Brief History of Venice

History: Prior to the 7 and 8th centuries, the area which is now Venice was essentially a muddy lagoon comprising over a hundred islands. In this area, there were no mountains or even hills for Romans escape to from the invading hoards. So the fleeing Romans had to go to plan B: to escape from the invaders, they set up huts on muddy the lagoons where they lived in poverty for centuries.

In Europe, during the early crusades to 200 thousand soldiers traveled by foot towards Jerusalem during the first three Crusades. Most of them died along the way. Slowly, Venice had begun to build ships to transport goods from the Middle East. By the 1200s, the fourth crusade had begun and Venice had became a prospering sea port as well as a central point for transporting crusaders to the Holy Land. They soon began to control shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. This was their new niche. And they prospered mightily. This was the golden age for Venice, when she built St. Mark's Church. You will see more of that later.

In 1797 that awful Napoleon conquered Venice and did lots of damage. They rousted him out. He came back. Instead of killing him the second time, they put him on one of their islands to die, which he did.

In 1866, Italy finally freed herself from another conqueror, the Austrians who had previously conquered most of Europe including Venice and all of Italy.