Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/688

 676 GENOA vading Goths, was taken by the Lombards in the 7th century, and conquered from them in the 8th by Charlemagne, who appointed a count for the government of the coast of Ligu- ria. After the dismemberment of the Frank- ish empire, it became independent, and shared the fate of the Lombard cities, participating in their bloody struggles during the long con- test for the iron crown of Lombardy between the emperors of Germany, the Berengarii, and others. After having been pillaged in 936 by the Saracens, Genoa strengthened its navy, entered into an alliance with Pisa, and ex- pelled the Mohammedans from the islands of Corsica, Capraja, and Sardinia (1016-'21), of the two former of which it kept possession. But the increasing maritime importance of the Genoese aroused the jealousy of their com- mercial neighbors, and they had to struggle for the maintenance of their power in the western part of the Mediterranean against the rival re- public of Pisa, and in its eastern part against Venice. The hostilities with the former com- menced in the year 1070. The services of the Genoese in the first crusade were rewarded with a strip of the coast of Palestine. After the second war with Pisa (1118-'32) they un- dertook an expedition against the Moors of Spain, with a large fleet carrying a land force of 12,000 men, conquered the island of Minorca (1146), Almeria(1147), where they found im- mense booty, and, in concert with the Catalo- nians, Tortosa (1148). Their- power was also rapidly extended over the coast of the Medi- terranean ; before the close of the 12th century they were masters of Monaco, Nice, Montfer- rat, Marseilles, and nearly the whole coast of Provence. The third struggle with Pisa com- menced in 1162, and lasted for nearly a cen- tury. The early part of the fourth was marked by a great naval victory near Meloria (1284) of the Genoese over the Pisans, who lost 3,000 killed and 13,000 prisoners, most of whom were doomed by the cruelty of the victors to perish in chains; it was virtually ended by the conquest of Elba, and the destruction of the harbor of Pisa, under Corrado Doria (1290). Thus peace was conquered, and the power of the rival republic destroyed. No less severe had been the struggle with Venice since the conquest of Constantinople by the Franks (1204). Having assisted Michael Palseologus to reconquer the capital of the Byzantine em- pire (1261), the Genoese were rewarded with the suburbs of Pera and Galata, and the port of Smyrna, which made them masters of the Black sea. This brought them into collision with the Venetians, who disputed their su- premacy in those seas ; but after several naval battles a truce was concluded in 1271. On the termination of the wars with Pisa a powerful Genoese fleet crossed the Adriatic, and won a great victory near Curzola, where 84 Venetian galleys were taken or burned, and 7,000 cap- tives made, among them the admiral Dandolo. This was followed by a treaty of peace (1299), which surrendered the commerce of the Black sea to the exclusive dominion of the Genoese, whose flourishing colonies and factories de- fended by forts soon lined all its coasts. Kafia, or Feodosia, in the Crimea, became one of the finest commercial cities of Europe. Favored by the friendship and indolence of the Byzan- tines, they carried on the commerce of the East, including India, through the Black and Caspian seas. A new war with Venice broke out in 1346, in which the Genoese were victorious in a sea fight in sight of Constantinople, but were beaten in another near the coast of Sardinia. To escape the consequence of this defeat and the perils of intestine commotions, they sub- jected themselves to the duke of Milan, Gio- vanni Visconti, whose yoke, however, they soon shook off. Having recommenced the war (1377), they took Chioggia, besieged Venice, and nearly reduced it, when two of its citi- zens, Vettor Pisani and Carlo Zeno, revived the spirit of the besieged, created a new fleet, blockaded Chioggia, and compelled the Geno- ese to surrender. The peace of Turin (1381) terminated the wars of the two greatest mari- time republics of the middle ages ; it was pre- served with slight interruptions during the de- cline of both, caused particularly by the con- quests of the Turks in the East and the mari- time discoveries in the West. Giustiniani and his companions strove heroically, but in vain, to save the great bulwark of Christendom, Constantinople, and the interests of Genoa (1453) ; and Mohammed II. revenged himself by stripping the republic of all its possessions in the East; even the commercial access to the Euxine was soon closed by the Turks. Du- ring all this growth and decline of the republic, its internal commotions, caused by the parties of the plebeians and patricians, and the sub- divisions of the latter, had been a source of continual perils and distractions. Having been governed by consuls till 1190, then by podestas (annual magistrates, who were chosen from foreign cities) till 1270, it fell under the usur- pation of Obejto Spinola and Oberto Doria, the " captains of liberty," who reconciled the lower classes and maintained their power till 1291. A new change was the institution of a council consisting of 12 members, subsequently of 24, 12 nobles and 12 plebeians. The feuds and even fights of the democratic and aristo- cratic parties, the Guelphs and Ghibellines, were meanwhile continuous. The latter fac- tion, whose chiefs were the Dorias and Spino- las, was at last overcome and exiled by their opponents, headed by the Fieschi and Grimal- dis, but afterward found means of returning. These party struggles assumed the worst shape in the first half of the 14th century. To rem- edy these evils the dogate for life was instituted (1339), with the exclusion of the nobles of both parties. But neither this nor the addition of councils was sufficient to give peace to the dis- tracted state ; new contentions arose with new families; there were doges and anti-doges;