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It is remarkable how little attention has been given to a period of great significance in the evolution of Eastern-Western relationships, and their individual / intertwining history and culture. During the 12th century new developments took place, which deeply affected Europe and Central Asia, influencing - without changing the traditional basic structures - the attitude of their societies. On the Eastern Quadrant we witness the rise of new potentates and dominions, and the reorganisation of the regional political asset under new balances of power and institutional forces. On the Western Quadrant, new forces came to the fore: the Italian City-States. Gradually, a stronger, well-organised asset sprang up from the ruins of the past. But its vitality stemmed from a new synthesis between different values and concepts which swept through the Mediterranean Sea, heralding the end of Byzantium and its system, and introducing a new world order with its cosmopolitan knowledge and learning and its closely intertwining cultural and mercantile interests. Despite the competition from Venice, whose policy aimed at controlling the eastern waters of the Mediterranean Sea and achieving the monopoly of Euro-Asian trade by diverting its flow through the Red Sea, Genoa had succeeded in putting into practice a pragmatic policy, which allowed the republic to build up the most extensive and impressive political-institutional and financial-commercial edifice of the time. A skilled nautical experience and technology had brought a series of innovations both in sailing and warfare that soon significantly modified the traditional picture of maritime warfare developing combat methods that would give Genoa unprecedented superiority at sea and on the seas. It was in this span of time that an important trade-route to/from the Black Sea grew up, and significant commercial relations were opened up by the peoples settled in the Central Asian spaces with Genoese quarters (a sort of little "city-states") and their advanced bases of the Black Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]