The manufactures are velvet and silk fabrics, woolen goods, cotton goods, ribbons, damask, em broidery, artificial flowers, hats, paper, leather and leather goods, furniture, objects in gold, sil ver, ivory, marble, alabaster, and coral, essences, soap, preserved fruits, chocolate, macaroni, and vermicelli. San Pier d'Arena (q.v.), the most important suburb of Genoa, is a manufacturing centre. Population, in 1881, 179,515; in 1901, 234,710.
In ancient, as well as in medieval times, Genoa was an important seaport. It was conquered by the Romans in B.C. 222 and made part of Gallia Cisalpina. At the time of Augustus Genoa was, according to Strabo, "a flourishing town and the chief emporium of the Ligurians." During the Dark Ages Genoa, with different barbarian over lords, maintained in greater part its municipal organization. In 936 it was plundered by the Saracens, against whom it had been a bulwark of defense for the whole of Liguria. Then Genoa and Pisa formed an alliance to expel the Saracens from the strongholds of Corsica and Sardinia. This being effected, the Genoese obtained, by Papal arbitration, the grant of Corsica, while Sardinia was assigned to the Pisans. For the next two centuries the two cities were almost continually at war, until in 1284 in the naval battle of Meloria the Genoese broke the power of Pisa. Meanwhile the Genoese had vigorously co operated in the Crusades, and as material reward, had obtained important commercial privileges in the Holy Land. The city had also established settlements at Constantinople, in the Crimea, in Syria, Cyprus, Tunis, and Majorca, and rose to such a height of maritime power throughout the Mediterranean that the natural sequence was a 140-year struggle with Venice, which terminated in the Peace of Turin (1381), decidedly disad vantageous to Genoa.
During both the Pisan and the Venetian wars, internal dissensions had weakened the city and occasioned changes in the form of government. In 1190 the consuls were superseded by a podesta (q.v.), an office which lasted till 1270, when two of the great Guelph leaders of the State resolved to subvert the popular authorities, and, under the title of 'captains of liberty,' assumed irresponsible authority, which for twenty-one years they con trived to retain. During their sway civil feuds
continued to rage. Various other modifications of the government preceded the election of the first Genoese Doge in 1339. This supreme magisterial office, which was held for life, and from which nobles were excluded, continued for two centuries.
The ambitious contentions of four leading dem ocratic families—viz. the Adorni, the Fregosi, the Guarci, and the Montaldi—succeeding those of the patrician houses of Doria, Spinola, Gri maldi, and Fieschi, engendered such disastrous civil strife under the early doges that, in 1396, the citizens invoked the protection of the French King Charles VI., and,finally submitted to the rule of the Visconti (q.v.), the lords of Milan, in 1464. After the invasion of Louis XII., in 1499, Genoa was subject to the French till 1528, when the genius and regolution of a great citizen, Andrea Doris (q.v.), freed his country from foreign invaders, and restored to Genoa republi can institutions. But the power of Genoa was on the wane. The Turks seized her Oriental pos sessions, the French bombarded the city in 1684, and the. Imperial troops occupied it for a brief time in 1746. In 1736 the Corsicans, who had for seven years been in rebellion, chose a Westpha lian nobleman named Neuhof (q.v.) as their King. He was soon expelled by the Genoese with the aid of the French, who in 1768 bought the island. During the French Revolution, when the French swept over Italy, Genoa sought to remain neutral, but, being threatened by the English under Nelson, finally joined France, and made a money contribution of 2,000,000 francs. Then a democratic uprising favored by Napoleon put an end to the sway of the nobility. In 1797 a demo cratic constitution was adopted, and the Ligurian Republic established. In 1800 the French general Mass6na was besieged in Genoa by the Austrians and English and forced to capitulate. In 1805 Napoleon annexed the Ligurian Republic to the French Empire. After the fall of Napoleon, Genoa was, against her will, awarded by the Congress of Vienna to the Kingdom of Sardinia (q.v.). Consult Malleson, Studies from Genoese History (London, 1875).