LibertyArchives3's video: VENICE s role in the Crusades and the Black Death

This is a video on the history of medieval Venice and on how it became the mercantile, financial and geopolitical heart of Europe and the Mediterranean, dominating western Europe and the Eastern Roman Empire by the use of finance and usury, by its ruthless power politics, and by means of its vast influence networks. In particular, it goes into how the Venetian merchant oligarchy instigated the Crusades as a means to acquire dominance over Mediterranean trade and the commercial ports of the Near East. A big part of that was also to acquire control over the Mediterranean end of the Silk Road trading system. Venice's machinations for control in the East also extended to extraordinary efforts to weaken and, indeed, overthrow, what until then had been its main protector – the Eastern Roman, or Bizantine Empire. Venice desired to rule alone, and to extend the Venetian Empire's domination over all the Mediterranean and the trading routes of the Black and Aegean Seas – this meant the Bizantines had to go. These schemes actually culminated in the Fourth Crusade, by which Venice manipulated the European crusader armies into invading and looting Constantinople (the capital of the Bizantine Empire) and, as a result, managed to weaken the Bizantines beyond avail. The video also goes into how Venice unwittingly helped precipitate the catastrophe of the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century. In the earlier part of the century, Venice had masterminded an international campaign of geopolitical destabilizations and usurious financial looting targeting most of the kingdoms of Europe. This resulted in a continent-wide economic depression that severely degraded the average standard of living in a then prospering High Middle Ages Europe. If you want to think of it by today's standards, then imagine a Great Depression followed by ruthless austerity measures. So, when the bubonic plague came into Europe from the East in mid-century, urban conditions were so degraded, and the people were so undernourished and weakened, their natural immunity so shot, that the plague caught on like wildfire would on a dry crop, and went on to kill from one third to a half of the population of Europe. It is true the plague would have caused a high death toll in Europe even without a depression, but the fact is the depression ensured a worst case scenario. Such are the consequences of finance exploitation and corporate politics. It must be noted that, after the Middle Ages, the Venetian mercantile and financial oligarchy maintained its place as one of the essential powers (if not the essential one) in Europe, and actually went on to be the dominant force in the Dutch Empire, first, and the British Empire, later. And, indeed, the Venetian legacy in world affairs lives on even unto this day. The Venetian mercantile model, their methods and their ways of thinking and doing things have come to set the standard for today's global economy. In a very real sense, we are now living in a Venetian world, i.e. one that is defined by mercantile domination, usurious financial exploitation and debt service, neomalthusian politics, corporate consolidation, control by pervasive influence networks, third world exploitation. And, of course, there's also the fact that the Venetian mercantile dynasties and interests themselves are still, and unto this day, among the key high-oligarchic nexuses in the world. --- This video is a clip from Larouche PAC's amazing documentary film “The New Dark Age”. Watch the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYiX_ekB6Ec and subscribe to them! at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qUL2EsTHpNcgsz7woW9Iw FAIR USE NOTICE: This video contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues of humanitarian and environmental significance. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material under section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this video is distributed without profit for educational, news reporting and research purposes. For more information go to: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17 lf you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.