The Republic of Ragusa: Dubrovnik's Five Centuries of Freedom, 1358-1808 | Calm Bedtime History

You are standing on the limestone cliffs above the Adriatic, where the city of Ragusa clings to a rocky promontory jutting into the sea. It is the year 1358. The last Venetian governor has just departed through the Pile Gate, and the nobles of the city have gathered in the Rector's Palace to swear an oath of collective rule. For the next four hundred and fifty years, this tiny walled republic between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian lagoon will preserve its independence through nothing more than diplomacy, trade, and the careful rotation of power among its merchant families.