From the middle of the 13th century, small communities from all over Liguria settled on the coast of the Black Sea. The overseas Genoese made up more than 80% of the western population of those lands. Cities such as Soldaia, Pera and Caffa, experienced exceptional development, built walls and resisted the assaults of the Greeks and Mongols, although two centuries later they did fall into the power of the Ottomans, who were superior in numbers, ships and firepower. The Genoese coexisted with the Orientals, not integrating, converting or subduing them as was the logic of 19th century colonialism. The Genoese colonies in the Black Sea were the privileged meeting point between the world of the steppe and the forest and the Mediterranean merchant cities, places where the most important local resources - wax, honey, furs, cereals, even slaves - were traded in exchange for cloth, canvas, wine.