Those countries were known as the "non-aligned nations." The Non-Aligned Movement was initiated by the leaders of Yugoslavia, India, Indonesia, Egypt and Ghana. Many other nations joined in their movement to keep free of commitments to the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR. At the Bandung Conference in 1955, twenty-nine nations were represented. The Belgrade Conference in 1961 was the first official summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Member nations attending that conference were Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, the Congo, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, and Yugoslavia. <span>Bolivia, Brazil, and Ecuador attended as observer nations. (Note also that Cuba was an original participant in the movement, but then ended up aligning with the USSR.)</span>
Venice was one of the two Italian cities that monopolized trade with the far east. Trade with the far east was vital to its fortunes and power. Venice traded with the Byzantine Empire and the Moslem world extensively and became powerful as a result of trade
