Venetian–Genoese Wars

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The Venetian–Genoese Wars were four conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa which took place between 1256 and 1381. Each was resolved almost entirely through naval clashes, and they were connected to each other by interludes during which episodes of piracy and violence between the two Italian trading communities in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea were commonplace, in a "cold war" climate. Starting in the 11th century, Venice and Genoa had built commercial empires which, in the 13th century, became thalassocracies so solid as to oust the other maritime republics and to make the two cities privileged interlocutors of state structures such as the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, etc. In the second half of the 13th century the tensions between Venice and Genoa, exacerbated by the Venetian control over Constantinople following the Fourth Crusade, exploded. The first conflict, known as the War of Saint Sabas (1256-1270), was a Venetian victory, though...

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