History of the Republic of Venice were little compensation. This was the last war of the Republic with Turkey. The decline of Venice in the 18th century was also due not only to Genoa, Venice's old rival, but also to Livorno, a new port on the Tyrrhenian Sea created by the grand dukes of Tuscany and chosen as staging-post for British trade in the Mediterranean. Still more injurious were the Papal town of Ancona and Habsburg Trieste, a free port since 1719, in the Adriatic Sea, which no longer constituted a "Venetian Gulf". An eminent Venetian politician of the time declared, "Apart from the residue which
Gulf of Batabanó to the Isle of Youth. The gulf is shallow–less than 200 feet (61 m) deep–and contains about 350 smaller islands of the Canarreos Archipelago ("los Archipiélago de los Canarreos") besides the Isle of Youth. The gulf is a center of sponge fishing. Gulf of Batabanó The Gulf of Batabanó (; ), also called the Batabanó Gulf, is an inlet or strait off southwestern Cuba in the Caribbean Sea, separating mainland Cuba from the Isle of Youth. It is located at . The gulf's northern border begins at the southern coast of Cuba in Pinar del Río Province, Artemisa Province, Mayabeque