History of Venetian people

Venetian identity is deeply rooted in very ancient times, prior to roman conquers: the civilization of ancient Venetians (or Venetkens) which lasted for over 1.000 years.
The ancient Venetians had developed a language of their own – the venetico - and went down in history as the greatest horse breeders and amber traders of that time.
Venetian people is one of the few of the Italian peninsula to boast a continuum from the dawn of history, if not from prehistory. We have news of the first Venetians settled in the north-east of the peninsula, but in a much wider area than today, since IX century a.C., considering all the archeological findings, from situle – bronze funerary vases- to venetican findings even in Slovenia, Istria and in the present Austria- Corinthia, up to Adria.
There are contrasting theories about their origins, but we are beginning to accept the idea (see Pallottino, Devoto and other scholars) that they probably had come from Baltic sea, or however from central Europe, reaching the peninsula to trade amber in those areas.
According to a new interpretation and translation, the slovenian scholar Matej Bor would set the language of ancient Venetians in the protoslav area, something that isn’t actually accepted by italian scholars, who set in Italy the formation of venetican, considering it similar to latin (even if at the venetican time, latin was still in formation).
The main urban core of ancient Venetians was certainly Este, where today there is an interesting museum with lots of findings of the time. Another important center of the paleovenetian civilization was Padua, that, according to tradition, was founded in 1183 a.C., much earlier than many other historically important settlements, such as the city of Rome, founded in 753 a.C.
Around II century the so-called "romanization" phase began: Venetians were never conquered by Romans but became their allies, accepting to become an integral part of the Roman world. Being allies and not defeated, as it was customary, they could preserve their traditions, laws and customs even if, between the second and third century after Christ, venetican language was not used anymore.
The early spoken latin however preserved the cadence and some traits of the ancient language: as evidence of it, Tito Livio, Paduan Historian, was criticized for the use of an unpure latin.

Under emperor Augusto, venetian lands became the "Decima Regio - Venetia et Histria", integral part of the Roman Empire, that therefore recognized a single cultural distinguishing feature to this area.

The fall of the Roman empire put the seed for the birth of Venice, that pursued the heritage of the ancient fathers for what concerns law (see the "venetian law" which was peculiar and different from "roman law", being different the sources and the origins) and traditions, giving birth, in the meanwhile, to a new venetian civilization, admired and respected all over the world.
The Venetians, displaced from the hinterland, founded the capital in the lagoon. Venice, the "city of Venetians", was subjected for a short early period to the Byzantine influence, even if with all the autonomy deriving from its starting trades and arising fleet, designed to rule one day the entire Mediterranean area.

The Serenissima Venetian Republic was a model of parliamentary and federal State unique in the world, from which, among others, the Founding Fathers of United States of America also drew their inspiration.
The Venetian was the most long-lived Republic in the world, it lasted for over 1.100 years

People got annexed to it on their own free will. The term "Dominant", assigned to the capital, is certainly misleading if taken in its modern meaning, because between the ruled people (very different from each other) and Venice there was actually and mainly a tie of filial affection in their emotion, and one of fatherly affection in the emotion of those who ruled them.
With the passing of time the Republic laid its foundations on the banks of Istria and Dalmatia, then aiming at the hinterland, conscious to take possession again of those territories that had already been venetians for milleniums. Treviso was for instance the first-born of the future "De tera State" (Stato de Tera) and "dedicated" itself to Venetian Republic- that is, requested and achieved to be annexed to it in december 1338.
Venice took on its name only during III century, rising as a town around V century, with the name of "Rivo alto" (Rialto), lately establishing a federation with other venetian cities of the adriatic coast, from Grado to Chioggia. This politic union became a unitary State in 697, with the popular election- something quite unique and rare in a world ruled by kings, sovereigns and despots-of a single leader, the Doge ( duke) The Doge was therefore expression of the arengo, or council of patriarches; the assembly was a tradition that had been passed on since the times of ancient Venetians.


The Serenissima structured itself as a federal State when, from a "Dogado" (limited to the lagoon) it became a real State.
Each annexed town, being it venetian o not, was considered and called "nation" (Bergamo nation, Brescia nation etc).
The splendor of Republic was built on the huge wealth coming from trade, favoured at the most in order to be the main State source of income, while the tax burden on subjects was kept considerably light. The development of every Art or corporation form, that is the economic categories, was promoted and preserved and, when the good weather came, two huge maritime convoys were formed, one directed to Asia and the other to the Atlantic Ocean. The proverbial citizens’ devotion (at that time they were called subjects, as english people are today) to the Venetian State was the real strenght of the nation; before the need of their homeland, all communities, people and social classes mobilized, all grecians, albanians and slavs living within its borders were considered "national" to all intents and purposes, and were so called on documents; each one had the right to speak his own language, to be ruled by his own laws, to follow his own customs. Values and conquers that very often have been cancelled by the so-called modern states that shared venetian territories at Serenissima’s downfall.
For four long centuries Serenissima represented a powerful barrier against the overwhelming Ottoman wave that, strong of huge armies, aimed at the control over the Mediterranean. But Venice stopped it. Everyone has heard about Lepanto (7th october 1571) whose victory was mainly due to the Venetian contribution and to the victorious strategy of Sebastiano Venier, da Mar commander of the Venetian Republic.

At the end of the fourteenth century Istria and Dalmatia became stable possessions. In the meantime a series of inshore wars began : Serenissima prevailed over the local dominions, defeating the Cararresi of Padua, the Scaligeri of Verona, the Patriarch of Aquileia, supporter of the Empire, and even the powerful Viscounts of Milan. The bravery on field never got separated from a meticulous diplomatic action and from a calculated and cautious political conduct by governments that, to the world of that time, seemed as the result of a perfect institutional engineering.

In the fifteenth century Venice had already set up its State, which included a State da Tera (on land) and a State da Mar (on the sea), running its borders from east to west, within the limits of the ancient Decima Regio. The State da Tera extended from Adda, at west of Istria, up to the east; instead,the State da Mar extended up to the whole Dalmatian coast, in addition to some islands of Greece. This is maybe the most splendid and prosperous period for Serenissima: huge wealths were accumulated in Venice, benefited by the whole State, cause every town could export its finished and semi- finished goods all over the Mediterranean and northern Europe.
The Venetian government is deeply beloved by all its citizens and a national Venetian feeling is forming now (or we should say reforming), symbolized by the Lion of San Marco, already adopted on flags in the fourteenth century.

At the beginning of sixteenth century the Republic risked to disappear, besieged as it was by hostile powers both on the Italian peninsula (which feared its continuous expansion) and in Europe. Entire nations coordinated by the Papacy allied against Venice, creating the Cambray’s League: it was the most dreadful hardship for Serenissima, but Venetian governors had the opportunity to realize that they had founded a real State, cohesive and united to the capital, despite the great guaranteed autonomies. All inshore people joined in the fight against the invader.
Macchiavelli, who was in Vicenza as an observer among the army of Massimiliano of Asburgo, who slaughtered all the "resistant" thwarting his soldiers with bill hooks and forks, watching peasants and men of the people prefer death rather than denying San Marco (mi son marchesco e marchesco vojo morir - I belong to San Marco and i want to die for it: proudly shouted a poor peasant before ending up on the gallows) wrote that Venice could live untroubled and safe, having similar faithful subjects. The crisis then came to an end, both thanks to the changes in the array of the enemies and to the diplomatic work of the Republic. The invaded territories, practically the whole Venetian da Terra State, were liberated.

However, in the seventeenth century, the commercial activity began to mark time, for the obstrusiveness of Turks, who impeded the trade with the East and for the opening of new routes to the Americas. Even if minor compared to the golden centuries, the maritime activity however remained lucrative and the military fleet, even in the '700, was still among the most powerful in Europe. The Patricians of Venice showed an extraordinary versatility as inshore entrepreneurs: the agricultural and manufacturing growth were respectively boosted in the country and in the piedmont.
The epoque of Venetian Villas thus began.
Veneto became one of the most productive areas of Europe.


When in 1797 Napoleon Bonaparte entered the nortern Italian peninsula in pursuit of the retreating Austrian troops, Venice remained neutral. However, once he understood the weakness of the rich, prosperous but militarily weak host, he thought to seize the wealth that Venetians had been laid up over centuries and make the Venetian state as bargaining chips with the Austrians. He therefore entirely invented a "casus belli" to impose the end of the legitimate Venetian government and institute a puppet government, premise to the end of the thousand-year Serenissima Republic not only as institution but even as a State.
In the March of that year the Major Council, in order to spare the life of population, accepted Napoleon’s hard conditions, ignoring that France, in april, at Leoben in Stiria, had already secretely agreed with Austria for the Venetian territories handover.
Under the already unbearable pressure of Napoleon "Attila" (so the Corsican general defined himself towards the Venetian Republic) and at the hands of French Jacobins and collaborationists stiring up the population to rebel against the Venetian Republic (to no purpose, cause the municipalities that took the power in the inshore towns made it just thanks to French bayonets and not to the resistance of Venetian armies), the Major Council abdicated his powers with the famous vote of 12 may 1797, "el xorno tremendo" (terrible day), to leave space to a French-supporting government called "Temporary municipality". This new kind of government lasted for a few months, during which, by command of Bonaparte, the statues with San Marco winged lion, historical sign of the Venetian State, were pulled down and those who were shouting "Viva San Marco" were even shooted!
The territory was obvioulsy subjected to a terrible sack and Venetians were forced to even sell the clothes they were wearing or their shoe silver buckles in order to face a terrible taxation imposed by the Frenchs.
The end of the glorious Republic seemed impossible to everyone. People,mainly at first, took up the weapons against the invaders (famous is the example of the "Veronese Easters"), showing then sorrow in every way: renowned is the episode of Perasto, a small town on the mouths of Cattaro, today in Montenegro, that, since ancient times,had been guarding the flagship of Venice war fleet. For centuries had remained in force the habit according to which twelve gonfaloniers from Perasto were designated to defend it, up to lay down their life for it, as happened in Lepanto, on the ship bridge.
When in august 1797 baron Rukovina decided to take possession of the small town on behalf of the emperor of Austria, the inhabitants of Perasto requested the solemn honours for the Venetian flag and buried it under the church altar, after having kissed it and wet it with tears. It was 27th august 1797 when the "Chaptain of the Guards" Giuseppe Viscovich buried the Venetian flag under the major altar of the Duomo, delivering an address of great native love*.

In 1815, with the Congress of Vienna, Venetian Republic was the only large sized State – overwhelmed by twenty years of wars- not to be restored because Austria got possession of it. The loss of Independence marked the beginning of a terrible fall for Venetians, made of privations, famine and misery, a condition that lasted up to the fifthies, forcing half of the population to emigrate all over the world.

In 1866, at the end of the war lost against Austria, The Reign of Italy however succeeded in making France handover Venetian and Friulian territories, thank to its alliance with it.
1866 for Venetian people was a year of deep and radical changes under all points of view: social, political and economical.
At Lissa the Austrian-Venetian navy fought and won by sea against the Italian/Piemontese navy. It was 20th of july and the Battle of Lissa went down in history as the last great victory of the Venetian fleet (most seamen came indeed from the territories of the past Venetian Republic): the orders were given in Venetian language and at the war cry: "....daghe dosso, Nino, che la ciapemo" (...have at it, Nino, that we take it). Towards the end of the battle, admiral Tegethoff commanded Vincenzo Vianello from Pellestrina to ram the "King of Italy" battleship, that then sank in a few moments. In front of that victory the Venetian crews answered throwing their caps in the air and shouting "Viva San Marco!!". This was still the spirit of Venetian people.
At the end of the conflict, the Austrians honoured our fallen soldiers with a beautiful monument, just in Lissa, on which they made inscribe the names of the fallen Venetian and Dalmatian seamen and this saying: "Iron men (the venetian seamen, editor’s note) on wooden ships defeated wooden men on iron ships". When the fascist Italy occupied Dalmatia, such monument was removed by Italian Navy and is now kept at Livorno’s Military Academy.
Venetians had already clashed a few months before, winning against the Italian army: it was indeed 24th june 1866 when the Piemontese troops, headed by King Vittorio Emanuele II and by Alfonso Lamarmora, had to succumb in Custoza to the Austrian troops, with which lots of Venetians were fighting.
In spite of these two defeats, the Italian troops shortly after invaded the Venetian territories, taking advantage of the Austrian retrieval from our territories after Prussians had won in Sadowa and were going to threaten Vien. A plebiscite was shortly after hurriedly organized for the same year, in order to ask Venetians whether they would be favourable to join Italy (at that time a Reign).
The plebiscite (that Montanelli didn’t hesitate to define a "little joke") took place on 21st and 22nd October 1866. Few knew that but, on 19th october, therefore a couple of days before voting, in a room of Europe Hotel on Canal Grande, general Leboeuf (French plenipotentiary and "guarantor" of the consultation execution) signed the handover of Veneto to Italy. Even before the plebiscite took place, Venetian territories had already been officially handed over to Italians, all on the sly and without clamor; only the newspaper "Gazzetta di Venezia" gave notice of that on the following day, in very few lines: "This morning in a room of the Hotel of Europe the handover of Veneto was signed".
In the years just following the annexation to Italy, a wave of poverty, never seen in Veneto before, came up: new taxes - as the sadly renowned "tax on minced" – and the compulsory conscription, that deprived Venetian families of the help from the youngs, stuck down Venetian rural economy. Just after the Italian Unity one of the biggest world exodus began: the epic of Venetian emigration. Venetians were compelled to leave their land and their homes, in search of a new life, from the Brasilian forests to Belgian mines, an emigration of Biblical extent was beginning: between 1876 and 1901, 1.904.719 Venetians on a population of almost three millions people had to emigrate.

Afterwards the two World Wars transformed the Venetian land into a battlefield, with the distruction of entire cities. After the Second World War, the new Republican constitution sanctioned the deportation of the King of Italy and, in 1970, Veneto region was formed as self-government, however reduced to very small dimensions, deprived of Friuli, Venezia Giulia and of Trentino Venetian people, which should have been logically incorporated to a macro-region for historical reasons of uniform culture and language (except Friuli).

Thanks to their proverbial devotion to work and to the sense of sacrifice which has always characterized them, Venetians, from that moment, could set up again their economy, as far as creating a real industrial and developing model: so the "northeast phenomenon" was born, also called by many people "the Italian locomotive".
The main economical source for Veneto is without doubt tourism: it is the first Italian region for touristic flows.
Among other primacies, Venetian are at first or very first place for solidarity, organ and blood donation,garbage recycling,foreigner reception.
The agriculture has partly lost the past abundance but can still rely on the fertility of the Venetian plain.

Veneto of today therefore appears as a land nurturing promises of revival, relying on it great creative energy, on its talents and industriousness, on the stronger and stronger improvement of its culture and in its people’ self-determination.

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*The Perasto Speech ("Discorso di Perasto")

Speech pronounced in Perasto - nowadays important town of the State of Montenegro - by the "Commander of the Guards" Giuseppe Viscovich on 27th august 1797, when he had to bury, together with the whole population in tears, the Gonfalon of San Marco, temporarily putting it back under the major altar of Duomo, waiting for the reestablishment of the beloved Republic:

"In sto amaro momento, in sto ultimo sfogo de amor,

In this bitter moment, in this last outpouring of love,
de fede al Veneto Serenisimo Dominio, al Gonfalon de la Serenisima Republica,

and faith to the Venetian Dominion of Serenissima, to the Gonfalon of the Serenissima Republic
ne sia el conforto, o citadini, che la nostra condota pasada,

citizens, we can find solace in the fact that our behaviour, both past
e de sti ultimi tenpi, rende non solo più giusto sto ato fatal,

and of these last times, makes this fatal act not only more right,
ma virtuoxo, ma doveroxo par nu.

but also virtuous and incumbent for us.
Savarà da nu i nostri fioi, e la storia de el zorno

Our children will know about us, and the history of this day
farà saver a tuta l'Europa, che Perasto la gà degnamente sostenudo fin a l'ultimo

will make known to all Europe that Perasto has worthily supported till the end
l'onor de el Veneto Gonfalon, onorandolo co sto ato solene,

honour of the Venetian Gonfalon, honouring it by this solemn act
e deponendolo bagnà de 'l nostro universal amaro pianto.

and laying it down covered by our bitter universal tears.
Sfoghemose, citadini, sfoghemose pur, e co sti nostri ultimi sentimenti

Let’s we let off steam, let’s we let off steam, and with these last feelings of ours
sigilemo la nostra cariera corsa soto al Serenisimo Veneto Governo,

let’s we seal our past career under the Venetian Government of Serenissima
rivolgemose a sta Insegna che lo rapresenta, e su de ela sfoghemo el nostro dolor.

let’s we address to this ensign that represents it, and let’s we let off steam our sorrow over it.
Par trexentosetantasete ani le nostre sostanse, el nostro sangue,

For three hundred and seven years our substances, our blood,
le nostre vite le xè sempre stàe par Ti, San Marco;

our lifes have always been for you, San Marco;
e fedelisimi senpre se gavemo reputà, Ti co nu, nu co Ti,

and we have always been faithful to you, you with us, us with you,
e senpre co Ti sul mar semo stài lustri e virtuoxi.

and we have always been illustrious and virtuous with you on the sea
Nisun co ti ne gà visto scanpar, nisun co Ti ne gà visto vinti e spauroxi!

Nobody has seen us run away with you, nobody has seen us defeated or frightened with you!
E se i tenpi presenti, tanto infelisi par inprevidensa, par disension,

And if the present times, so miserable for improvidence, for negligence
par arbitrii ilegali, par vizi ofendenti la natura e el gius de le xenti,

for illegal abuses, for vices offending the nature and justice of people
non Te gavese cavà via, par Ti in perpetuo sarave stàe le nostre sostanse,

shouldn’t they had taken you away, our belongings would have always become yours
el nostro sangue, la vita nostra.

our blood, our life.
E piutosto che védarTe vinto e desonorà da i tói, el coragio nostro,

And rather than see you defeated and dishonoured
la nostra fede se averave sepelìo soto de Ti.

our faith will be buried under you
Ma xa che altro no ne resta da far par Ti,

What we can still do for you
el nostro cor sia l'onoradisima tó tonba,

is to make our heart become your grave
e el più duro e el più grando elogio le nostre làgreme."
our tears become your strongest and greatest eulogy."

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OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON VENETIAN HISTORY:

• History of Veneto (in Venetian language) on Wikipedia
• Venetian History on MagicoVeneto.it
• Venetian History on Cronologia.it
• History of Venetian Republic on Wikipedia
• History of Venice on Wikipedia
• The Republic Doges on Wikipedia
• "The real history of 1866" on Cronologia.it
• PDF booklets and books about Venetian History on RaixeVenete.net
• Interesting section dedicated to Venetian History on VenetoNostro.it
• "History of Venice, materials for research" on StoriaDiVenezia.it
• The Republic of San Marco by Daniele Manin (1848) on Wikipedia
• The Lion of San Marco, symbol par excellence of the Venetian people on Wikipedia
• Chronological list of the main facts regarding the city of Venice and its State
• History of Paleovenetians or Ancient Venetians on Wikipedia
• The Venetico or ancient Venetian on Wikipedia