Jillian Henderson

Making the Mediterranean

October 27, 2015

Week 3 Observation Assignment

            Mediterranean trade routes have had a complicated past due to the fact that the relationships between countries and cities, as well as the routes themselves were constantly changing.  Perhaps one of the most complicated relationships existed between the Ottomans and the Venetians, two of the greatest cities in the Mediterranean in the 14^th through the 16^th century.  Port cities held a great importance in these times because they provided goods to cities that were located more towards the center of the country, that were sometimes otherwise not as important in land trade routes.  Soon, however, a narrow strip running from Venice through Milan and Florence to Genoa changed the Mediterranean economically and gastronomically.  Land and sea trade routes were both equally important, but they served different purposes for different cities.

            All of the ports on the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, except for Morocco, were under Ottoman control by 1535, and Venice felt very isolated and concerned by this.  Venetians feared the Turks because through the distance, the Turks were perceived as powerful, invincible and barbarian enemies, causing Venetians to rely more heavily on sea trade than ever.  The Turks were known for being generally weaker at sea and stronger on land, so Venetians worked to maintain their coastline more than their land routes.  After some time, however, Venetians seems to become well received by people in Constantinople and Smyrna, causing the Ottoman Empire to continue to supply the Republic with raw silk, cotton, coral and grains.  Venice at one point actively traded with the Ottoman Empire, even living off of these goods, and this led to Venetian traders being exempt from taxation in Constantinople and it was forbidden for a Venetian ship to be detained for more than three days, with limited tariffs granted to them.  The relationship between Ottomans and Venetians was clearly a complicated one due to the fact that Venice went from fearing the Ottomans to living off of them and even being favored by the Ottoman Empire in the sea routes.

            On the other hand, there were many land routes in the Mediterranean trading system.  Roads permitted exchanges, which led to the gradual division of labor by which the towns grew up.  Without the roads and the markets that existed on them, there would not have been towns due to the fact that this form of movement was vital to the transportation of food and people.  Bazaars, markets, and towns were meeting places in cities as places of trade and the beginning of a number of movements.  Venice was becoming an industrial port and banking began to establish itself as an important industry.  Banks dated back to the 13^th and 14^th century where Genoa had the most sophisticated credit machinery of the Middle Ages, Florence had great merchants who had their own firms which held sway in Europe and the Mediterranean, and the piazzas were financial centers that emerged in Europe.  All the “capitalist” activity that stemmed from the banking system was in the hands of Florentines and the Genoese for these reasons; the Genoese provided silver and the Florentines owned houses in the city, and the two controlled all the exchanges.

            These towns flourished for some time, and the Venetians were the leading city-state of the time, but the success brought a huge growth in the urban population of the main cities because of immigration, causing towns to lose their liberties with the expansion of their territorial states.  This eventually also led to famine, trade controls, diseases such as the Plague, and slower transportation of food and other goods.  As these conditions worsened, underlying political crises emerged, ultimately having the biggest effect on the Ottoman Empire when Constantinople fell.  Nations and cities suffered from major upheavals and had to adapt to new conditions and ways of life.