The Republic of Venice 1782

Italy today is a single sovereign republic. It's home to some of the magnificent empires of history, the most popular one being, the Roman Empire. Italy also had its dependencies in the Modern Age, in African territories of Ethiopia, Libya, Eritrea and Somaliland in the 19th-20th centuries. But going a little back, there was another Italian empire that spread in the 18th century around the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The beautiful city of Venice once had its own independent empire, called the Most Serene Republic of Venice, or Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia / Serenìsima Repùblega Vèneta. 

The origin of this republic dates back to the 5th century when the city was founded on 25th March 421 AD as part of the Italia Annonaria province of the Western Roman Empire. But the first Chief Magistrate or Doge / Dux Veneticorum was assigned in 697 AD, marking the beginning of the Venetian Empire in its infancy. In the year 840 AD, the Bavarian governor, the King of Italy and Middle Francia, King Lothair I recognised Venetian independence and it was just a tiny coastal strip around today's Venezia (Venice) region. It would be the year 1143 when terms such as provincia Venecia and other official names start appearing in documents and thus starts the era of Commune of Venice. In the 14th-15th centuries onwards, territories would expand to Treviso, Chioggia, Feltre, Vicenza, Belluno, Basona, Verona, Padua, Dalmatia  (in today's Croatia) and the Margraviate of Istria; although the last one was shared between Venice and Austria. By the year 1462, the Republic of Venice had expanded to the Duchies of Friuli and Cadore and was a key participant in the Mediterranean trade hegemony. In today's political sense, the Republic of Venice in the 15th century was spread throughout northeastern parts of Italy and parts of Slovenia, Austria and Croatia. 

But the Venetian Empire wasn't just restricted to the Adriatic. In the year 1423, Saloníki (Thessalonica), part of the Ottoman Empire was occupied by Venice, thus expanding its superiority on Greek lands. The Peloponnese peninsula or the territory of Morea was also occupied by the Venetians and a Venetian Kingdom of Morea (Governorate of the Ionian Islands) existed between 1685 to 1715. The Greek islands of Cephalonia (Kealoniá), Corfu (Kérkyra), Cerigo (Kythíra), Cerigotto (Ántikythíra), Santa Maura (Levkáda), Zante (Zákynthos), Ithaca (Itháki), Paxos (Paxoí), etc. were all part of the Venetian Empire till its dismantling in the year 1797. Venice also had its dependencies in Albania in Butrinto / Bouthrotó (Butrint) and Durazzo (Durrës) from the late 14th century to 1797 (Durazzo was tossed to the Ottomans in 1501). In the same late-15th century (1489), the Kingdom of Cyprus (Regno di Cipro) is also annexed to the Venetian territory till 1573 when it was handed over to the Ottomans. 

When the European ships planned out charters to explore new territories outside Europe, indirectly Venice's name can be mentioned in this expedition as well. Technically, before the establishment of the gigantic English East India Company, the predecessors were the Muscovy Company and Venice Company, which was established in the 16th century to trade with Venice (and its colonies) and the Muscovite Kingdom. But the company didn't last for too long and it was merged with the Turkey Company to form the Levant Company in 1592 that existed till 1825 and traded with the Levant regions of what today would be Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Cyprus. Not just this, the Venetian Republic was also an ally to the Indian kingdoms of Gujarat and Calicut, in a naval war near Diu, in the year 1509. The Battle of Diu was fought between the Portuguese on one hand against a combined power of the Sultanates of Gujarat and the Mamluks, supported by the Zamorins of Calicut, the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. But surprisingly, the Portuguese single-handedly defeated this combined alliance and opened Indian waters to European traders, soon to be followed by the Dutch, English, French and the Danes. 

On its dismissal in 1797, Venice was stretched between the French (under Napoleon Bonaparte) and Austrians, and it would be the mid-1800s when the Austrian rule would be terminated (briefly) by a revolt in 1848. In 1866, Austria ceded Venice to France on 9th October 1866 and just 3 days later, it was handed over to Italy. During the First World War, between October 1917 to November 1918, Venice was once again occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire up to the Piave River. 

The Venetian Republic can also be grouped under a handful of European powers that had their colonies restricted only to the European mainland. The other being the Austria-Hungary Empire that did try to establish trade factories on the coast of India and Mozambique in the 18th century but had to soon surrender to the bigger players like the Portuguese and the English. Another example would be that of Sweden whose Swedish East India Company also tried establishing trade connections with India, but failed just like the Austrians. 

Here's a recreated map of the Republic of Venice dating 1782, originally created by an Italian cartographer Antonio Zatta (2757 - 1797). The Dalmatian and Greek dependencies are not marked, though.