Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/165

HISTORY. VENICE 147 into nations. The hostile Spaniards were not without their share in this measure. But the supple Venetians made no appeal to temporal arms : they left the negotiation of the difficulty to theologians, and Paolo Sarpi made peace be tween Koine and the senate. Scarcely was this trouble appeased when the Uskok pirates of the Adriatic coast and the Quarnero Islands recommenced their hostilities, and for ten years (1607-17) no merchant fleet could sail eastward without a convoy. The pirates were supported by Austria, which coveted Istria and Dalmatia, and the conflict was ended in 1617 by the treaty of Madrid between Venice and that power. Next year the Spanish conspiracy, originated by the Spanish ambassador, the marquis of Bedmar, broke out in the city itself, but was detected in time by the vigilance of the ten. The Spaniards meant to seize the arsenal by the help of some of the most influential senators. In 1622 Antonio Foscarini was disgraced because he was suspected of plotting with the Spanish ambassador ; the Catholic king carried on his intrigues everywhere. But the republic on its part was not inactive and had stirred up against Spain a formidable enemy, the duke of Savoy, to whom in one year (1617) it lent more than a million crowns of gold. From 1627 to 1631 the two enemies were again face to face in the war of the Mantuan succession ; but this time it was the duke of Savoy who made a peace to which Venice merely assented. Peace was unbroken from 1631 to 1645. But in the latter year the Turks suddenly fell on the island of Crete ; and for twenty-four years the whole forces of the republic, and every thought of the people and the nobles, were con centrated on the preservation of this colony, which had been purchased from the marquis of Montferrat at the date of the fifth crusade, and in course of time had become a place of the first importance both as a trading station and a naval port. Surprised by the suddenness of the attack, the senate appealed to Europe for aid, and the Vatican, Florence, Naples, and the knights of Malta came to their succour ; but after an alliance of thirty-seven days all the helpers regained their ships and left the Venetians to con front the enemy alone. The struggle was valiantly main tained and cost Venice, between 1645 and 1669, no less than 4,392,000 ducats. The siege of Candia alone lasted twenty-two years, and for three successive years the combats were continual. At length, on 6th September 1669, the Turks were masters of the island. Europe had looked on impassively at a struggle which, disastrous as was the issue, bore the highest testimony to the valour and patriotism of the generals of the republic. Biagio Giuliani, Tommaso Morosini, Jacopo Riva, Alvisio and Lazaro Mocenigo, Giuseppe Dolfin, and Lorenzo Marcello surpassed one another in exploits worthy of the heroes of antiquity. Between May and September 1667 thirty-two assaults were delivered and repulsed before Candia, and seventeen sorties were made by the besieged. The glory of such a resist ance did not compensate for the disaster, which reduced the public treasure of Venice from 6,000,000 sequins to 500,000. (See also GREECE, vol. xi. p. 121.) The troubles excited all over Europe by the ambition of Louis XIV. gave an interval of rest and recovery to the re public, which knew how to preserve its neutrality ; and the years from 1674 to 1684 were a period of profound peace. But the enmity of the Turk still counted on the visible weakness of his rival, and imposed on her humiliations which her isolation and the exhaustion of her finances com pelled her to submit to. Venice was only saved by the diversion produced by the siege of Vienna and the inter vention of John Sobieski ; but even then their repulse in central Europe sent back the Turks more determined than ever to be done with Venice and strip her of her whole possessions. At this crisis the senate called Francesco Moro- Morosini to the command of the fleet, a post in which he s j ni>s covered himself with glory by his bold offensive operations J^ 1 ? 1 011 " in the Peloponnssus. For fourteen years the contest was cam . bravely maintained on both sides, but the fortune of war paigns. was against the Turks. The Venetians occupied the Morea and laid siege to Athens, Morosini bombarding the Parthe non, which had been made a powder magazine. The cam paigns, renewed every spring, were marked by a series of victories : Prevesa, Navarino, Modone, Argos, Lepanto, Corinth, all added glory to the name of Morosini "il Pelo- ponesiaco." He failed, however, in his attack on Negro- pont, after he had been raised (1688) to the dignity of doge. Coraro, who followed him in the command of the fleet, died suddenly ; and then Domenico Mocenigo, the new commander, formed the bold project of retaking Crete, and was already before the port of Canea when the news of a Turkish attack on the Morea really no more than a feeble diversion induced him to raise the siege and lose his opportunity. The error cost him dear : he was removed from his command, and the old doge Morosini again took the field in spite of his seventy-five years, but soon suc cumbed to fatigue (1694), when Sylvester Valieri succeeded to the ducal throne. The war continued under the leader ship of Antonio Zeno. Scio was taken and lost again ; re verses followed on victories ; and the stern senate removed the captain and the proveditori. But the peace of Carlowitz (1699) between Austria and the Porte brought with it the end of the war between Venice and the sultan, and the Turks, whose humiliation dates from this epoch, were com pelled, besides their concessions to Austria, Poland, and llussia, to recognize the authority of Venice in the Morea and in Dalmatia as far as the Bosnian frontier. The first thirteen years of the 18th century, when almost The 18th all Europe was involved in the War of the Spanish Succes- ctntui y- sion, were a time of repose for Venice, which remained neu tral ; but hardly was the peace of Utrecht concluded when the Turks resumed the offensive against the republic, which now had no allies. One after the other the islands and colonies ceded by the peace of Carlowitz were retaken ; the Morea again became Turkish ; Dalmatia was saved only by the interposition of Austria, which had need of the friendship of Venice to checkmate the projects of Philip of Spain against the Italian duchies. But soon the emperor found it necessary, in view of the struggle with Spain, to come to terms with the sultan ; and his allies, the Venetians, were included in the peace of Passarowitz signed between Austria and Turkey on 21st July 1718. From this mo ment Venice ceased to have any influence on European politics : she had no more wars, if she still had enemies, signed no more treaties, and, in a word, had abdicated her place in Europe. Not even the dispute of 1731 as to the succession to the duchy of Parma, which- brought France, Austria, Spain, and Savoy into conflict at her very doors, stirred her to action ; she was indeed no longer a useful ally. Her navy had fallen behind the times ; her commerce had been in decadence since the way to the East by the Cape of Good Hope was opened ; she could scarcely repulse the Barbary pirates from her shores ; and she had to treat with Algiers, Tunis, and Morocco to put an end to their inroads, daily repeated from 1760 to 1774. Yet, the Tunisians failing in their engagements, she decided on a war with them, which was closed by a fresh treaty. The government meanwhile went on in the old form. Cousti- The successive doges were still tied by the restrictive laws tutioi! which made them crowned prisoners ; but rivalries sprang up between the great powers of the state : the senate attacked the institution of the savii, the ministers dele gated to each branch of the administration, and in turn

the magistrates known as the yuarantie proposed to reform