th century. The settlement soon had an outside ruler, an official appointed by the Byzantine empire, which clung onto a part of Italy from a base in Ravenna. In 751, when the Lombards conquered Ravenna, the Byzantine dux became a Venetian Doge, appointed by the merchant families who had emerged in the town.

Growth into a Trading Power

Over the next few centuries Venice developed as a trading centre, happy to do business with both the Islamic world as well as the Byzantine empire, with whom they remained close. Indeed, in 992 Venice earned special trading rights with the empire in return for accepting Byzantine sovereignty again. The city grew richer, and independence was gained in 1082. However, they retained trading advantages with Byzantium by offering the use of their, now considerable, navy. The government also developed, the once dictatorial Doge supplemented by officials, then councils, and in 1144 Venice is first called a commune.

Venice as Trading Empire

The twelfth century saw Venice and the remainder of the Byzantine Empire engage in a series of trade wars, before the events of the early thirteenth century gave Venice the chance to establish a physical trading empire: Venice had agreed to transport a crusade to the ‘Holy Land’, but this became stuck when the crusaders couldn’t pay. Then the heir of a deposed Byzantine emperor promised to pay Venice and convert to Latin Christianity if they put him on the throne. Venice supported this, but when he was returned and unable to pay/unwilling to convert, relationships soured and the new emperor was assassinated. The crusaders then sieged, captured and sacked Constantinople. Many treasures were removed by Venice, who claimed a part of the city, Crete and large areas including parts of Greece, all of which became Venetian trading outposts in a large empire.

Venice then warred with Genoa, a powerful Italian trading rival, and the struggle reached a turning point with the Battle of Chioggia in 1380, restricting Genoan trade. Others attacked Venice too, and the empire had to be defended. Meanwhile the Doges’ power was being eroded by the nobility. After heavy discussion, in the fifteenth century Venetian expansion targeted the Italian mainland with the capture of Vicenza, Verona, Padua and Udine. This era, 1420-50, was arguably the high point of Venetian wealth and power. The population even sprang back after the Black Death, which often travelled along trade routes.

The Decline of Venice

Venice’s decline began in 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, whose expansion would threaten, and successfully seize, many of Venice’s eastern lands. In addition Portuguese sailors had rounded Africa, opening another trading route to the east. Expansion in Italy also backfired when the Pope organised the League of Cambrai to challenge Venice, defeating the city. Although the territory was regained, the loss of reputation was immense. Victories such as the Battle of Lepanto over the Turks in 1571 did not halt the decline.

For a while Venice successfully shifted focus, manufacturing more and promoting herself as the ideal, harmonious republic, a true blend of nations. When the Pope placed Venice under a papal interdict in 1606 for, amongst other things, trying priests in a secular court, Venice won a victory for secular power by forcing him to back down. But across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Venice declined, as other powers secured Atlantic and African trade routes, maritime powers like Britain and the Dutch. Venice’s seaborne empire was lost.

End of the Republic

The Venetian Republic came to an end in 1797, when Napoleon’s French army forced the city to agree to a new, pro-French, ‘democratic’ government; the city was tastefully looted. Venice was briefly Austrian after a peace treaty with Napoleon, but became French again after the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, and formed part of the short lived Kingdom of Italy. The fall of Napoleon from power saw Venice placed back under Austrian rule.

Further decline set in, although 1846 saw Venice linked to the mainland for the first time, by a railway, and the number of tourists began to exceed the local population. There was brief independence in 1848-9, when revolution ousted Austria, but the latter empire crushed the rebels. British visitors began to speak of a city in decay. In the 1860s Venice became part of the new Kingdom of Italy, where it remains to this day, and arguments over to how best treat Venice’s architecture and buildings have produced conservation efforts that retain a great sense of atmosphere. Yet the population has fallen in half since the 1950s and flooding remains a problem.

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Liechtenstein, Member of the Holy Roman Empire

A small country with a big, long history, It’s Liechtenstein. Once a part of the early Roman province of Raetia, Liechtenstein was a region ruled by the Hohemens until it became a dynasty into the 13th century. Through the following centuries, the dynasty got hold of large tracts of land in Moravia in Lower Austria, Silesia and Styria. These properties, however, were ruled under feudal lords identified with the Habsburg family. In order to be eligible for a seat in the Imperial Diet or Parliament—the Reichstag—the dynasty purchased a small part of Herchaft or lordship of Schellenberg and Vaduz county from the Hohenems under whom the dynasty was first invested with a possession.

In January 1719, Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor, announced that Vaduz and Schellenberg were to be united into one territory named Liechtenstein which eventually became a member of the Holy Roman Empire. But after the Empire fell into the hands of French Emperor Napoleon I in 1806, all the working mechanisms of Liechtenstein broke down, leading it to join in 1815 the German Confederation led by the Emperor of Austria. After Austria granted it a limited Constitution in 1818, the government started undertaking economic activities such as ceramics making and cotton weaving, and building infrastructures as well.

After a new Constitution was drawn in 1921, Prince Franz Joseph II became the first ruler to live in the Castle above Vaduz. He was succeeded by his son, Prince Hans Adam II upon his death in 1979. In 2004, Prince Adam named his son Prince Alois, his permanent representative to his various government functions.

The Austrian Liechtenstein family acquired the fiefs of Vaduz and Schellenberg in 1699 and 1713 respectively, and they became an independent principality under the Holy Roman Empire in 1719 under the name Liechtenstein. The French under Napoleon occupied the country for a few years, but Liechtenstein regained its independence in 1815 within the new German Confederation. In 1868, after the Confederation dissolved, Liechtenstein disbanded its army of 80 men and declared its permanent neutrality, which was respected during both World Wars.

In 1919 Liechtenstein entrusted its external relations to neutral Switzerland. After World War II, Liechtenstein became increasingly important as a financial center, and the country became more prosperous. In 1989, Prince Hans Adam II succeeded his father to the throne, and in 1996 settled a long-running dispute with Russia over Liechtenstein family's archives, which had been confiscated during the Soviet occupation of Vienna in 1945 and later moved to Moscow. In 1978, Liechtenstein became a member of the Council of Europe, and then joined the UN in 1990, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1991, and both the European Economic Area (EEA) and the World Trade Organization in 1995.

The political parties are the moving forces with regard to the composition of the government and in the Parliament. For the 2001-05 legislature period of office, one Councilor and three deputies are women. From 1938 to 1997 Liechtenstein had a coalition government. Until a few years ago there were only two parties in Parliament, the Fatherland Union and the Progressive Citizen's Party. Liechtenstein's distinctive form of coalition government came to an end in April 1997. The Fatherland Union took sole responsibility for the government during the 1997 to 2001 Parliament, with its members filling all the positions on the government committee. Since 2001 it has been the Progressive Citizen's Party that has provided all the members of the government. The minority parties, as opposition parties, act as a check on the government in Parliament and on parliamentary commissions.

The Liechtenstein electorate on March 16, 2003, endorsed Prince Hans-Adam II's proposal for a revision of the Liechtenstein Constitution with 64.3% of votes. Prior to the vote, the Prince indicated that he and the reigning family would leave the country if his endorsed Constitution failed to pass. The Prince now has the power to dissolve Parliament and appoint an interim government, dismiss individual members of government, and veto any parliamentary legislation by not signing the bill within 6 months. Without the approval of the reigning prince, no further constitutional amendments can be adopted, except in the case of a referendum abolishing the royal house. Finally, the Prince now has the final say on the appointment of judges, and the State Court loses its key competence to mediate between the government and the Prince on constitutional matters. The opponents of the Prince's proposal announced an appeal against the referendum decision before the Liechtenstein State Court. The Council of Europe has indicated that it may "monitor" the new Constitution. 

For more informations about Liechtenstein, please click here!

 HAVE  A NICE TRIPSSSS!!!