The Bosphorus connects the Black Sea from the Sea of Marmara. Istanbul (Constantinople) is located on the Bosphorus. The cities location and control has led to its rise in riches and importance. The Dardanelles connects the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean and Mediterranean. The ancient city of Troy was located near this. Control of the strait had led to the city becoming extremely wealthy. This, in turn, led to its destruction by the Mycenaeans. <span />
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he Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe. Many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan, Umbrian and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived. Some feudal lords existed with a servile labour force and huge tracts of land, but by the 11th century, many cities, including Venice, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Cremona, Siena, Perugia, Spoleto, Todi, Terni, and many others, had become large trading metropoles, able to obtain independence from their formal sovereigns.
