By the beginning of the 16th Century Venetian power was on the wane. The advance of the Ottoman Empire in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean had reduced Venetian possessions to the island of Cyprus and a narrow strip of the Dalmatian Coast whilst her key position on the trade routes to the east became obsolete after the Portuguese discovered a sea route to the Orient.
To add insult to injury, the power and prestige of The Most Serene Republic was slowly eclipsed by waxing star of the Austro-Spanish Hapsburgs. In the ensuing centuries Venice fought both the Ottoman Turks and Spanish Hapsburgs in equal measures but after a thousand years of almost continuous warfare, The Republic was finally defeated by Napoleon.
