Old and New Powers in Quest of Danubian and Pontic Hegemony in the 1440s
Old and New Powers in Quest of Danubian and Pontic Hegemony in the 1440s

Summary/Abstract: Venice attempts to end the Pontic monopoly of her Genoese rivals increased in number and in impact in the late 1420s and early 1430s, in the context of the mounting tensions between the Republic of Saint Mark and the Ottoman Empire (the traditional protector of the Genoese in the East). These attempts were supported by the rapprochement initiated after years of conflict between Venice and Buda (the traditional anti-Ottoman center of East–Central Europe), as well as by a significant decrease of Hungarian–Moldavian hostilities (the Moldavian fought to diminish the control of the Genoese over their colonies which had come under Moldavia’s nominal rule). These evolutions set the stage for John Hunyadi’s later policy as well as for most of the later conflicts of the 1440s, when the eventual failure of anti-Ottoman crusading and of the Union of Florence helped to maintain the Pontic balance of power in favour of the Ottoman state and its associates.

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