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Some thirty work schemes reflecting a whole new range of enterprises sprang up
in the years between the loss of Candia and the conquest of Morea .
There was clearly an attempt to reorganise the army, and Francesco Morosini was
the central figure in this effort, culminating in Capitoli e ordini ('Capitals
and orders') by Alessandro Molin, the Provveditore Generale on the mainland (1700), which contained the regulations of the cavalry and the
infantry. Another decisive turning point was the initiation of construction of
the first Venetian line-of-battle ships. The goals of the Arsenale were
explicitly set forth in the Senate deliberation: the need for better
control of the Levant territories subject to Venice, and defeat of the Turkish
fleet that 'has no expertise'1 in the construction of ships, and 'does not have
commanders who are intelligent, and does not have crews that are good at
guiding them'2. More solid resistance against barbarian piracy was also needed,
but the central aim was to 'receive respect and veneration from the world'3, by
regaining the international acclaim it had once enjoyed.
Footnotes:
1 'non ha perizia'
2 'non ha comandanti che sappiano, non ha equipaggi che vaglino a ben
dirigerle'
3 'raccogliere dal mondo rispetto e venerazione'
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