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Ottoman–Venetian wars: A Visual History

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Three centuries of war between the Serenissima and the Sublime Porte for the islands and coasts of the eastern Mediterranean, from Negroponte to Lepanto to the fall of Crete.

Fought
1396 to 1718
Duration
322 years
Dates
1396 to 1718
Deaths
Hundreds of thousands; the siege of Candia alone cost about 30,000 Christian and 100,000 Ottoman lives
Venice
Republic of Venice; papal, Spanish, Habsburg and Knights of Malta allies at times
Ottomans
Sultans Mehmed II, Bayezid II, Selim II, Ibrahim, Mehmed IV; admirals Barbarossa, Piyale, Kilic Ali; Barbary corsairs
Result
Venice loses almost its whole overseas empire; Ottoman mastery of the eastern Mediterranean, then stalemate

The Ottoman-Venetian wars (1396-1718) were seven major conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire over Venice's maritime empire in Greece, the Aegean and the Adriatic. The Ottomans took Negroponte (1470), Venice's Morean fortresses (1499-1503, with the naval defeats of Zonchio), Cyprus (1570-1571, its defender Bragadin flayed alive) despite the Holy League's crushing victory at Lepanto in October 1571, and Crete after the 21-year siege of Candia (1645-1669), the longest in history. Venice's revenge in the Morean War (1684-1699) briefly won the Peloponnese and blew up the Parthenon; the last war (1714-1718) lost it again at Passarowitz. Venice's decline and the Ottomans' pivot to land warfare closed the age.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Ottoman-Venetian wars. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

200400600800100012001400160018002000Ottoman-Venetian wars (1396 to 1718)Open: Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire (395 to 1453)Open: Bulgarian EmpireBulgarian Empire (681 to 1396)Open: ReconquistaReconquista (718 to 1492)Open: Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire (800 to 1806)Open: CrusadesCrusades (1096 to 1291)Open: Latin Empire of ConstantinopleLatin Empire of Constantinople (1204 to 1261)Open: Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire (1299 to 1922)Open: Conquests of TimurConquests of Timur (1370 to 1405)Open: Polish-Ottoman warsPolish-Ottoman wars (1485 to 1699)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: War of the Spanish SuccessionWar of the Spanish Succession (1701 to 1714)Open: Greek War of IndependenceGreek War of Independence (1821 to 1829)

Venice's overseas territory (Stato da Mar)

0102030401400: 401470: 351503: 251573: 151669: 71699: 251718: 51400145015001550160016501700thousand km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Ottoman-Venetian wars

  1. 1470
    Negroponte falls
  2. 1499
    Zonchio
  3. 1538
    Preveza
  4. 1571
    Famagusta falls; Lepanto
  5. 1645
    Ottoman invasion of Crete
  6. 1669
    Candia surrenders
  7. 1687
    Morosini takes Athens; Parthenon blown up
  8. 1699
    Karlowitz
  9. 1715
    Ottomans retake the Morea
  10. 1718
    Passarowitz

Negroponte and the Morea

Venice fought the Ottomans in the 1390s and 1416 (Gallipoli), and Mehmed II's 16-year war (1463-1479) cost it Negroponte, sacked in 1470, and its Albanian and Morean holdings; the peace of 1479 imposed tribute. Bayezid II's war of 1499-1503 saw the first battles decided by ships' guns at Zonchio, and Venice lost Lepanto, Modon and Coron, its 'eyes of the Republic'. Suleiman's war of 1537-1540 with Barbarossa took the last Aegean islands and Nauplia; Venice made peace while its Holy League allies were beaten at Preveza.

Cyprus and Lepanto

Selim II demanded Cyprus in 1570; Nicosia fell in September and Famagusta held out under Marcantonio Bragadin until August 1571, when he surrendered on terms and was flayed alive. The Holy League of Venice, Spain and the Pope under Don John of Austria destroyed the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto on 7 October 1571, killing 30,000, but Venice, exhausted, made a separate peace in 1573 conceding Cyprus. The Ottomans rebuilt their fleet within a year; the grand vizier said Venice had cut off Turkey's beard but Turkey had cut off Venice's arm.

Candia, the Morea and the end

In 1645 the Ottomans invaded Crete; Candia (Heraklion) resisted from 1648 to 1669 while Venetian fleets blockaded the Dardanelles and won at the straits (1656); French volunteers came and went; Morosini surrendered on honourable terms in September 1669. When the Ottomans failed at Vienna in 1683 Venice joined the Holy League and Morosini conquered the Peloponnese (1685-1687), his mortars igniting the powder store in the Parthenon in September 1687; Karlowitz (1699) confirmed the gain. The Ottomans retook the Morea in 1715 in a single campaign; Corfu held out with Schulenburg's defence in 1716; Passarowitz (1718) left Venice the Ionian islands and Dalmatia and no more.

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8 surprising things about the Ottoman-Venetian wars

  1. Lepanto was the last great galley battle in history; Cervantes lost the use of his left hand there.
  2. The siege of Candia lasted 21 years, the longest siege in recorded history.
  3. Bragadin's stuffed skin was stolen from Constantinople by a Venetian in 1580 and rests in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo.
  4. Morosini's mortar shell of 26 September 1687 destroyed the Parthenon, which had survived intact for 2,100 years as temple, church and mosque.
  5. The Venetian Arsenal could reportedly build a galley a day at its height, an early assembly line.
  6. Venice paid the Ottomans an annual tribute of 10,000 ducats for Zante and later Cyprus.
  7. The Ottoman-Venetian wars were interspersed with lucrative trade; Venice's bailo in Constantinople was its most important ambassador.
  8. The 'eyes of the Republic', Modon and Coron, were the ports every Venetian galley to the Levant called at.

Sources

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