User:Kgalvez2/sandbox

The harbor gives access to outside communities creating a good geographical situation for the city. The city is spread out geographically along a section of the Liguria coast, which makes trading by ship possible. Before the invention of car, train, and airplane technology, the main outside access for the city was the sea, as the surrounding mountains made trade north by land more difficult than coastal trade. Trade routes have always connected Genoa on an international scale, with increasingly farther reach starting from trade along Europe’s coastline before the medieval period to today’s connection across continents.

As the Genoa harbor was so important to the merchants for their own economic success, other nearby harbors and ports were seen as competition for a landing point for foreign traders. In the 16th century, the Genovese worked to destroy the local shipping competition, the Savona harbor. Taking matters into their own hands, the Genoa merchants and the politically powerful in Genoa attacked the harbor of Savona with stones. This action was taken to preserve the economic stability and wealth of the city during the rise in prominence of Savona. The Genovese would go as far as to war with other coastal, trading cities such as Venice, in order to protect the trade industry.