Venice in the east Adriatic: Experiences and experiments in colonial rule in Dalmatia and Istria (c. 1150--1358)

Dalmatia and Istria made up the kernel of Venice's empire, the first to enter and the last to leave its dominion. From the year 1000 onwards, the doges of Venice claimed to rule over the east Adriatic coast as well as over their own city-state. Initially, Venice relied upon the inconstant loyalties of the civic governments to enforce its policies in the Adriatic. Yet, starting around 1150, the doges began to appoint Venetian nobles as colonial rectors to govern its subject cities. These rectors provided the genesis of Venice's colonial administration in the east Adriatic. Over the course of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the rectorships developed from semi-autonomous sinecures to bureaucratic offices. This study examines the ways in which the Venetian state and the rectors dealt with the difficulties of ruling a place that was geographically close but culturally different from the metropole. The inclusion of Dalmatia and Istria into the narrative of Venetian history ascribed a moral and military superiority to the Venetians. Yet, the frequent secession and rebellion of the cities of Dalmatia and Istria marred the vision of peaceful and willing union that Venice espoused. The frequent conflicts of interest between the state, the subject communes of Dalmatia and Istria and the rectors eventually resulted in increasingly better defined formulations of the rectorial office and the nature of Venetian rule. Conflicts between municipal offices in Venice and colonial rectors in Dalmatia and Istria remade boundaries between Venetian and foreign space, and directly involved the highest levels of Venetian government in colonial rule. The actions of rectors in diplomacy and arbitration not only solved disputes between Dalmatian and Istria subject communes, but also pointed towards the role of Venice in consolidating Dalmatia and Istria as unified regions under its rule. Both the Venetian state and the subject communes worked towards depersonalization of the rectorships, in which they transitioned from hereditary possessions to governmental offices. By examining these processes, this study reveals the evolution of Venetian ideology and methods of rule in the Adriatic, and its impact on both the colonizer and the colonized.