Throughout its history, the Genoese Republic established numerous colonies throughout the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, including Corsica from 1347 to 1768, Monaco, Southern Crimea from 1266 to 1475, and the islands of Lesbos and Chios from the 14th century to 1462 and 1566, respectively.

[3][4] To this day, its legacy as a key factor in the triumph of the Genoese Republic is still recognized, and its coat of arms is depicted in the flag of the Italian Navy.

[7] During this time and in the following century Genoa was little more than a small centre, slowly building its merchant fleet, which was to become the leading commercial carrier of the Western Mediterranean.

[10] At the end of the 11th century the municipality adopted a constitution, at a meeting consisting of the city's trade associations (compagnie) and of the lords of the surrounding valleys and coasts.

Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city; however, actual power was wielded by a number of "consuls" annually elected by popular assembly.

[14] In the Mahdia campaign of 1087, supported by Pope Victor III, Italian forces led by Hugh of Pisa attacked the North African Zirid vassals of the Fatimid Caliphate.

[17] Additionally the Republic of Genoa would receive 300 bezants every year, and one-third of Baldwin's conquest every time 50 or more Genoese soldiers joined his troops.

They came to control a large portion of the trade of the Byzantine Empire, Tripoli (Libya), the Principality of Antioch, Cilician Armenia, and Egypt.

[17] Although Genoa maintained free-trading rights in Egypt and Syria, it lost some of its territorial possessions after Saladin's campaigns in those areas in the late 12th century.

[20] This demonstrates how Genoa's early efforts at expanding her influence involved enfeoffing private citizens to the commune and controlling overseas territories indirectly, rather than through the republican administration.

Over the course of the 11th and particularly the 12th centuries, Genoa became the dominant naval force in the Western Mediterranean, as its erstwhile rivals Pisa and Amalfi declined in importance.

The Republic of Venice played a significant role in the Fourth Crusade, diverting "Latin" energies to the ruin of its former patron and present trading rival, Constantinople.

[18] In order to regain control of the commerce, the Republic of Genoa allied with Michael VIII Palaiologos, emperor of Nicaea, who wanted to restore the Byzantine Empire by recapturing Constantinople.

As a result of the economic retrenchment in Europe in the late fourteenth century, as well as its long war with Venice, which culminated in its defeat at Chioggia (1380), Genoa went into decline.

Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt, and its colonies in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia Minor to the Ottoman Empire.

[33] Under the ensuing economic recovery, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini, and Serra, amassed tremendous fortunes.

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".

[35] However, the modern visitor passing brilliant Mannerist and Baroque palazzo facades along Genoa's Strada Nova (now Via Garibaldi) 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".

Genoa's trade, however, remained closely dependent on control of Mediterranean sealanes, and the loss of Chios to the Ottoman Empire (1566), struck a severe blow.

The Genoese obtained a concession to exploit the port mainly for the slave trade of the new world on the Pacific, which lasted until the sacking and destruction of the original city in 1671.

[39] The Genoese banker Ambrogio Spinola, Marquess of Los Balbases, for instance, raised and led an army that fought in the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands in the early 17th century.

[41] Genoa continued its slow decline well into the 18th century, losing its last Mediterranean colony, the island fortress of Tabarka, to the Bey of Tunis in 1742.

It is considered the first moment of real rupture between the island and the Genoese Republic: perhaps the most important, because the representatives of the Church in full harmony with the Roman Curia, "justified" the war.

[44][45] Another revolt broke out in 1733, causing the Genoese to again appeal to the Emperor, but the Imperial Army was tied up against the French in the ongoing War of the Polish Succession, and thus declined to intervene.

Even before the rebellions, Genoa's control of the island had been loose; the Republic had effectively demilitarized itself, with only 2,000 soldiers (all spread throughout fortifications in Liguria) for a mainland population of about half a million, and law and order on Corsica were very weak, with nearly 900 homicides per 100,000 people there annually from 1701 to 1733.

However, when this provisional relationship was given a more durable and reliable character in the signing of the Treaty of Worms, in 1743, the fear of diplomatic isolation had caused the Genoese Republic to abandon its neutrality and to ally with the House of Bourbon in the War of the Austrian Succession.

In May 1797, Genoese Jacobins, aided by French volunteers, moved to overthrow Doge Giacomo Maria Brignole, giving rise to a fratricidal war in the streets between opponents and supporters of the government.

However, the subsequent Congress of Vienna decreed the annexation of all Genoese territories (all of Liguria, the Oltregiogo area, and the island of Capraia) by the Kingdom of Sardinia, ruled by the House of Savoy, even though contravening the principle of restoring legitimate governments and monarchies.

[14] The history of Genoa, of the Genoese and of the republic that held its fate for a long time, but also of the governments that gradually took turns leading the city, to reach the time of the Doges, is traceable through the work of historians who have continued the storytelling work begun at the end of the 11th century by Caffaro Di Caschifellone (historian and himself municipal consul) with the "Annales ianuenses".

[52] Genoese traders bought salt – from Hyères near Toulon in French Provence, from Cagliari in Sardinia, Tortosa in Iberia, and from other areas in the Black Sea, North Africa, Cyprus, Crete, and Ibiza – and made salami.