Venice’s neighbours on all sides were in various stages of turmoil by the early 1070s. To understand the impact of all this on our little independent maritime Republic, we need to pull the camera back a little and examine this sea of troubles that all of her neighbours seemed resolutely determined to stir up or swim in. The century is boiling up towards a dramatic climax and Venice needs to be ready for anything. This week, we map out the nexus of forces that are shifting the tectonic plates of Mediterranean power.

Email us at [email protected], or find us on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram.

Intro and outro music is Primavera from Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagioni, used under Creative Commons licence from musopen.org

For a deeper dive into the various strands of international politics that we examine this week, we recommend listening to some other independent history podcasts which have covered this era from different perspectives:

History of Byzantium: https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/

A History of Italy: https://ahistoryofitaly.com/

History of the Germans: https://historyofthegermans.com/

British History Podcast: https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/