If Genoa had adopted a wise colonial system she would have held the first rank among the commercial nations at the end of the Middle Ages. After the conquest of Constantinople by Mohammed II in 1453, the Genoese soon suf fered for the aid they had imprudently afforded the Turks. Mohammed took from them their settlements on the Black Sea in 1475, and at length all access to this branch of trade was de nied them by the Turks.
While the power and commercial rank of Genoa were attaining their height by means of their foreign trade and acquisitions of territory the city was internally convulsed by civil dis cord and party spirit. The hostility of the demo crats and aristocrats and the different parties among the latter occasioned continual disorders. In 1339 a chief magistrate, the Doge, was elected for life by the people, but he had not sufficient influence to reconcile the contending parties. A council was appointed to aid him; yet after all attempts to restore order to the state, there was no internal tranquillity; indeed, the city some times submitted to a foreign yoke in order to get rid of the disastrous anarchy which the con flict of parties produced.
In 1528 the disturbed state regained tranquil lity and order which lasted till the end of the 18th century. The form of government estab lished was a strict aristocracy. The doge was elected to be the head of the state. The nobil ity were divided into two classes — the old and new. To the old belonged, besides the families of Grimaldi, Fieschi, Doria, Spinola, 24 others who stood nearest them in age, wealth and consequence. The new nobility comprised 437 families. The doge might be taken from the old or new nobles.
Little by little Genoa lost all her foreign possessions. Corsica, the last of all, revolted in 1730 and was ceded in 1768 to France. When the neighboring countries submitted to the French in 1797 the neutrality which the repUblic had strictly observed did not save the fluctu ating government from ruin. Bonaparte gave to them a new constitution formed on the prin ciples of the French representative system. Two years afterward a portion of the Genoese terri tory fell into the hands of the Austrians; but the fate of Genoa was decided by the battle of Marengo. A provisional government was estab
lished, and in 1802 it received a new constitution as the Ligurian republic and acquired sortie in crease of territory, and had in 1804 a population exceeding 600,000. Its naval force, which was so formidable in the Middle Ages, at last dwin dled down to a few galleys and barques; the land force became almost equally insignificant.
On the overthrow of the French empire Genoa was occupied by the British with whose permission the ancient constitution was re-es tablished. But the Congress of Vienna in 1815 assigned Genoa with its territories to Sardinia, stipulating that it should have a sort of repre sentative constitution. In 1821 it joined for a moment the revolutionary movements of Italy. In the spring of 1849, after the defeat of Charles Albert of Novara and the conclusion of a truce with the Austrians, a revolutionary out break took place, the national guards occupied the forts, and the garrison was compelled, to withdraw. A provisional government was formed and the independence of the republic was proclaimed. But a large body of Sardinian troops under Gen. Della 'Marmara, soon ap peared before the city; a bloody struggle en sued and the forts and ,principal points of the city were taken by the 'royal soldiery. Mean while a deputation was sent to Turin, which returned with the amnesty of the King, exclud ing the chief leaders of the movement, who, however, escaped on board an American vessel. In April the city was disarmed and the mon archical government restored. Following the fortunes of the Sardinian states, Genoa became a portion of the kingdom of Italy. Pop. 272, 221. Consult Bent, 'Genoa: How the Re public Rose and Fell> (London 1881); Canale, 'Nuova Ictoria della Republica di Genova) (4 vols., Florence 1858-64) ; Carden, 'The City of Genoa' (New York 1908); Duffy, 'The Tuscan Republics, with Genoa' (ib. 1893) ; Mallison, from Genoese History' (London 1875) ; Staley, 'Heroines of Genoa and the Rivieras' (New York 1911).