Information AboutThalassocracy |
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The term can also simply refer to Naval Supremacy , in either military or commercial senses of the word "supremacy." The word ''thalassocracy'' itself, deriving from the Greek ''thalassokratiā''—'' Thalassa '' meaning "sea," and ''kratiā'' meaning "rule" or "government"—first occurred amongst the Ancient Greeks describing the government of the Minoan Civilization , whose power depended on its Navy . Herodotus spoke of the need to counter the Phoenician thalassocracy by developing a Greek "empire of the sea." Examples There are many ancient examples besides those mentioned above, such as the Sea Peoples and the Delian League . Asides from these, which were empire based primarily on naval power and control of waterways and not on any land possessions, the Middle Ages saw its fair share of thalassocracies, often land-based empires which controlled the sea. Among the most famous is the Republic Of Venice , conventionally divided in the fifteenth century into the ''Dogado'' of Venice and the Lagoon, the ''Terrafirma'' of Venetian holdings in northern Italy, and the ''Mar'' of the Venetian outlands bound by the sea. Near-contemporaneously, the Dubrovnik Republic can be seen as a "thalassocracy," a ''protégé'' of Venice. The Dark Ages (c. 500 –c. 1000 ) saw much of the coastal cities of the Mezzogiorno develop into minor thalassocracies whose chief powers lay in their ports and their ability to sail navies to the defend friendly coasts and ravage enemy ones. These include the variously Greek, Lombard, and Saracen duchies of Gaeta , Naples , Salerno , Amalfi , Bari , and Sorrento . Later, northern Italy developed its own trade empires based on its navies in Venice , Genoa , Pisa and Ragusa (today Dubrovnik ) It was with the modern age, the Age Of Exploration , that some of the most remarkable thalassocracies emerged. Anchored in their European territories, several nations establish colonial empires held together by naval supremacy. First among them was the Portuguese Empire , followed soon by the Spanish Empire , which was challenged by the Dutch Empire , itself replaced on the high seas by the British Empire , whose landed possessions were immense and held together by the greatest navy of its time (a long time). With naval arms races (especially between Germany and Britain) and the end of colonialism and the granting of independence to these colonies, thalassocracies, which had controlled the world's oceans for centuries, ceased to be. Others
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