Genoa (Genova) is a town and seaport in north west Italy. Formerly an uimportant seaport in Roman times, at the breaking up of the Roman empire by Charlemagne, Genoa declared herself an independent republic presided over by Doges and became a small empire with foreign posessions on the Spanish coast, coast of north-west Africa, Black Sea etc. At the end of the 18th century, following years pf civil conflict between the major families Genoa declared itself a kingdom, with a government established as a strict aristocracy. The nobility were divided into two classes - the old and new. To the old belonged, besides the families of Grimaldi, Fieschi, Doria, Spinola, twenty-four others, who stood nearest them in age, wealth, and consequence. The new nobility comprised 437 families. Slowly Genoa lost all her foreign possessions. Corsica, the last of all, revolted in 1730, and was ceded in 1768 to France. After the battle of Marengo in 1800 Genoa was taken possession of by the French. In 1805 it was formally annexed to the Empire of France, in 1815 to the Kingdom of Sardinia, with which it later became a portion of the, then Kingdom of, Italy.
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
Research Genoa
