Did the Venetians simply have no interest in exploiting the New World, or...?

Did the Venetians simply have no interest in exploiting the New World, or...?

It isn't a coincidence that any nation whose ports were only in the Mediterranean had no colonization over there. Anyways, for the Venetians specifically, their dominance was eastern Mediterranean trade mainly.

They were a country once. Where did they go wrong?

They held off the house of osman. By the time the relevance of the new world was truly know Napoleon the anti western dick destroyed them

Hands were too tied dealing with the Ottomans in the Mediterranean.

When they moved to more landed territory they quickly gotten gangbanged by HRE, France, and the pope, so they had their hands tied. On the other end Portugal and Spain JUST got done with their conflicts so they were raring to go to exploit some natives.

They'll be a country again soon enough.

They will be bought by Disneyland I think

or sink into the water first

They spent their energies trying to destroy Byzantium and enabling the Ottomans to reach Austria

and they would have gotten away with it too

they didn't spend any energies doing that at all

Crusaders just gifted it to them as a payment for their denbts

>t. Ambrossio Lombardo di Venezzia

The sooner the better

They didnt have the colonial range, by the time their diplo tech was high enough all the islands were taken
epic reference I know :100: :100:

many explorers were of venetian origin, it was mainly because by the time the new world was discovered Venice's power was waning, and to trade they'd have to go through the Straights of Gibraltar which are kinda guarded by Spain which has been guaranteed the new world, and thus sink your ships on returning

What are you talking about, the mamelukes totally colonised taiwan

They chose neutrality. Being neutral ALWAYS fucks you over long term.
>but muh switzerland
Switzerland was conquered in the same war that costed Venice its independence.

>by the time the new world was *colonized Venice's power was waning
FTFY. Venice peaked in the late 15th century.

>sink your ships
You mean board.

...or they already had access to the riches of the east through on and off relations with the Ottomans? Yes.

>the masketta man

>riches of the east through on and off relations with the Ottomans

Which became largely irrelevant once other nations started trading directly with Asia instead of having to go through a Venetian or Ottoman intermediary.

How could they even get to Taiwan? It's basically Asian Sardinia and would take centuries to reach

Just look at a map.

Ireland, Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Portugal are the only european countries that have unfettered access to the Atlantic ocean.

If Venice ever tried to get to the new world, Spain would cockblock them at Gibraltar.

>The red sea is the mediterranean

Correction: Netherlands, Belgium and Germany can be cockblocked by the UK at the English channel and that's why they were so irrelevant in the new world too.

The Dutch were actually quite sucessful early on

I guess maybe the great enemy for the UK during that period was Spain and they needed allies, so they let the Dutch past the channel since they were fellow Protestants. I'm probably wrong.

>its an axe
>no its a gun

Did countries really block other neutral countries from passing Straits in peacetime? Or would they just demand high taxes or something?

Medieval politics weren't nearly as structured as they became later on, back then everyone did whatever the fuck they felt like.

>Did countries really block other neutral countries from passing Straits in peacetime
Well no, but if you rely on those straits for access to colonies/trade wealth then it's obviously not a hugely tenable position if a single country can just shut you out should you ever go to war, or should an enemy ever be able to pressure them into closing the straits.

The Phoenicians were known to back in antiquity. And the Barbary pirates harassed people in their time around there I'm fairly certain.