The Republic of San Marco (Italian: Repubblica di San Marco) was an Italian revolutionary state existing for 17 months in 1848–49. Based on the Venetian Lagoon, it extended into most of Venetia, or the Terraferma territory of the Venetian Republic, suppressed 51 years before in the French Revolutionary Wars. After declaring independence from the Habsburg Austrian Empire, the republic later joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, in an attempt, led by the latter, to unite northern Italy against foreign (mainly Austrian but also French) domination.