Venice: The City That Was a Supply Chain
Venice looks like a postcard and works like a naval base. In this episode, we dig into the Republic of Venice as a maritime empire — the Stato da Màr, the "motionless fleet" of island garrisons Braudel described, and the lagoon that served as moat and launchpad at the same time. From the Fourth Crusade's debt-settled-in-islands to the four Venetian-Genoese wars fought over tariffs and trade access, we trace why Venice outlasted every other Italian republic by centuries. Along the way: the 810 siege where Pepin's army died in the marshes, the mixed constitution Contarini bragged about in 1544…
The skinny
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