The Venetian Republic has acquired considerable trading…

The Venetian Republic has acquired considerable trading privileges within Constantinople, and the growing number of Venetian merchants has long incurred the hostility of the Greeks.

In 1171, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos had ordered the arrest of Venetians, and eleven years later, an aroused citizenry had massacred a large number of Latins in Constantinople and insulted a papal legate.

Further, following the advice of recently returned crusaders, the new Crusade is to be directed against Egypt, now the center of Muslim power in the Levant but a government with which Venice is closely related commercially.

Venetian policy under the aging and blind but ambitious Doge Enrico Dandolo is therefore potentially at variance with that of the Pope and the crusaders.

Nevertheless, an agreement is made providing for payments to the Venetians for transportation and an equal division of conquests.