Ethnic Groups, Cross-Social and Cross-Cultural Contacts on Fifteenth-Century Cyprus

The Republic of Genoa, with the treaties of 21 October 1374 and 19 February 1383, established real predominance over the island of Cyprus. Genoa imposed on the Cypriot sovereign very harsh conditions which had considerable influence on events in the following years. The island had grown greatly in importance, especially after the fall of the last Christian outposts in the Holy Land, when ‘the traditional forces of Western maritime commerce, in order to guarantee for themselves continuity in trading with the Orient, had to find new ports to substitute for those on the Syrian coast, where they had been accustomed to call, and the interest of all the main trading nations of Europe turned towards Cyprus’. ¹ The result was that the island had become a true hub of international commerce. ²