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 Genoa's
history goes far back into ancient times. A city cemetery, dating from the
4th century BC,
testifies to the occupation of the site by the Greeks, but the fine
harbour probably was in use much earlier. Destroyed by the Carthaginians
in 209BC,
the town was rebuilt by the Romans, who used it as a base during their
wars with the Ligurians. Under the Romans, the city enjoyed municipal
rights and exported skins, wood, and honey.
Little
is known of Genoese history from the fall of the Roman Empire (476) until
the 11th century, by which time the city had become a maritime republic
governed by consuls. Genoa then contributed ships to the campaign against
Saracen corsairs in Italian waters. The Genoese, in alliance with Pisa,
eventually drove the Saracens from settlements on the islands of Corsica
and Sardinia, which thereafter became prizes in a long naval war between
the two city-states. In the 12th century the Genoese extended their
mastery over the adjacent coast and nearby mountain valleys and laid the
foundations of future naval greatness and prosperity. Genoese ships
transported Crusaders to the Middle East and returned laden with booty.
Genoese merchants, profiting from the newly awakened European demand for
goods from the Middle East, were to be found in all the principal centres
of trade. Genoese forts and trading posts spread through the eastern
Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and eventually into the Black Sea. Their
trade, facilitated by friendly relations with the Byzantine Empire,
brought Genoa and Venice into increasing rivalry, which broke into open
warfare in the mid-13th century, just as Genoese power reached its height.
At the Battle of Meloria (1284), Genoa crushed Pisa, the power of which
thereafter declined; the Venetians were defeated at Curzola in 1299. The
oligarchy of prosperous merchants and bankers that had ruled the Genoese
Republic after 1257 subsequently dealt on equal terms with the courts of
popes and kings. Genoese expansion, in fact, had been largely the work of
citizens whose primary concern was the advancement of their private
interests. As a result, the city was torn between factions contending for
control of the government. The rival groups did not hesitate to call in
outside powers to aid them. Even the dogeship, the institution of first
magistrate, established in 1339, was unable to master the ensuing
disorders. Although the struggle sapped Genoese strength, and despite
continued bitter rivalry with Venice, the Genoese largely held their own
for several decades. In 1380, however, their fleet fell into Venetian
hands at Chioggia, a blow from which their naval power never recovered.
Venice drew far ahead, and Genoese overseas possessions were lost one by
one, although the last, Corsica, was held until 1768, when it was ceded to
France. Internal strife finally ended under the rigid dogeship that Andrea
Doria had established with the help of the Holy Roman emperor in 1528, and
Genoa prospered as a shipbuilding port and banking centre. Although
powerful neighbours, France and Piedmont, dominated the city, Genoese
independence was respected until 1797, when Napoleon Bonaparte abolished
the dogeship and incorporated Genoa into the newly organized Ligurian
Republic, which in turn was absorbed by the French Empire in 1805. The
kingdom of Sardinia annexed the city in 1815. In the last quarter of the
19th century the port of Genoa was widened and modernized, and the city
attracted a variety of industries that process imported raw materials and
goods for export. During World War II repeated bombings heavily damaged
the industrial sections and harbour of the city. Sardinia, Kingdom of,
Italian kingdom (1720-1861) formed by the union of the duchy of Savoy and
the island of Sardinia. It is sometimes known as the kingdom of
Piedmont-Sardinia.
By
the Treaty of London (1720) Austria ceded the island of Sardinia to the
house of Savoy, and the duke of Savoy adopted the title king of Sardinia.
The mainland part of the kingdom of Sardinia, originally comprising Savoy,
Piedmont (Piemonte), and Nice, was gradually expanded over the next
century and a half. In 1734 King Charles Emmanuel III acquired Novara and
Tortona for Sardinia and, in 1748, Vigevaresco. Throughout the century,
social and economic conditions on the island were improved, and the
settlement of Piedmontese, Corsicans, and Ligurians was encouraged to
cement ties with the mainland. Sardinia saw its power diminish after the
Seven Years' War and the French Revolution, but at the Congress of Vienna
in 1815 it recovered Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy and acquired Genoa.
Sardinia
exercised vital leadership for Italians during the Risorgimento, the
movement for Italian unity and independence. After the Revolution of 1848
the Sardinians received a constitution. In 1858-1859 the kingdom annexed
Lombardy (Lombardia), Modena, Parma, and most of the Papal States. Upon
creation of the kingdom of Italy in 1861, Sardinia's King Victor Emmanuel
II became king of Italy, and the kingdom of Sardinia came to an end.
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