The War of Chioggia () was a conflict between the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice which lasted from 1378 to 1381, from which Venice emerged triumphant. It was the last major conflict of the Venetian–Genoese Wars. The war had mixed results. Venice and her allies won the war against their rival Italian states, but lost the war against King Louis the Great of Hungary, which resulted in the Hungarian conquest of the Dalmatian city-states.
Background
The two maritime powers, Genoa and Venice, had long been leading commercial powers with ties to Constantinople that had nurtured their growth during the Early Middle Ages. Their rivalry over trade with the Levant and other areas of the eastern Mediterranean had generated a number of wars. Genoa, having suffered previous defeats at the hands of the Venetians, had emerged from submission to the Visconti tyrants of Milan during the 14th century, although it had also been severely weakened by the outbreak of the Black Death in 1348, which killed more than 40,000 people in Genoa. Venice had participated in the dismemberment of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 and gradually taken over land on the Adriatic coast, thereby entering into conflict with the Kingdom of Hungary; on the Italian mainland, its terrestrial acquisitions had generated a rivalry with the nearby largest city, Padua.
Genoa wanted to establish a complete monopoly in the Black Sea area, particularly in the trade of grain, timber, fur, and slaves. In order to do so it needed to eliminate the commercial threat posed by Venice in this region. Genoa felt compelled to initiate the conflict because of the collapse of Mongol hegemony over the Central Asian Trade Route which had hitherto been a significant source of wealth for Genoa. When the Mongols lost control of the area, trade became much more hazardous and far less profitable. Hence Genoa's decision to go to war was to ensure its trade in the Black Sea area remained under its control.
Allies
Genoa's allies included Hungary and Padua. The King of Hungary, Louis I, had conquered Dalmatia from Venice and by 1379 Hungarian forces threatened Venice itself by land from the north. Paduan forces, under the leadership of Francesco I da Carrara, cut off Venice's communications to the west. Genoa's allies also included the Patriarch of Aquileia and Leopold III, the Duke of Austria.
The danger on land seemed trifling to Venice so long as she could keep the sea open to her trade and press the war against the Genoese in the Levant. Venice's allies, which included Bernabò Visconti of Milan, gave her little help on this side, although his mercenaries invaded the territory of Genoa. The Milanese troops were defeated in September 1379 in the Val Bisagno. Bernabò, whose despotism and taxes had enraged the Milanese, was deposed by his nephew Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1385. Imprisoned in the castle of Trezzo, Bernabò was poisoned in December of that year.
Venice had the support of the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos. In 1376, the Genoese helped Andronikos IV overthrow John V, but in 1379 Venice restored the latter to the throne.
Tenedos
The war was primarily fought over control of the island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea, and both sides supported different claimants to the throne of the Byzantine Empire. Tenedos had been acquired by Venice from the Byzantine Empire in 1377, but after this conflict, they ceded it to Savoy and evacuated it in 1381. The Pope decided that the castle on Tenedos should be demolished, rather than be a source of contention between the two cities; 4000 Greek islanders from Tenedos were resettled in Crete and Euboea.
Cape d'Anzio (30 May 1378) During the first stage of the war the plans of the senate were carried out with general success. While Carlo Zeno harassed the Genoese stations in the Levant, Vettor Pisani brought one of their squadrons to action on 30 May 1378 off Cape d'Anzio to the south of the Tiber, and defeated it. The battle was fought in a gale by 10 Venetian against 11 Genoese galleys. The Genoese admiral, Luigi de' Fieschi, was taken with 5 of his galleys, and others were wrecked. Four of the squadron escaped, and steered for Famagusta in Cyprus, then held by Genoa. If Pisani had directed his course to Genoa itself, which was thrown into a panic by the defeat at Anzio, it is possible that he might have dictated peace, but he thought his squadron too weak, and preferred to follow the Genoese galleys which had fled to Famagusta.