Venice
is a city in northern Italy and has about 272,000 inhabitants.
It
is built on an archipelago of 122 islands formed by about 150 canals in
a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected
by about 400 bridges, of which only three cross the main canal.
The
archipelago was first settled during the barbarian invasions of the 5th
and 6th centuries AD, when the people of the Veneto mainland sought
refuge in this marshy region. They built the now-famous watery villages
on rafts of wooden posts driven into the soil, laying the foundations
for the floating palaces of today.
From the ninth to
the twelfth
century Venice developed into a city state, becoming a flourishing
trade center between Western Europe and the rest of the world
(especially the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world). During the
late thirteenth century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of
Europe, with 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, and dominating
Mediterranean commerce.
Venice began to lose
its position
as a center of international trade during the later part of the
Renaissance when Portugal became Europe's principal intermediary in the
trade with the East. However, the Venetian empire was a major exporter
of agricultural products and, until the mid eighteenth-century, a
significant manufacturing center.
In 1797, the
Republic lost its
independence when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice during the First
Coalition. Yet, the Austrians never managed to endear
themselves
to the Venetians, and in 1848 the city rose up against the established
order across Europe. The movement for Italian unification spread
quickly through the Veneto, and Venice was finally united with the
Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
Increased
port traffic coupled with growing industry developed during the last
decades of the 19th century, and tourism began to take off. During the
20th century, the creation and expansion of petrol refineries and
metallurgy, chemical and plastics industries in the Marghera region
brought thousands of jobs to Venice but also plenty of problems.
Venice