venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 141
followed the Venetian takeover of Zante in 1482.37 In all these cases Ven-
ice bought security for cash. Not surprisingly, the money needed for these
payments did not come from Venice but was paid out of the revenues of
the respective overseas territories.
In the Venetian territories south of Ragusa, usually referred to as “Vene-
tian Albania,” Venice had to deal during most of the 15th century with local
potentates and families who were in constant conflict with one another.
The Balša, the Crnojević, the Thopia, the Kastriota, and the Ducagjin were
sometimes interested in receiving Venetian protection but could also
change camps without scruple when it suited their interests. For Venice
it was more comfortable to engage local armies than to send its own navy
or land forces to fight in that rugged land. Considering the fickle nature
of these alliances, the territories directly controlled by these lords could
hardly be considered “Venetian.” Nevertheless, in some cases, especially
when Ottoman pressure increased or when some of these dynasties died
out, Venice could gain a foothold in their strongholds. As in the Greek
world, the circumstances characteristic of this phase of Ottoman expan-
sion played into Venetian hands, since the area was greatly fragmented
and partly ruled by local families that had no great chance to withstand
an Ottoman attack and so were sometimes ready to receive a pension or
other privileges in exchange for their small territories.
Not a few colonies, however, came under Venetian rule as a result of
military conquest. This was the case of Lepanto in 1407; of several port
towns in Dalmatia and Albania in the early 15th century, such as Antivari,
Budua, Dulcigno, and Sebenico; of Zante and Cephalonia towards the end
of the same century; to a certain extent also of Cyprus in 1473–74, although
military presence, without any real fighting sufficed for securing Venice’s
hold there; of the Apulian towns in the 1490s; of the interior regions of
Istria in 1508–09; of the Dalmatian fortress of Clissa during the war of
Cyprus; of the islands of Santa Maura (Lefkada) and Aegina as well as the
entire Morea (Peloponnese) in the 1680s; of Castelnuovo (Herzeg Novi)
and Risano in the Bocche di Cattaro as well as of the extended Dalmatian
territories of the Acquisto nuovo during the Candia War (1645–69); and of
the Dalmatian region of Imoschi (Acquisto nuovissimo) during the last war
37 Ermanno Lunzi, Della condizione politica delle Isole Jonie sotto il dominio veneto
(Venice, 1858), pp. 191–218; Marianna Kolyva-Karaleka, “Η Ζάκυνθος μεταξύ του Α’ και του Γ’
βενετοτουρκικού πόλεμου. Συμβολή στην πολιτική ιστορία και στην ιστορία των θεσμών” (Ph.D.
diss., University of Athens, 1989), pp. 26–38.