Emperor Michael VIII gives Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, to the Republic of Genoa in 1273 in return for Genoa's support of the Empire after the Fourth Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople in 1204.

Pera will soon become a flourishing trade colony, ruled by a podestà, and will gradually outstrip the Greek capital in economic development.

The Venetian navy, under the command of Rogerio Morosini, in 1296 avenges the Genoese massacre of Venetians in Constantinople by sacking Galata, the Genoese trading port near Constantinople; this is the first of a series of Venetian-Genoese naval battles off Constantinople.

For nearly two centuries hereafter, Venice and Genoa will be periodically at war.