Republic of Genoa
The
Republic of Genoa, in full the
Most Serene Republic of Genoa (known as the
Ligurian Republic from
1798 to
1805) was an independent state in
Liguria on the northwestern
Italian coast from ca.
1100 to
1805, when it was annexed by
Napoleonic France. Although its restoration was briefly proclaimed in
1814, following the defeat of Napoleon, this was short-lived, and the Republic was ultimately annexed by the
Kingdom of Sardinia.
The Republic initially came into existence in the early
12th century, when
Genoa became a self-governing
commune within the old
Regnum Italicum. In its early centuries, Genoa was an important trading city, second only to
Venice of the great Italian cities. It had important trading interests throughout the
Mediterranean and
Black Seas. Its principle rival was
Pisa, whom it ultimately defeated, taking the island of
Corsica from it in the late 13th century. In the contest between
Anjou and the
Aragonese for control of Sicily after the
Sicilian Vespers of
1283, Genoese merchants luckily chose the winning side and moved into the Sicilian economy with energy, lending money to the ruling class, organizing and controlling the production of sugar and silks and monopolizing the export of Sicilian grain, on which Genoa depended, situated by nature with no grain-growing
contada to support its population, but which the
maghreb also required. In exchange, Genoa received African gold (Braudel
1984).
Genoa went into a decline after the
Chioggia defeat (
1380) against the
Republic of Venice in the economic retrenchment Europe experienced in the late 14th and 15th centuries. The rising Ottoman power took Genoese emporia in the Aegean, and the Black Sea trade was squeezed off. Genoa was ultimately occupied by the French or the Milanese for much of the period. From
1499 to
1528, the Republic reached its nadir, being under nearly continual French occupation. The Spanish, with their intramural allies, the "old nobility" entrenched in the mountain fastnesses behind Genoa, captured the city on
May 30,
1522 and subjected the city to a merciless pillage. When the great admiral
Andrea Doria allied with the
Emperor to oust the French and restore Genoa's independence, a renewed prospect opened: 1528 marks the first loan from Genoese banks to Charles (Braudel 1984).
Thereafter, Genoa underwent something of a revival as a junior associate of the Spanish Empire, with Genoese bankers, in particular, financing many of the Spanish crown's foreign endeavors from their counting houses in Seville.
Fernand Braudel has even called the period 1557 to 1627 the "age of the Genoese", "of a rule that was so discreet and sophisticated that historians for a long time failed to notice it" (Braudel 1984 p. 157), though the modern visitor passing brilliant Mannerist and Baroque palazzo facades along Genoa's
Strada Nova or
via Balbi cannot fail to notice that there was conspicuous wealth, which in fact was not Genoese but concentrated in the hands of a tightly-knit circle of banker-financiers, true "
venture capitalists".
The opening for the Genoese banking consortium was the state bankruptcy of
Philip II in 1557, which threw the German banking houses into chaos and ended the reign of the Fuggers as Spanish financiers. The Genoese bankers provided the unwieldy Habsburg system with fluid credit and a dependably regular income. In return the less dependable shipments of American silver were rapidly transferred from Seville to Genoa, to provide capital for further ventures. The Genoese banker
Ambrosio Spinola, marqués de los Balbases, for instance, himself raised and led an army that fought in the
Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. The decline of Spain in the 17th century brought also the renewed decline of Genoa, and the Spanish crown's frequent bankruptcies, in particular, ruined many of Genoa's merchant houses.
Genoa continued its slow decline in the
18th century, and in
1768 was forced by endemic rebellion to sell Corsica to the French; however Genoa was considerably more prosperous than contemporary Venice, and remained a major trade center. In
1797 the Republic was occupied by the French revolutionary army of
Napoleon Bonaparte, who overthrew the old elites who had ruled the city for all of its history, and replaced them with a popular republic known as the
Ligurian Republic.
After Bonaparte's seizure of power in France, a more conservative constitution was enacted, but the Ligurian Republic's life was short - in
1805 it was annexed by France, becoming the
départements of
Apennins,
Gênes, and
Montenotte. Following the defeat of Napoleon in the spring of
1814, local elites, encouraged by the British agent
Lord William Bentinck proclaimed the restoration of the old Republic, but it was decided at the
Congress of Vienna that Genoa should be given to the
Kingdom of Sardinia. British troops suppressed the republic in December of 1814, and it was annexed by Sardinia on
January 3,
1815.
*
Genoa*
Doge of Genoa*
Braudel, Fernand,
The Perspective of the World,, part III of
Civilization and Capitalism, 1984 pp. 157-174
