Wars with Genoa. This is the time period when the two great thalassocracies of the period compete for control of the Mediterranean and of trade routes to the East. The first two Genoese Wars (1255-1270, 1294-9) produced naval victories for each side in an almost random pattern. On balance, the first war favored the Venetians and the second the Genoese. Fifty years of relative peace ensued, the belligerants heavily occupied by other challenges, including awesome onslaughts of plague. The Third Genoese War (1351-5) began well for the Venetians but ended badly. Control of the Genoa government, however, had passed to the Visconti family of Milan, and Venice was able to negotiate a better peace treaty than its military posture would have suggested. From one point of view the Fourth Genoese War (1378-81), called the War of Chioggia, can be viewed as a defeat for the Venetians, but Venice's dramatic and climactic victory at Chioggia, 1379-80, pulled defeat from the jaws of complete disaster. (See a Virtual History of Venice for more.) Image: The Lion of Saint Mark (By Tonchino - Extracted from Flag of Most Serene Republic of Venice.svg, Public Domain).