142 benjamin arbel
with the Ottomans (1715–18).38 From around the early 16th century, there
is a clear change in the modes of acquisition of new territories. Whereas
previously, at least in some cases Venice had the option between several
modi operandi—down payment, pension, diplomacy, military action, or
some combination of these methods—from the early 16th century the
expansion (and, of course, contraction) of Venice’s overseas territories
depended on one factor alone—military action. These were the iron cen-
turies of the eastern Mediterranean, with Venice’s stato da mar as a major
protagonist of the numerous military confrontations in which Venice was
engaged.
Rise and Decline
Modern historiography tends to depict the stato da mar as an enterprise
in continuous decline from the late Middle Ages onwards. Decline is
above all conceived in terms of size, but in this too there seems to be
a misconception of historical realties with regard to the chronology of
expansion and contraction. Thus, it has recently been suggested that the
acquisition of Salonica in 1423 marked the end of Venice’s great age of
expansion on its maritime frontier,39 and one scholar even implies that
there was hardly any stato da mar left beyond the end of the 15th century.40
Yet it is doubtful whether focusing on the loss of colonies and ignoring the
addition of new ones is the right way of following the process of expansion
and contraction.
The dynamics and dimensions of Venice’s overseas empire are better
understood by the consideration of two basic factors: the size of Venice’s
overseas colonies and the overall mass of population living there. By these
standards, the 15th century can by no means be taken as a phase of con-
traction. As a matter of fact, the stato da mar reached its maximum size
in territorial terms during the first years of the 16th century. This affirma-
tion is based on the estimation of the comprehensive size the territories
acquired between the 1470s and 1503 (Cyprus, Veglia, Zante, Cephalonia,
Ithaca, and the Apulian port towns) compared to that of territories which
38 Paul Pisani, “Les possessions vénitiennes de Dalmatie du XXVe au XVIIe siècle,”
Compte-Rendu du Congrès International des Sciences Géographiques (Paris, 1890), p. 8.
39 O’Connell, Men of Empire, p. 33.
40 Bernard Doumerc, “Les Vénitiens confrontés au retour des repatriés de l’empire
colonial d’outre-mer (fin XVe–début XVIe siècle),” in Michel Balard and Alain Ducelleir,
eds., Migrations et diasporas meditérranéennes (Xe–XVIe siècles) (Paris, 2002), pp. 375–98.