War of Curzola

War of Curzola
Part of the Venetian–Genoese wars
Date 1295–1299 Location Aegean Sea, Black Sea, and Adriatic Sea, Byzantine Empire Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
Republic of Venice	Republic of Genoa  Byzantine Empire (1295)
Commanders and leaders
Pietro Gradenigo Roger Morosini Giovanni Soranzo Andrea Dandolo †	Lamba Doria Andronikos II
Strength
40 war galleys 95 vessels	165 galleys
Casualties and losses
65 vessels destroyed 9,000 killed 5,000 captured	Unknown

The War of Curzola was fought between the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa due to increasing hostile relations between the two Italian republics. Spurred largely by a need for action following the commercially devastating Fall of Acre, Genoa and Venice were both looking for ways to increase their dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. Following the expiration of a truce between the republics, Genoese ships continually harassed Venetian merchants in the Aegean Sea.^[1]

In 1295, Genoese raids on the Venetian quarter in Constantinople further escalated the tensions, resulting in a formal declaration of war by the Venetians in the same year. A steep decline in Byzantine-Venetian relations, following the Fourth Crusade, resulted in Byzantine Empire favouring the Genoese in the conflict.

The Byzantines entered the war on the Genoan side. While the Venetians made swift advances into the Aegean and Black Seas, the Genoans exercised dominance throughout the war, finally besting the Venetians in the Battle of Curzola in 1298, with a truce being signed the next year.^[2]