Done by: Narzullayeva Sarvinoz Republic of Venice

Legacy

Austrian Venice lasted until 1805, when Napoleon re-took the city. After 1814, it was returned to Austria. In 1866, after a seven week war between the Italians and Austria, it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy as part of the process of Italian unification. For the citizens of the republic while it lasted across a thousand years of history, the city's stable and participatory system of government brought prosperity and often peace. The history of the republic of Venice is testimony to what a polity based on trade can achieve, even though Venice did engage in war, war was never the main concern or agenda of the city-state. To quite a degree, it saw its role as policing the sea. It often used treaties to extent its trade and at different times had "productive business agreements with princes in North Africa, Syria and Egypt".^[16] 'The Mamluks, who ruled a vast stretch of territory from Egypt to Syria from 1250 till 1517, relied," says Covington, on the Venetian navy to protect their coasts. With trading links as far East as China and outposts dotted across the Middle East, Venice was also a major conduit for East-West cultural exchange. Strong early links with the Byzantine Empire also helped to preserve the Greek legacy. From the fifteenth century, many works by Muslim scholars were printed and published in Venice.

Stability, trade and independence allowed art and culture to flourish across the centuries, and Venice was often a haven where others found refuge. The adjective it chose to describe itself, "serene," from the Latin serenus means clear, cloudless, untroubled, quiet, tranquil, or simply "peaceful" suggesting that peace was a central concern. The legacy of Venice's cultural exchange with the Muslim world can be seen in the "cupolas, pointed arches and gilt mosaics of the Basilica of Saint Mark to the labyrinth of winding streets that Cambridge University architectural historian Deborah Howard compares to a 'colossal souk.'"^[9][17] Venice was never hostile to the world of Islam in the same way that some European nations were, always balancing its interests. When the Pope "from time to time" placed "restrictions on trade with Muslims … the Venetians, eager to assert their independence from papal authority, circumvented the bans by trading surreptitiously through Cyprus and Crete." In fact, "For centuries, the Christian Republic carried on a diplomatic high-wire act, balancing competing allegiances to Muslim rulers and the Catholic Church, essentially doing whatever was necessary to keep commerce as free and unhindered as possible."^[9] Here is an example of how trade between different civilizational zones can produce a preference for peace: war disrupts commerce except, of course, for the makers and sellers of weapons. Without trade with the Muslim world, says Covington, "Venice would not have existed."