Capitolo 4 Lines of Venetian history

4 - The difficult comparison with the big national States
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The subjected provinces in the Venetian iconography.	The expansion in the mainland had confirmed, for Venice, the role of "power", with all that it could involve: the territories, after having conquered them, must then defend them and an expansionist policy always attracts the envies and the worries of the other states. So Venice found itself busy on 2 extremely ambitious fronts: the predominance on the sea and that on the Italian peninsula. But at the end of the fifteenth century great events were upsetting the world: the new geographic discoveries and the new role of the national states. the first ones did not make feel their influence immediately on the life of the Republic of S. Mark, but the second ones did!
The Turks had conquered Costantinople in 1453 and they had established there the capital of their empire.	The invasion of Italy by the French in 1494 opened a new era for all the peninsular states and Venice found itself busy with state entities much more powerful. The turnover of alliances and its strategy brought it in 1495 to conquer outposts in Puglia, a key area for the control of Adriatic and Ionian Sea, and to obtain the rich city of Cremona. But, concentrating too much on the peninsula, it lost sight of its maritime empire and in 1499 the Turks deprived it of important cities on the albanian and Greek coasts. With the peace of 1503 Venice gave up to its pretensions over these cities, demonstrating to think more to Italian territories than to the naval power.
The prepared army was formed both of mercenary companies and of regular militia.	The unbiased game of alliances and its role of first Italian power( like it was really become) produced a big alliance against it: in 1509 it was formed the league of Cambrai that saw almost all Europe against Venice! After having tried to divide diplomatically the coalition, Venice started a very big army for an Italian state: 20000 men. For strategic mistakes it was sonorously defeated at Agnadello, in Lombardia, and obliged to the retreat. The defeat unbridled the rebellion of the subjected cities, so that Venice found itself besieged, like in the fourth war with Genoa! But still once the danger caused the patriotism in the lagoon, while in the provinces artisans and farmers noticed the arrogance and the fierceness of the invaders and they united to the reorganized troops. After 7 years of war, succeeding also in overturn diplomatically many alliances, Venice succeeded in reearning the largest part of the territories of the mainland it had lost. To this experience Venice followed a policy of neutrality, and, with diplomacy, could defend itself from the invaders who raged in the rest of the peninsula. But the comparison with the "big powers" saw reorganized its force on the sea, considering the increase of the navies of the Turkish empire and the Spanish one.