Editing Liguria (section)

===Early modern===
[[File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio - Ritratto di Cristoforo Colombo (1520).jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Italian explorer [[Christopher Columbus]] leads an expedition to the New World, 1492. [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|His voyages]] are celebrated as the discovery of the Americas from a European perspective, and they opened a [[Early modern period|new era]] in the history of humankind and sustained contact between the two worlds.]]
The alternation of French and Milanese dominions over Liguria went on until the first half of the 16th century. The French influence ceased in 1528, when [[Andrea Doria]] allied with the powerful king of Spain and imposed an aristocratic government, which gave the republic relative stability for about 250 years.

Genoese explorer [[Christopher Columbus]]'s speculative proposal to reach the [[East Indies]] by sailing westward received the support of the Spanish crown, which saw in it an opportunity to gain the upper hand over rival powers in the contest for the lucrative [[spice trade]] with [[Asia]]. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he had intended, Columbus landed in the [[The Bahamas|Bahamas archipelago]], at a locale he named ''San Salvador''. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the [[Greater Antilles|Greater]] and [[Lesser Antilles]], as well as the [[Caribbean Sea|Caribbean]] coast of [[Venezuela]] and Central America, claiming them for the [[Spanish Empire]].
[[File:Casa di Colombo Genova foto 2.jpg|thumb|[[Christopher Columbus House]] in [[Genoa]], Italy, an 18th-century reconstruction of the house in which Columbus grew up. The original was likely destroyed during the 1684 [[bombardment of Genoa]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Una Giornata nella Città |trans-title=A Day in the City  |first1=Corinna |last1=Praga |author2=Laura Monac |publisher=Sagep Editrice |location=Genoa |year=1992 |page=14 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.ortidicarignano.it/files/seiitinerariinportoria.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.ortidicarignano.it/files/seiitinerariinportoria.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |chapter=Casa di Colombo |first1=Alfredo |last1=Preste |author2=Alessandro Torti |author3=Remo Viazzi |title=Sei itinerari in Portoria |publisher=Grafiche Frassicomo |trans-title=Six itineraries in Portoria  |location=Genova |year=1997 |language=it}}</ref>]]

The value of trade routes through Genoa to the Near East declined during the [[Age of Discovery]], when Portuguese explorers discovered routes to Asia around the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. The international crises of the seventeenth century, which ended for Genoa with the 1684 [[Bombardment of Genoa|bombardment]] by [[Louis XIV]]'s fleet, restored French influence over the republic. Consequently, the Ligurian territory was crossed by the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmontese]] and [[Holy Roman Empire|Austrian]] armies when these two states came into conflict with France. Austria occupied Genoa in 1746, but the [[Habsburg]] troops were driven away by a popular insurrection. Napoleon's first Italian campaign marked the end of the oligarchic Genoese state, which was transformed into the [[Ligurian Republic]], modelled on the [[First French Republic|French Republic]]. After the union of Oneglia and Loano (1801), Liguria was annexed to the [[First French Empire|French Empire]] (1805) and divided by [[Napoleon]] into three departments: [[Montenotte (department)|Montenotte]] (capital [[Savona]]), [[Gênes]] (capital [[Genoa]]) and [[Apennins]] (capital [[Chiavari]]).