The Early Renaissance and the Turn Toward Italy

Abstract

Abstract In the early fifteenth century, Venice made a major foreign policy shift that ushered in the Venetian Renaissance. Through the course of five wars, it created a mainland state that eventually came to within forty miles of Milan. Crucially, it did not extend representation to these new subject territories and relied for defense of this new terraferma state on mercenary captains (condottieri) whose loyalty was often suspect. Also, the Venetians now had to reimagine themselves as rulers of an empire, although they had few workable models. At the same time, their overseas territories faced a new threat from the Ottoman Turks who conquered Constantinople in 1453. The nobility continued to refine its status, with increasing emphasis on the status of noblewomen. The place of the doge in the Venetian Republic again came to the forefront when the Council of Ten deposed Doge Francesco Foscari.