Venice in the new world?

Um. Yes, they did. If the Republic of Venice had lasted longer, then they would have, no doubt, colonized large parts of the New World.
 
Um. Yes, they did. If the Republic of Venice had lasted longer, then they would have, no doubt, colonized large parts of the New World.

The Republic lasted until 1797.

How would a Mediterranean state based in the Adriatic maintain lines of trade adn communication with any American colonies?
 
My Stipulations

It would require a entirely new outlook on the part of dominating Venetian interests at the time. Perhaps if they decided instead of putting all their effort into pillaging Byzantium they decided to expanded their trade route along Western Africa and beating the Castilians to setting up an outpost on the Canary Islands the Doges would have had an appetite to contemplate what lied westward across the ocean. Perhaps if Marco's adventures became more widely accepted they would have thought hard about establishing a safer trade route into Asia?

But the major problem that prevented the Republic of Venice from going into exploration was the knock down drag out trade and conquest war they had with the Genoese. Venice also had obligations it had to fulfill during the Crusades and beyond that also kept its forces and policy strictly in the Mediterranean as well as East Africa.
 
The only way any power in the med is going to have a chance in hades of planting colonies in the Americas is to control the Straits. Plus Venice was hampered by the choke point at the Adriatic to the Med
 
It may help for Venetian Republic to completely knockout the local rivals, such as Genoa, Amalfi, Pisa, and prevent the rise of the Duchy of Milan. With much of the city-states and duchies of Italy subjugated, Venice may be able to punch well above its weight in terms of long-range military ventures. Also, securing some of the important ports of southern Spain and Morrocco sometime between th 1200-1300's, and preventing any unification of the Iberian states would strenghen Venice's capabilities in the Western Med.

Oh yes, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire may need to be curtailed as well. Due to its geographic position and demographic scope, Venice's competition within Italy and the Mediterranean would need to be fairly limited before it could extend its reach anywhere else.
 
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