The need to continue to exploit the trade route along the Po Valley to and from Northern Europe led the Venetians to expand with two new Signorie, that of the Scala family in Verona and the Da Carrara family in Padua.
The Da Carrara family was a particular threat to Venice, as they had supported Genoa during the siege of Chioggia (1380), in the war Venice and Genoa. After winning the War of Chioggia, the Venetian Republic began to look to the mainland, now gaining self-sufficiency and allies to support its population, which had been decimated years earlier during the Black Plague of 1348.

Towards the end of the 14th Century the Verona and Padua Signorias were allies against Venice. Almost all the Veneto region was conquered by the noble Scaliger family, but the death of Giangaleazzo Visconti (1402) , Duke of Milan and "Signore" of much of northern Italy, and the problems over his succession were in the Venetians favour, as they then managed to annex the Lombard provinces of Brescia, Bergamo and Crema and the Veneto cities of Feltre, Belluno, Bassano, Vicenza, Verona and Padua, plus part of the Polesine area (Rovigo).

The wars with the Hungarians at the beginning of the 15th Century also lead to the Republic extending its possessions in the East with the annexation of a large part of Friuli and the consolidation of its domains in Dalmatia and Istria.

The loss of the town of Grado to the Patriarch of Aquileia gave rise to a single Patriarchate based in Venice. The new borders were ratified by the Treaties of 1451 with the Patriarch of Aquileia and in 1453 with the Hungarians.

1300 - 1400 - - rev. 0.1.9