Italian sea republics · 1100-1381

Venice and Genoa: rival sea republics

Two merchant republics without kings compete for the trade of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Students map the colonies of Venice and Genoa, follow Marco Polo from Venice, and replay the war of Chioggia that settled their long rivalry.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1300 to AD 1347
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Two merchant republics without kings compete for the trade of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Students map the colonies of Venice and Genoa, follow Marco Polo from Venice, and replay the war of Chioggia that settled their long rivalry.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Venice, Genoa and their main trading colonies on the map.
  • Explain how a republic of merchants governed itself and built its fleets.
  • Describe the rivalry between Venice and Genoa and the outcome of the war of Chioggia (1378-1381).
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1300

Two cities, two seas

Open the map in 1300 and find Venice and Genoa on either side of northern Italy. Which sea does each one face? Where would each city's ships naturally sail?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1271

From Venice to China

Open Stories and start the Marco Polo journey. Where does it begin, and which Italian city's merchants could travel this far east around 1271?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1347

Black Sea colonies

Move to 1347 and turn on Spreads: the Black Death. Find where it starts, at the Genoese port of Kaffa in Crimea. How did Italian trading ships carry it west?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Venice was ruled by an elected doge and councils of noble families. Was that a republic in the modern sense?
  2. Both cities set up trading colonies far from home. Why trade posts and islands rather than large territories?
  3. Venice and Genoa fought four wars in about 120 years. Why might two trading cities fight rather than share?
  4. Marco Polo told his story while a prisoner of war in Genoa. How might that have shaped the book?
  5. The ports that brought silk and spices also brought the plague. What are the risks of a connected world?
4

Game round

10 min

Play Rule History as Mansa Musa, whose gold was traded into the Mediterranean in the same years. Afterwards, compare: how did Mali and the Italian sea republics each grow rich from trade?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.