The 1500s was an era of great events and transformation throughout Europe. The Middle Ages had ended and the Communes and the Signorie turned into city-states, thoroughly changing the geopolitics of the previous century.
Italy was coveted by Charles VIII of France and Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain, now both national powers. A few years later also the Emperor of Austria had his eye on Italy .
Meanwhile the Ottoman Empire conquered Syria and Egypt in 1516 and won back the strategic Mediterranean island of Cyprus in 1570.
There were many events, alliances and agreements not always in Venice’s favour during these years, calling for its political and diplomatic skills.
At the beginning of the century Venice had had to deal with the League of Cambrai, a coalition of French and Spanish troops led by the Emperor Maximilian of Austria, later joined by Pope Julius II. A pact was signed in Cambrai in Belgium in 1508, leading to a war that lasted some eight years, during which the cities loyal to Venice were invaded and looted.
After the Battle of Agnadello on 14th May 1509 , the Republic lost part of its lands in the Veneto and Friuli regions and was forced to return to the Papal State the cities in Emilia Romagna and the Marche that it had gained in 1504.
Then Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain died in 1516, followed by the death of the Hapsburg Emperor Maximilian in 1519.
Charles Habsburg, the grandson of both, succeeded as Charles V and thus ruled the largest empire in the world: Spain, Germany, Flanders, Austria, southern Italy and the large recently conquered territories in the Americas.
Following the abdication of Charles V and the subsequent Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, Spain took full possession of the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Lombardy.
It was only in 1517, when Verona was won back by the Venetian troops, that the conflict came to an end with the Treaty of Noyon and Venice regained its dominions.
In 1571 the Venetian State preferred to sign a peace treaty in 1573 after a great naval victory with its allies Spain and the Church over the Turks at Lepanto . Under the terms of this treaty, it renounced its ambitions of sovereignty over Cyprus , which thus passed the Turks, in exchange for the reopening of trade with the East.
This marked a new phase in the city’s history, during which Venice sought to adopt a neutral foreign policy during the subsequent conflicts in Europe and a conservative domestic policy.
