Nicola Di Cosmo, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. “Visions and Frictions: Venice, the Mongols, and the New World Order (13th-14th centuries)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2025. 4:10 pm. Cohen 203.
What role did Mediterranean powers, particularly Venice, play in the new world order created by the Mongols? This talk will explore the motivations, challenges, and achievements of the Venetians who lived, traded and died in Mongol lands. The Mongol conquest offered unprecedented opportunities for new markets, safe travel, and connection of disjointed trade circuits. Cultural distance, political differences, and religious zeal nevertheless prevented cooperation and integration. The visions that inspired collaboration between Mediterranean and Asian powers contended with the friction of imperfect attempts to operate within a multicultural and polycentric environment, beset by endemic rivalries, legal disputes, and uneven commercial practices. While this political experiment ultimately did not deliver on its initial promises, its achievements and failures constitute a fundamental chapter in the transition to the modern world.
Free and Open to the Public.