Braavos as Venice, Free Cities as Medieval Italy?

[NorthGirl]

Hi! New here so I don't know if it's been brought up or if it's even in the right sub-section to talk about it so sorry if that's the case.

After reading AFFC's Arya I chapter and the description of Braavos screams Venice to me. Big Merchant City, huge confluence of cultures and economical giant. What made me think of Venice the most are the submerged buildings and everything built on water plus the canals. I have heard Valyria being compared to Rome and I feel that the Free Cities are like the many mini-kingdoms that constituted Italy after the fall of Rome. Even linguistically speaking I always thought of High Valyrian as the Latin of the world of Ice and Fire. Also, like Italian is a bastardised version of Latin that is spoken with different dialects and accents throughout Italy, a bastardised version of High Valyrian is spoken differently in each of the different Free Cities (as I understand it). I like thinking of real world equivalents as the world building is one of the biggest appeals to me about ASOIAF. :read: History Nerd Alert :read: Lols

[Steelborn]

Venice is definitely the biggest inspiration for Braavos, but I connect the free cities as a whole with the ancient city states rather than medieval mini kingdoms.

[dopplerdog]

There's plenty of historical / mythological parallels. The wildlings being invited to settle in the gift reminds me of germanic tribes being invited by Rome to settle within its borders, once the borders could not be adequately defended. 7 kingdoms of westeros as the 7 anglo saxon kingdoms. Andals as anglo saxons, First Men as celts. Targaryens as Normans. Wildings as picts and scots, the Wall as Hadrian's wall (or the wall of China). Dothraki as mongols. Dany's conquering city after city reminds me of Alexander. Some people don't like this comparison, but I think pagans must have seen christianity along the lines of the way R'hllorism is viewed by the faith of the seven (even though the faith of the seven is structured along catholic lines). Stannis using flames in his banner, like Constantine used the christian chi-rho. The intrigue of the ruling Baratheon-Lannisters as the intrigue of the Julio-Claudians. Joffrey as Caligula. Lyanna as Helen, Rhaegar as Paris, Robert as Menelaus/Agamemnon. The confrontation at the walls of Meereen like the confrontation of Hector and Achilles. Dondarrion and the Brotherhood without Banners as Robin Hood and his Merry Men. It's like GRRM took history and legend, threw it in a hat, and jumbled it all up.

Which makes me wonder about the future of this world. I'd imagine the free cities rising in influence through finance, and the availability of finance spurring commerce and investment - leading to voyages of exploration, colonialism and industry. I could imagine the start of an industrial revolution a couple of centuries on.