L’évolution de la migration française dans la colonie génoise de Caffa (Crimée) du XIIIe au XVe siècle

Zeszyty naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. 2018.

Khvalkov E.

The growth of the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice from the 13th to the 15th century created conditions for a commercial and colonial expansion. Large-scale trade was based on the network of the colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Black Sea area, where Caffa, a city in the Crimea, was the center of the Genoese possessions. Initially it attracted the commercial partners of Ligurians coming from the French Riviera, in particular from Montpellier. However, the Ottoman threat, the tragic events of 1453 and the closing of the straits changed the structure of this migration. Since the 1420s, the majority of migrants of French origin are military, while in the 1460s, almost all are mercenaries. Unlike the fourteenth century, they come not only from the South, but rather from other regions of France. These changes in the structure and character of the French migration to Caffa followed the same trend as in the rest of the Europe. The number of merchants from the Mediterranean decreased because of increasing risks and was replaced by a growing number of mercenaries.

Keywords: migration, mercenary, Crimea, Genoa, Caffa, Provence