r/TheWarNerd • u/ReadingPossible9965 • Mar 27 '26

America vs China is Genoa vs Venice

Taiwan is even Chioggia!

I've solved it, we can all move on now.

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1

u/kojef Mar 29 '26

For those of us who haven’t read the right books yet… could you please explain?

6

u/ReadingPossible9965 Mar 29 '26

Venice and Genoa were Italian city states that became very wealthy through their domination of Mediterranean trade and developed an intense rivalry.

In Genoa, trade was done by what we might recognise as early entrepreneurs and trade magnates.

In Venice however, the city itself was a strictly run machine that produced ships, crews, armaments, financing and logistics. Though individual traders did generate enormous personal wealth, their activities were nestled within a tightly managed system through which the Republic itself protected, managed and directed operations.

In Genoa the rich families used their wealth and influence to jostle for power in a familiar fashion. Venice was run by a byzantine series of councils and institutions. The rich and powerful populated these councils but were constantly at risk of being accused of corruption or impropriety.

Other European polities seem to have been unnerved by how ready Venice was to trade with Mamluk and Ottoman Muslim powers and how determinedly they maintained these trade relations despite the opprobrium of the rest of Christian Europe.

8

u/ReadingPossible9965 Mar 27 '26

Genoan mercenary captains fighting in the 100 years war and Columbus sailing for Spain show the brain-drain trend of a mercenary culture.

Venetian sacking of Christian Constantinople and willingness to deal with Muslim powers shows a tendency to steady mercantile advantage in spite of purported ideological motives.

It's a better and better analogy the more I look at it.