Genoa and Venice in the golden horde: Politics, trade, and society

The Fourth Crusade and the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire shot down the Bosphorus "barrier" and opened new perspectives for the Western merchants that populated the Byzantine territory. Venice had organized the expedition against her traditional ally and benefited more than every other State of the successful experience. Nonetheless, the European political picture, as well as the Aegean possessions of the Serenissima, slowed the Venetian expansionistic boost. In the same years, the Mongols penetrated Eastern Europe and subjugated an impressive number of States, giving birth to the largest empire ever existed. After decades of warfare, the Mongols realized that it was necessary to initiate the reconstruction. The Mongol empire was soon divided into four khanates. The Westernmost of them, the Golden Horde, bordered with the declining States created by the Latins in the East. The Mongol conquest favored the interconnections into Eurasia and the Italian Sea Republic – Genoa and Venice – were the most prepared to pick the chance. The two Italian cities invested considerable efforts to penetrate the Mongol Empire and frequent those markets, whose potentialities in terms of profit were immense. Between the second half of the 13th century and the first of the 15th, Genoa and Venice established emporia more and more organized, with their institutions: real homes away from home for the merchants who sailed there.