Italian language and culture

¶ … Italian domination of commerce in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea on the life of Constantinople?

At its zenith, the Roman Empire reached across the globe: however, as Rome's influence began to decline, the imperial provinces began take on two distinct characters. These two spheres came to be known as East and West Christendom. Constantinople eventually became the capital Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church while Roman Catholicism dominated the feudal West. However, there was still considerable cross-pollination of influence of the two areas. According to Phillip Mansel's 2006 book Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453-1924, thanks to its status in early modernity as a central trading center, Constantinople became a kind of crossroads of Eastern and Western influences.

Constantinople's significance in the history of commerce was due to its proximity to the ports of the eastern Mediterranean. During its early years, this ensured the creation of a distinct city culture, a culture that was the result of cultural fusion and synergy. However, the city's melding of its distinct elements was never without tension. The potential for strife was always simmering beneath the surface. Eventually, the diversity of Constantinople led to violent uprisings. For all of the blending of cultural influences, the city was divided into distinct quarters and characters and when one group seemed to dominate the other, riots and bloodshed would ensue.

Despite its proximity to the sea, Constantinople lacked any type of naval defense during the 11th and 12th centuries because of the imprudent policies of its Emperor: his failed military quests and ostentatious government had depleted the coffers of the city (Miller et al. 148). The Italian city-states took advantage of this weakness, and used Constantinople to dominate maritime commerce. In fact, as Mansel notes (2006), as late as the nineteenth century Italian functioned as kind of second language for Constantinople. This was the legacy of the Italian influence upon Constantinople's commercial life. Italian was spoken by all of the Frankish residents, Greeks, and Turks. The Turks later even adopted many Italian words, such as words for types of ships known as caravels and bombardas, and iskele (from the Italian scala) for a dock (Mansel 2006). However, this linguistic fusion should not be mistaken a sign of the universal welcome of Italian traders.

Italian prominence trade angered the non-Italian native residents of Constantinople. The Venetians first took control of maritime commerce; then other city states carved spheres of influence for themselves. The major economic power-players were traders from Venice, Genoa and Pisa, and Amalfi. Rioting between the warring city-states in the various quarters damaged store houses and what remained of native Greek businesses. All of the Italian city-states maintained pirate vessels to attack one another -- and all of the vessels felt free to attack Greek merchants when brief truces existed between the different Italian factions (Miller et al., 1978, p. 148).

Eventually, Greek rage and resentment began to boil up: the result was the Latin massacre of 1182, which resulted in thousands of deaths. Wrote one later historian: "Historians who wax eloquent and indignant -- with considerable reason -- about the sack of Constantinople... rarely if ever mention the massacre of the Westerners in Constantinople in 1182 ... A nightmarish massacre of thousands…the slaughterers spared neither women nor children, neither old nor sick, neither priest nor monk. Cardinal John, the Pope's representative, was beheaded and his head was dragged through the streets at the tail of a dog; children were cut out of their mother's wombs; bodies of dead Westerners were exhumed and abused; some 4,000 who escaped death were sold into slavery to the Turks" (Carroll 1992, p. 131).