2017/05/15 by John E. Dotson · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Medieval History and Crusades
paper · doi:10.4324/9781315249254-26
openalex publication_date 2017/05/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This chapter look at two selected fleet operations in the context of the war aims of the two rivals as a means of examining operational—or campaign—level planning and execution in thirteenth-century Mediterranean naval warfare. The conception of medieval warfare that scholars held until recently was of a kind of brawl. The First Genoese-Venetian War grew out of the two cities&s; commercial rivalry along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Of the three major entrepots for highly profitable oriental wares, Romania (the Latin Empire), Alexandria, and Oltremare—as the Italians called the lands occupied by the Crusaders—only the latter seemed to be contestable in the middle of the thirteenth century. Prevailing winds, currents, and geography constrained shipping in the medieval Mediterranean to certain predictable paths. In the Durazzo campaign, both commanders showed a thorough understanding of the importance of the strategic narrows in naval warfare.