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Venice expanded as well along the Dalmatian coast from Istria to Albania, which was acquired from
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King Ladislaus of Naples during the civil war in Hungary. Ladislaus was about to lose the conflict
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and had decided to escape to Naples, but before doing so, he agreed to sell his now practically
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forfeit rights on the Dalmatian cities for the reduced sum of 100,000 ducats.
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Venice exploited the situation and quickly installed nobility to govern the area, for example,
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Count Filippo Stipanov in Zara. This move by the Venetians was a response to the threatening
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expansion of Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. Control over the northeast main land routes was
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also a necessity for the safety of the trades. By 1410, Venice had a navy of 3,300 ships (manned by
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36,000 men) and taken over most of what is now the Veneto, including the cities of Verona (which
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swore its loyalty in the Devotion of Verona to Venice in 1405) and Padua.
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The situation in Dalmatia had been settled in 1408 by a truce with King Sigismund of Hungary, but
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the difficulties of Hungary finally granted to the republic the consolidation of its Adriatic
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dominions. At the expiration of the truce in 1420, Venice immediately invaded the Patriarchate of
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Aquileia, and subjected Traù, Spalato, Durazzo, and other Dalmatian cities. In Lombardy, Venice
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acquired Brescia in 1426, Bergamo in 1428, and Cremona in 1499.
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Slaves were plentiful in the Italian city-states as late as the 15th century. Between 1414 and
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1423, some 10,000 slaves, imported from Caffa, were sold in Venice.
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In 1454, a conspiracy for a planned rebellion against Venice was dismantled in Candia. The
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conspiracy was led by Sifis Vlastos as an opposition to the religious reforms for the unification
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of Churches agreed at the Council of Florence.
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In 1481, Venice retook nearby Rovigo, which it had held previously from 1395 to 1438; in February
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1489, the island of Cyprus, previously a crusader state (the Kingdom of Cyprus), was added to
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Venice's holdings.
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League of Cambrai, the loss of Cyprus, and Battle of Lepanto
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The Ottoman Empire started sea campaigns as early as 1423, when it waged a seven-year war with the
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Venetian Republic over maritime control of the Aegean, the Ionian, and the Adriatic Seas. The wars
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with Venice resumed after the Ottomans captured the Kingdom of Bosnia in 1463, and lasted until a
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favorable peace treaty was signed in 1479 just after the troublesome siege of Shkodra. In 1480 (now
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no longer hampered by the Venetian fleet), the Ottomans besieged Rhodes and briefly captured
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Otranto. By 1490, the population of Venice had risen to about 180,000 people.
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War with the Ottomans resumed from 1499 to 1503. In 1499, Venice allied itself with Louis XII of
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France against Milan, gaining Cremona. In the same year, the Ottoman sultan moved to attack Lepanto
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by land, and sent a large fleet to support his offensive by sea. Antonio Grimani, more a
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businessman and diplomat than a sailor, was defeated in the sea battle of Zonchio in 1499. The
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Turks once again sacked Friuli. Preferring peace to total war both against the Turks and by sea,
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Venice surrendered the bases of Lepanto, Durazzo, Modon, and Coron.
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Venice's attention was diverted from its usual maritime position by the delicate situation in
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Romagna, then one of the richest lands in Italy, which was nominally part of the Papal States, but
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effectively divided into a series of small lordships which were difficult for Rome's troops to
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control. Eager to take some of Venice's lands, all neighbouring powers joined in the League of
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Cambrai in 1508, under the leadership of Pope Julius II. The pope wanted Romagna; Emperor
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Maximilian I: Friuli and Veneto; Spain: the Apulian ports; the king of France: Cremona; the king of
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Hungary: Dalmatia, and each one some of another's part. The offensive against the huge army
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enlisted by Venice was launched from France.
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On 14 May 1509, Venice was crushingly defeated at the battle of Agnadello, in the Ghiara d'Adda,
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marking one of the most delicate points in Venetian history. French and imperial troops were
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occupying Veneto, but Venice managed to extricate itself through diplomatic efforts. The Apulian
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ports were ceded in order to come to terms with Spain, and Pope Julius II soon recognized the
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danger brought by the eventual destruction of Venice (then the only Italian power able to face
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kingdoms like France or empires like the Ottomans).
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The citizens of the mainland rose to the cry of "Marco, Marco", and Andrea Gritti recaptured Padua
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in July 1509, successfully defending it against the besieging imperial troops. Spain and the pope
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broke off their alliance with France, and Venice regained Brescia and Verona from France, also.
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After seven years of ruinous war, the Serenissima regained its mainland dominions west to the Adda
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River. Although the defeat had turned into a victory, the events of 1509 marked the end of the
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Venetian expansion.
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In 1489, the first year of Venetian control of Cyprus, Turks attacked the Karpasia Peninsula,
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pillaging and taking captives to be sold into slavery. In 1539, the Turkish fleet attacked and
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destroyed Limassol. Fearing the ever-expanding Ottoman Empire, the Venetians had fortified
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Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia, but most other cities were easy prey. By 1563, the population of
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Venice had dropped to about 168,000 people.
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In the summer of 1570, the Turks struck again, but this time with a full-scale invasion rather than
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a raid. About 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Mustafa Pasha
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landed unopposed near Limassol on 2 July 1570, and laid siege to Nicosia. In an orgy of victory on
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the day that the city fell – 9 September 1570 – 20,000 Nicosians were put to death, and every
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church, public building, and palace was looted. Word of the massacre spread, and a few days later,
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Mustafa took Kyrenia without having to fire a shot. Famagusta, however, resisted and put up a
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defense that lasted from September 1570 until August 1571.
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The fall of Famagusta marked the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus. Two months later, the
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naval forces of the Holy League, composed mainly of Venetian, Spanish, and papal ships under the
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command of Don John of Austria, defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto. Despite
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victory at sea over the Turks, Cyprus remained under Ottoman rule for the next three centuries. By
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1575, the population of Venice was about 175,000 people, but partly as a result of the plague of
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1575–76 dropped to 124,000 people by 1581.
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17th century
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According to economic historian Jan De Vries, Venice's economic power in the Mediterranean had
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declined significantly by the start of the 17th century. De Vries attributes this decline to the
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loss of the spice trade, a declining uncompetitive textile industry, competition in book publishing
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due to a rejuvenated Catholic Church, the adverse impact of the Thirty Years' War on Venice's key
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trade partners, and the increasing cost of cotton and silk imports to Venice.
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In 1606, a conflict between Venice and the Holy See began with the arrest of two clerics accused of
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petty crimes, and with a law restricting the Church's right to enjoy and acquire landed property.
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Pope Paul V held that these provisions were contrary to canon law, and demanded that they be
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repealed. When this was refused, he placed Venice under an interdict which forbade clergymen from
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excersing almost all priestly duties. The Republic paid no attention to the interdict or the act of
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excommunication, and ordered its priests to carry out their ministry. It was supported in its
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decisions by the Servite monk Paolo Sarpi, a sharp polemical writer who was nominated to be the
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Signoria's adviser on theology and canon law in 1606. The interdict was lifted after a year, when
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France intervened and proposed a formula of compromise. Venice was satisfied with reaffirming the
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principle that no citizen was superior to the normal processes of law.
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Rivalry with Hapsburg Spain and the Holy Roman Empire led to Venice's last significant wars in
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Italy and the northern Adriatic. Between 1615 and 1618 Venice fought Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
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in the Uskok war in the northern Adriatic and on the Republic's eastern border, while in Lombardy,
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to the west, Venetian troops skirmished with the forces of Don Pedro de Toledo Osorio, Spanish
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governor of Milan, around Crema in 1617 and in the countryside of Romano di Lombardia in 1618. A
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fragile peace did not last, and in 1629 the Most Serene Republic returned to war with Spain and the
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Holy Roman Empire in the War of the Mantuan succession. During the brief war a Venetian army led by
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provveditore Zaccaria Sagredo and reinforced by French allies was disastrously routed by Imperial
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forces at the battle of Villabuona and Venice's closest ally Mantua was sacked, but reversals
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elsewhere for the Holy Roman empire and Spain ensured the Republic suffered no territorial loss and