Modern western civilization isn’t Rome, it’s Venice

The medieval city once ruled the Mediterranean, but fell behind its rivals and now is headed for a climate change drowning

White supremacists and fascists love to opine about the downfall of Rome. “It was rampant deviant homosexuality,” they’ll say. Or “decadence ruined Rome” or whatever. They’ll ignore the actual mismanagement of Roman leaders and just point to whatever culture war bullshit they can link to modern day America and Europe.

But an allegedly decadent Rome probably isn’t the right historical analog to compare to modern day society. Instead, I propose that we look at the medieval and renaissance city of Venice.

Venice was founded on a marshy archipelago inside a lagoon on the northwestern end of the Adriatic Sea, making it an easily defensible fortress from invasions from the Balkans and the Italian peninsula.

Anyone who has played Europa Universalis IV knows that fighting Venice is a pain in the ass because its capital is impossible to take without complete naval and army dominance.

Its position at the top of the Adriatic Sea, with connections to both eastern and western Europe and mountain passes through the alps to Austria and southern Germany, made it an ideal trading port for spices and other goods commonly transported over Mediterranean waters.

The Venetians turned their defensive aquatic locale into an expansive naval and trade empire. At its renaissance-era peak, the city was producing almost one sea-faring vessel every day. Its trade empire spanned across the eastern Med.

At one point, it seemed as if the Venice was destined to rule the Mediterranean waves for eternity. But time and lack of foresight ended up dooming the Venetian Doge.

At the time, the dominant trade route between Europe and Asia ran over land through Egypt and Anatolia, only for valuable spices and other trade goods to hop back on boats to head off to valuable trade hubs like Venice and Genoa.

But not everyone was happy with this economic arrangement. Western European powers got tired of the iron trade grip of their Italian neighbors and sought alternative trade routes. This prompted the Castilian queen Isabella to hire Christopher Columbus to find a new trade route to the Indies by heading west over the Atlantic.

But the real competitor to Venetian control was the Portuguese. While Venice churned out more galleys, lighter ships designed to be powered by large groups of oarsmen in the relatively calmer waters of the Med, the Portuguese concentrated on larger sailing vessels, capable of navigating the open ocean.

In 15tk, the Portuguese discovered the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and eventually reached the Horn of Africa and an ocean bound route to India and the spice-filled islands of the Indies.

The Portuguese trade route around Africa introduced a competitor to the Venetian eastern Med empire, and weakened them to the point where the upstart Ottoman empire was able to seize away most of its overseas holdings.

The merchants in charge of Venice’s production failed to see the potential of the ocean and potential colonial holdings in the new world. They failed to adapt, and lost their power as a result, opening themselves up to watching their land (and money) get gobbled up by their rivals.

In modern day, Venice is playing a mostly losing battle against climate change. The city is renowned for its watery streets but sea levels in the city have been rising for the last century, with no sign of slowing down. The lagoon surrounding the city has turned into a cesspool of garbage and industrial waste.

Though the city is taking steps to literally stem the tide of rising waters, by introducing mechanical sea walls to protect against Adriatic wave surges, it likely won’t enough to prevent the loss of wide swaths of the city to climate change.

What was once the location of a defensive stronghold and epicenter of a vast naval empire is now watching as its geography has morphed into its biggest enemy. The irony of it is that if they had left the lagoon and archipelago alone, it likely would have filled up with silt from the multiple rivers that flow into the lagoon and the area would probably be much safer from rising sea levels.

“Western civilization” and indeed the rest of the world, is already facing similar climate challenges as Venice, and mostly losing. A similar lack of forethought that plagued the Venetian Doges of old currently plagues world leaders now.

They’re too afraid of messing with their current system to evolve, to the doom of us all.