Venice in Crete

Presentation

The Cretans lived under Venetian rule for almost five centuries, from the early 13th ^{century to the mid 17th century. It was a veritable colonization venture: a foreign and distant country disembarked, took power, arrogated the best lands to itself and distributed them to its colonists, establishing its administration, its rules, its taxes, its justice, its religion, its language, its social divisions, its economic principles... all to its own advantage. A centralized, controlled system, but one capable of evolving over time as it became aware of realities. This is the subject of the first chapters.}

It is also an exceptional human experience of coexistence between two populations, where identities are both affirmed and blended. The Cretans never really accepted domination, as nearly thirty revolts prove, and the Venetians distrusted them right up to the end, refusing to entrust them with weapons for the island's defense. Nonetheless, the populations mingled, intermarriages took place, churches opened to both faiths, and cultural contacts multiplied, giving rise to the Cretan Renaissance, a unique artistic flowering. Are the settlers, still a minority, still "settlers" after several centuries? Is Crete different after Venice? These phenomena, which touch on the human, form the second part of the book, which can only end with the Turkish conquest.

Venice in Crete contains over sixty illustrations, some of them enhanced with augmented reality!

Author

Joëlle Dalègre agrégée d'histoire, docteure en géographie, maîtresse de conférences émérite à l'Inalco, is a specialist in the history of modern Greece.

365 pages
16 x 24 cm
Publication: 01/04/2019
ISBN: 9782858313013