Province: Venice

Owners Title: Doge

% of Worldwide          3.2%                    Starting Population     1,000                   

Population                                                                                      

% of Worldwide          5.3%                    Starting Income         34,138                  

Income                                                                                          

% of Worldwide GDP      8.1%                    Starting GDP            501,784                 

% of Worldwide          1.0%                    Starting Surplus        338
                     

Surplus                                                                                         

Language: I4

Kingdom: HRE:Italy

Industrial Fief

Starting Owner: Dandolo (55)

Starting Overlord : Dandolo (55)

Regional Location: Far Southeast Italy

Comments: Venice was founded by people from Aquileia and other mainland cities who fled the barbarians after the fall of Rome, and found refuge on the many islands if the extensive lagoon at the headwaters of the Adriatic. In 697 a republic was formally established, and the first Doge was chosen.

The city has grown and prospered ever since. Although with little direct authority, the Doge, which is an elective position controlled by an oligarchy of the merchant princes, can be extremely influential, and is treated with considerable respect by foreign sovereigns, if not always by the Venetians, who have been known to execute one from time to time just to show them who's boss. The Most Serene Republic controls extensive overseas territories in the east, and is immensely wealthy.

Over the last century it has begun to extend its rule over some nearby mainland areas in order to insure its defense. The Republic has a professional navy and a small standing army. Venice is subject only to the ecclesiastical authority of its own Patriarch (technically the Patriarch of Aquileia). There is a university at Treviso, on the mainland.

The Serenissima is the most industrialized state in the world, with extensive shipbuilding facilities, elaborate factories, and great banking houses not only in the great city itself, but also scattered throughout the Empire.