Thalassocracy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:47, 24 July 2006

Revision as of 06:48, 24 July 2006

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The [[Dark Ages]] (c.[[500]]–c.[[1000]]) saw much of the coastal cities of the [[Mezzogiorno]] develop into minor thalassocracies whose chief powers lay in their ports and their ability to sail navies to defend friendly coasts and ravage enemy ones. These include the variously Greek, Lombard, and Saracen duchies of [[Gaeta]], [[Naples]], [[Salerno]], [[Amalfi]], [[Bari]], and [[Sorrento]]. Later, northern Italy developed its own trade empires based on its navies in [[Pisa]] and [[Genoa]].

It was with the modern age, the [[Age of Exploration]], that some of the most remarkable thalassocracies emerged. Anchored in their European territories, several nations establish colonial empires held together by naval supremacy. First among them was the [[Portuguese Empire]], followed soon by the [[Spanish Empire]], which was challenged by the [[Dutch Empire]], itself replaced on the high seas by the [[British Empire]], whose landed possessions were immense and held together by the greatest navy of its time (a long time). With naval arms races (especially between Germany and Britain) and the end of colonialism and the granting of independence to these colonies, thalassocracies, which had controlled the world's oceans for centuries, ceased to be.

===Others===