Venice History of Venice Museum
A guide to the History of Venice! Visit Get-Packing.com for Venice History and read up-to-date information, reviews and articles on Venice art and museums...
The islands of the lagoon were first settled around 400AD by people from the mainland escaping the barbarian hordes who invaded from the north as the Roman Empire collapsed. Venice became a republic attached to the Byzantine Empire, and in 697AD the first of 118 doges was elected to rule the city.
After the 4th crusade in 1202, which saw Venice take control of Constantinople, the wealth of the city, and indeed its influence grew quickly, until the Turks conquered many of Venice's lands such as Cyprus and Crete, and Venice was forced to seek assistance from mainland Italy, as the Nation States and empires that rose up instead of small city states conquered the world.
Venice was taken over by Napoleon in 1797, and passed into the hands of Austria up until 1848, by which time tourism was just beginning to start in the city.
With the railway, and mainland ports brought millions of people every year, while in the 20th century, oil refineries in Mestre brought much needed jobs to the area, until 1966, when vast floods brought catastrophe to Venice, damaging a great deal of the city, and confirming the rumours that the city was slowly sinking into the sea.
With few of the population remaining in the city, forced out by the high prices and lack of jobs to pay for them, Venice is approaching a crossroads in her history, and it seems that at some point in the future, Venice may cease to be a living city, and instead, become no more than a beautiful theme park, open only to tourists at certain times of the year.
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