Battle of Tunis (1535), Battle of Preveza (1538), Siege of Castelnuovo (1539), Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir (1563), Great Siege of Malta (1565), Battle of Lepanto (1573), Siege of Navarino (1572), Conquest of Tunis (1574)
Repartition of Sphere of Influences between both empires: Western Mediterranean, Southern Europe and East Indies for Iberians and Catholics. Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East for Ottomans and Muslims.
The Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula, which began in 711, experienced its last glorious period during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman III (929–961); after his death, the Andalusian Umayyad State began to decline, and with the collapse of this state in 1031, the Tawaif-i Mulûk period, in which various Muslim emirates (at one point 34) ruled together, took place between 1031 – 1090. Although Muslims tried to resist the attacks of the Christian kingdoms in the peninsula (León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Galicia and Portugal) within the framework of the goal of Reconquista during the Almoravid and Almohad periods (1090–1248), the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, which took place in 1212, was an important turning point in Islamic history. After the decisive victory of the Christians, the Emirate of Granada continued its existence in the lands confined to the south of the peninsula as a dependency of Castile between 1232 and 1492, but with the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1469, it began to face a more aggressive Spanish policy. Having lost its lands one by one in the Granada War that began in 1482, the Emirate of Granada was wiped off the stage of history when its capital, Granada, fell on January 2, 1492, after an eight-month siege.[1] The relations between the Ottoman Empire and Spain also began indirectly with the Granada War. Emir Abu Abdullah, who was in a difficult situation due to the serial land losses during the war, sent an ambassador to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II and asked for help. However, Bayezid II was busy with his brother Cem on the one hand and fighting with the Mamluks on the other, so he could not send the requested help.[2]
The Spanish Empire expanded its military operations to the North African coast and, with the help of its strengthened navy, occupied Melilla on the Moroccan coast and the island of Djerba on the Tunisian coast in 1497, Mers El Kebir in 1505, Oran in 1509, and Béjaïa and Tripoli in 1510. It also built a fortress on the island opposite the city of Algiers and took the city indirectly under its control.
During this period, all of North Africa, except Egypt, was ruled by local emirates that lacked military power and were not strong enough to resist the Spanish invasions. Two developments changed this disadvantageous situation in the early 1500s. The first was that after the prohibition of Islam in Spain in 1502, tens of thousands of Muslims from Andalusia migrated to North Africa, creating a fresh and dynamic population. The second important development was that Turkish sailors from the western Anatolian coasts based themselves in the region and began resistance against the Spanish.
Within this framework, Oruç Reis and Kemal Reis, who were based on the island of Djerba in 1503, carried Muslims and Jews from Spain to North Africa and also started to clash with the Spanish. Oruç Reis and Hızır Reis (Hayreddin Barbarrosa), who joined him, made an agreement with the Hafsid Ruler of Tunisia, Muhammed El-Mutawakkil IV, and settled in La Goulette in 1504. From here until 1513, and from 1513 onwards, they began to struggle with the Spanish and their allies on land and sea from their new base in Cherchell. However, since they did not have enough power to cope with the Spanish Navy, in 1515 they sent gifts to the Ottoman PadishahSultan Selim I by ship and showed their loyalty, and in return they were granted the authority to collect ships and soldiers from the Western Anatolian coasts. In this way, fighting began between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire over Algeria and Tunisia (which would later turn into all-out war).
Clash of oversea interests and Globalization of War
In turn, Spaniards such as Martín de Salinas became involved as intermediaries for embassies from other European powers to Persia, specially the ones which were favorable to the Habsburg Empire of Charles V (in his case, serving the Archduchy of Austria of Franz Ferdinand, brother of Charles), who in 1524 communicated that a Persian ambassador would appear in Burgos to communicate with Charles, in response to the proposals of alliance with the Holy Roman Empire that were sent by Ferdinand of Austria.[11] Another Persian embassy arrived in Spain in late 1528, with ambassador Gabriel Sánchez [es] imploring the Persians to expedite the conclusion of joint operations during 1529. Therefore, another ambassador, Jean de Balbi (a Savoyard of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem), was sent via Portuguese Goa. He was to report on the latest developments in Europe (especially the Treaty of Madrid (1526), the League of Cognac, and the Battle of Mohács) to commit the Persians to the alliance and ensure unity against the common enemy. Later, in the 1540s, another Persian emissary visited Charles V in Germany, and there was also a covert mission to Spain (possibly carried out by the Venetian Michele Membré); however, there is no precise information about the meeting. All of this Iberian-Italian-German-Hungarian-Persian communications revealed the existence of a formal Anti-Ottoman Coallition leaded by Spanish diplomacy.[8]
The Barbarrosa brothers, who came under the protection of Sultan Selim in 1515, captured the city of Algiers in 1516 after a delegation from Algeria asked for their help against the Spanish Army. After Oruç Reis was declared the Sultan of Algeria in Cherchell, he captured Tenes and Tlemcen and expanded his territory to Morocco, but he lost his life in the Spanish counter-attack of May 1518. Tlemcen fell back into the hands of the Zayenids under Spanish protection.
Hayreddin Barbarosa replaced Oruç Reis and in October 1519, this time he sent a delegation of Algerian dignitaries and Muslim jurists to Sultan Selim with a petition of the Algerian people asking for help and be annexed to the Ottoman Empire. This solicitation, that generated initial hesitations from the Turks, would be answered positively by Suleiman the Magnificent, who then turned the Regency of Algiers into an Ottoman Eyalet in 1521.[22]
The loss of the island of Algiers caused a major shock in Spain. In 1529, a Spanish fleet of 10 ships carrying reinforcements to the besieged island was destroyed by the skillful counter-attack of Hayreddin Barbarosa Pasha, who had already passed the island. In July 1531, the 50-man Spanish-Genoese fleet under the command of Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria suffered an even greater defeat in the Cherchell Campaign. Likewise, the Ottomans in 1534 were able to recapture the port of Koroni (at the tip of the Morea), which Andrea Doria had captured in 1532.
The second important development in 1533 was that the Ottoman fleet under the command of Kemankeş Ahmed Paşa, who wanted to retake Koroni, was ineffective against the Genoese fleet, and the Ottoman capital turned to Hayreddin Barbarosa and the Turkish leaders for a stronger fleet in the Mediterranean. Barbaros, who was called to Istanbul in 1532, was appointed Kapudan Pasha in 1533. Hayreddin Barbarosa Pasha, who set sail for the Mediterranean with the strong fleet he had prepared in the winter of 1533–1534, devastated the coasts of the Kingdom of Naples and then conquered Tunis on August 16, 1534.
This strategic move by the Ottomans caused the attention of the Holy Roman EmperorCharles V to turn completely to the Mediterranean. In 1535, Charles V personally led an expedition and took back Tunis in June with the help of a Christian Coallition between Spain, HRE, Italian States and Portugal (which was already in its own Ottoman Wars since 1517 on the Indian Ocean and Horn of Africa). In response, Hayreddin Barbarosa Pasha, who managed to smuggle his fleet to Annabe, sailed to the Western Mediterranean and invaded Minorca, one of the Balearic Islands of the Spanish Empire. In September, the Spanish attack on Tlemcen was also repelled by the Ottomans.
Castelnouvo, which was captured by the Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria (at the service of Habsburg Spain) in the same year to be used as a base against the Ottomans in the future, was recaptured by Barbarosa in 1539 in a siege in which the 6,000-man Spanish garrison was annihilated. During the Spanish occupation of Herceg Novi, they made incursions into Dubrovnik to defend Habsburg Croatia and Republic of Ragusa interests.[27] This was the last military operation of the Spanish Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean until the Battle of Lepanto. In particular, the hesitation of the Genoese Admiral Doria to include Genoese ships in the battle of Preveza, even though he was allied with Venice, Genoese's historical rival, led to criticism of the said person. (Ultimately, the Holy Alliance soon fell apart.)
In 1540, an Ottoman fleet from Algeria invaded Gibraltar, but the Spanish Navy balanced the situation with its success in the Battle of Alborán, while the Spanish-Genoese fleet under the command of Giannettino Doria defeated another Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Girolata on June 15, 1540, and managed to capture Turgut Reis. Taking advantage of Turgut Reis' defeat, Andrea Doria set sail from Messina in the summer of 1540 with a fleet of over 80 ships (51 galleys and over 30 galleys and fustas) and 14 Spanish infantry divisions led by Garcia de Toledo, the Governor General of Sicily of the Kingdom of Spain, and landed in Tunis, capturing the fortresses of Monastir, Sousse, Hammamet and Kelibia held by the Hafsids, thus expanding Spanish rule in Tunis.
The year 1541 marked the peak of Spain's attacks, which had been ongoing since 1529. After Barbarosa rejected the offer to take command of the Holy Roman Empire's navy, Charles V gathered a large navy (580 ships and 36,000 sailors and soldiers), and was devastated by a storm during the Algiers Naval Expedition of 1541, and suffered a great defeat in front of Algiers, which was defended by Hasan Ağa.[28][29]
Despite the other fronts, there was a brief peace from Ottoman military incurrsions in the Spanish Domains since 1545. However, the calm between the parties was short-lived, and the Spanish Empire sent a fleet in June 1550 to capture the Ottoman fortress of Mahdia in Tunisia, and Emperor Ferdinand's efforts to recapture Hungary and Transylvania through George Martinuzzi led to the start of a new war that would last until 1562. In this war, Turgut Reis, who took over the leadership of the Ottoman fleet, and Piyale Pasha, who was appointed Kapudan Pasha in 1553, brought the Ottoman military presence in the Western Mediterranean to its peak, in defiance of the Spanish Empire.
The Mediterranean was the scene of larger-scale operations and important victories for the Ottomans. The operations of the Ottoman Navy in the Mediterranean, in alliance with the Kingdom of France against the Holy Roman Empire, led to the start of an Italian War that lasted from 1551 until 1559.
In 1553, the struggle in the Mediterranean continued to be active. The Ottoman fleet under the command of Sinan Pasha and Turgut Reis, combined with the French fleet under the command of Antoine Escalin des Aimars, struck the coasts of Naples, Sicily and Corsica, and in August and September captured Corsica, which was under the control of the Genoese, an ally of the Kingdom of Spain. On the other hand, the Kingdom of Spain realized that it could no longer hold Mahdia, which it had occupied in 1550. Emperor Charles V offered to hand the castle over to the Knights of Malta, but when his offer was rejected, he evacuated the castle.[45] Thereupon, the Ottomans recaptured the castle.Piri Reis map of Corsica, which helped to realize the Ottoman-French invasion of the island on 1553.
In 1554, the Ottoman fleet plundered the coast of Pula, which was part of the Kingdom of Naples, Spain, and invaded Viesta, then bombarded the coast of Tuscany, which was part of the Republic of Florence, and invaded Orbetello. However, the Ottoman fleet was unable to meet the French fleet and abandoned the planned joint operation on Corsica, returning due to the advance of the season.[46]
Map of Morocco–Turkey relations at the XVI Century.On the other hand, Morocco was in a period of national fragmentation due to the conflicts between Wattasids and Saadis. This led to a Spanish-Ottoman proxy war there. So, the Wattasids leaded by Ali Abu Hassun, after being rejected by the Portuguese Empire,[47] seek help to the Ottomans since 1545 (being too far to do a Vassalage pact in which Morocco was annexed to Ottoman Empire), while the Saadis leaded by Mohammed al-Shaykh, after being offended by the arrogant tone of the Sublime Porte (who addressed Moroccan Sultans as a mere "Sheikh of the Arabs", which disturbed the former good Saadian-Ottoman relations)[48][49] seek defensive aid to the Spaniards in response of Turkish interventionism (being too far to invade Ottoman Algeria).[50] So, on 1554 the Ottomans launched the Capture of Fez with the goal to conquer Morocco, which briefly they do.[51][52][53] Another goal of the Ottomans was to have access to the Atlantic Ocean through occupying the Moroccan port of Tangier, so avoiding the Iberian blockade of Turkish ships on the Strait of Gibraltar, which was a first step of bigger plans to develop Turkish incursions to Spanish America and stablish a Turkish colony with the projected name of "Vilayet Antilia" on the Spanish Main (based in Piri Reis map). However, the Moroccan resistance impided them to execute it.[54]
On the other hand, the Holy Roman Empire was also going through a historical turning point after the 1st and 2nd Schmalkaldic War. The Imperial Diet convened in Augsburg to broker peace between the Catholics and Lutheran princes (Schmalkaldic League). With the Peace of Augsburg signed on September 25, 1555, the formula cuius regio, eius religio (the religion of the ruler is the religion of his country) was adopted, granting each ruler the authority to determine the religion of his own lands. However, Charles V, who had suffered continuous military defeats against the Ottoman Empire, had failed to bring France to heel, had lost Metz in 1554, and had also failed to establish religious unity within his country, was psychologically collapsed and prepared to abdicate, dividing the Empire between the Spanish and German/Austrian branches. These shocking developments in the Holy Roman Empire continued on January 16, 1556, when Charles V formally abdicated and retired to a monastery in Spain. Charles V's brother and Archduchy of Austria, Ferdinand, ascended the throne of the empire, while Charles V's son, Felipe II (1556–1598), became King of Spain. In a global perspective, the Ottoman–Habsburg wars influenced a lot in the consolidation of Protestant reformation despite opposition from the Holy Roman Emperor, as the Empire of Charles V wasn't free to focus in the German-Nordic religious conflict due to the Franco-Ottoman alliance threatening imperial interests on the Italian Wars, Hungarian–Ottoman Wars and the Spanish–Ottoman War.[55]"the consolidation, expansion and legitimization of Lutheranism in Germany by 1555 should be attributed to Ottoman imperialism more than to any other single factor".[56]
In 1557, the Ottoman fleet of 60 ships under the command of Turgut Reis and Piyale Pasha hit the coast of Apulia, then landed troops on the coast of Calabria and invaded Cariati. Then, they headed towards Tunisia and managed to conquer Bizerte, which had been under the occupation of the Spanish Empire since 1534.
While this struggle was ongoing in the Mediterranean, as a result of diplomatic negotiations between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire that had been ongoing since 1557, a permanent armistice was signed between the Ottomans and the Germans on January 31, 1559. On April 29, 1558, Emperor Ferdinand sent four drafts of the Ahidname to the Ottoman side. Although the German ambassador Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq appeared before Suleiman the Magnificent on June 8, he did not receive a positive response to the drafts of the Ahidname. However, it was agreed that the negotiations would continue. Because, in the Ottoman Empire, which had eliminated the Safavid Persian threat in the east with the Treaty of Amasya in 1555, the ongoing civil war based on succession among the princes (since the assassination of Prince Mustafa in 1553) had turned Suleiman's attention to the struggles between his sons. The period between Prince Bayezid's defeat by Selim in Konya in 1559, his subsequent refuge with the Safavids, and his strangulation by Ottoman executioners in Kazvin as a result of the Ottoman-Safavid reconciliation in 1561, occupied the Ottoman state mechanism considerably.
During the same period, the Spanish branch of the Habsburg Dynasty also sought peace with the Ottomans. So, in March 1558, both the King Philip II of Spain and Pope Pius IV decided to send an emissary to talk with Persian ambassadors via Michel Cernovic, the chief dragoman of the Venetians and agent of Ferdinand I of the HRE, as well as of Habsburg Spain, in Constantinople. However, he was more concerned with negotiating (together with the Flemish ambassador for the Kingdom of Germany, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq) the Ottoman border treaties in Transylvania and Hungary with the Vienna-based Habsburgs, than with finalizing anything with Safavid Persia, which also which also made him neglect the negotiations concerning the Spanish–Ottoman conflict.[8] In this context, the ambassadors sent to the Ottoman palace in November 1558 and June 1559 were unable to even conclude an armistice, unlike Busbecq, and the Ottoman-Spanish War, which had been going on since 1515, entered its most difficult period in 1560.
Total War (1560–1574): Djerba, Malta, Lepanto and Tunis
The Ottoman Empire's transfer of the war to the Western Mediterranean from 1542 onwards and the devastating attacks of the Ottoman navy on the lands of Spain and its dependencies every year caused the Spanish Empire to turn its attention entirely to the struggle there and appeal to Pope Paul IV. Upon the Pope's call, the Holy Alliance armada of approximately 200 ships, consisting of warships from the Papacy, Genoa, Malta, Naples-Sicily and Savoy, in addition to Spain, targeted Tripoli, the base of Turgut Reis, who had caused the greatest destruction to Spanish lands between 1551 and 1559 (February 20, 1560). In response, the armada, which headed for the island of Djerba for logistical reasons, captured it and built a fortress, but was forced into battle with the Ottoman fleet under the joint command of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis, which reached the island on May 11. While the Ottoman navy won a great victory in the Battle of Djerba, the Crusader armada lost half of its ships and suffered between 9 and 18,000 deaths and 5,000 prisoners. Spanish Admiral D. Alvaro de Sande, who took over command of the Holy Alliance armada after Genoese Admiral Giovanni Andrea Doria withdrew from the battlefield, was among the prisoners.[57]
While the victory at Djerba was in a sense the peak of the Ottoman navy, for the next 10 years there was no power left to oppose it in the Mediterranean. Indeed; it took a certain amount of time for Spain, which had lost 600 skilled sailors and 2,400 harquebusiers, to recover.[58] However; the Ottomans were not able to reinforce this superiority with additional gains. Because; although during this period, Turgut Reis destroyed the Naples-Sicily fleet in the Battle of Lipari in 1561[59] and captured the remaining ships of the Kingdom in the blockade of Naples [tr], the Ottoman navy under the joint command of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis could not take Oran, which it besieged (for the second time) in 1563. In the same year, the Spanish fleet and troops under the command of Sancho Martínez de Leyva [es] suffered a heavy defeat in front of the Ottoman base of Peñon de Velez on the northern coast of Morocco, which they besieged,[60] but the following year the Spanish fleet managed to recapture the base that the Ottomans had evacuated (the mentioned lands are still part of Spain).[61]
The year 1565 saw one of the largest operations of the Ottoman navy. The navy, carrying a force of approximately 25,000 men, reached Malta on May 18, 1565, and laid siege to the castles on the island defended by the Knights Hospitaller. The Ottoman forces, who had difficulty capturing the St. Elmo Castle, launched a heavy bombardment on August 7 of the island's main fortified positions, St. Michel and St. Angelo, but were unable to capture them with general attacks. The losses suffered and the necessity of the Ottoman navy returning to Istanbul for the winter (due to the change of season to autumn) led Serdar Lala Mustafa Pasha to decide to evacuate the island. When a rescue party of 8,000 men[62] under the command of Don Garcia, sent by the Kingdom of Spain, landed in Malta on September 7, the Ottomans evacuated the island on September 8. In this way, the Knights Hospitaller, an important ally of Spain, and the island of Malta, which protected the Kingdom's lands in Southern Italy, were saved.
Although the Ottoman forces suffered losses in Malta, the Ottoman navy continued to maintain its power. Indeed, while the Ottoman army was marching to Hungary in 1566 for the Siege of Szigetvar, the last campaign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman navy under the command of Piyale Pasha conquered Chios, which was ruled by the Genoese, an ally of Spain, in the same year. Then, sailing to the Mediterranean, they struck the Pula coast of the Kingdom of Naples, also an ally of Spain. Later, in 1566, Philip II ordered his ambassador to Portugal, Alonso de Tovar, to prepare an embassy to Persia and to inform him if the Persians were going to break the Peace of Amasya with the Ottomans after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent (however, the mission never reached Iran).[8]
During this period, the Kingdom of Spain was busy with both the Granada Revolt and Dutch revolt. At the start of the Dutch war of independence, Jan van Nassau and William of Orange, desesperate for gettin allies and inspired in Anti-CatholicTurco-Calvinist approach, started to sent envoys to the Ottoman court since the early stages of the rebellion in 1566, having the response of the Sephardic and Ottoman adviser, Joseph Nasi, in possitive way in a letter to Antwerp authorities claiming that "the forces of the Ottomans would soon hit Philip II's affairs so hard that he would not even have the time to think of Flanders", and even the Sultan Suleiman offered troops at the time they would request (although the death of Suleiman the Magnifficent briefly stopped the Netherlands–Turkey relations due to internal struggles, so no Ottoman material support came until 1574).[63][64] On the other hand, after Felipe II further tightened his assimilation policy with the decree he issued in 1567, the Moriscos of Granada, who took advantage of the King's dealing with the rebellions launched by Protestants in Germany and Calvinists in the Netherlands, revolted in 1568 under the leadership of Aben Humeya[65] and requested that the Ottoman navy organize an expedition to aid them in a letter they sent to the Beylerbeyi of Algeria, Kılıç Ali Pasha, on 20 April 1568.[66] Ottoman Sultan Selim II, to whom the Moriscos conveyed their requests for aid, stated in a response letter he sent on 16 April 1569 that he was following the uprising closely and was doing his best to provide the necessary aid in a timely manner, but that it was not possible to send the Ottoman navy to the region immediately, as the navy was preparing for the Cyprus expedition.[67] However, Selim II ordered Kılıç Ali Pasha to support the rebels. Although Kılıç Ali Pasha's attempt to send a fleet to Almería in 1569 to bring soldiers, provisions and weapons failed due to a storm, he managed to send 400-500 soldiers and provisions and weapons in the attempt in 1570.[68] King Felipe II took action in the winter of 1570–71 against the danger of increasing this aid and the spread of the uprising and suppressed the uprising violently. In response, taking advantage of Spain's preoccupation with the uprising, Kılıç Ali Pasha captured Tunis, which was under the control of the Hafsids under Spanish protection, in his expedition at the end of 1569.[69]
After suppressing the Granada Revolt, the Kingdom of Spain refocused on its direct struggle with the Ottoman Empire. During the Ottoman attacks on Cyprus in the early years of the 1570–1573 Ottoman-Venetian War, the Holy Alliance established between the Kingdom of Spain and its dependencies and Venice on 25 May 1571 could not prevent the Ottomans from capturing Famagusta and completing the conquest of Cyprus, but it did manage to inflict a major defeat on the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 (Spain contributed 49 galleys to the Allied navy in the battle).[70] The Ottomans, who had completely rebuilt their navy, set out for the Mediterranean under the command of Kılıç Ali Pasha in the summer of 1572, but did not engage in a major battle with the Allied navy, to which the Spanish also contributed 55 galleys.
During these years, another attempt at rapprochement with the Persians was done, as the Holy League prepared an embassy in 1572 to inform Shah Tahmasp I about the defeat of the Ottoman army at the Battle of Lepanto and propose renewing the Habsburg-Persian alliance to fight against the Turks. Also, Íñigo López de Mendoza, viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples (through an Armenian messenger named John the Baptist) sent gifts to the Persian monarch on behalf of the King of Spain, with an offer of friendship. The Shah responded positively and sent John the Baptist himself and a Persian emissary with his reply, full of gifts for Philip II. However, after Tahmasp I fell seriously ill in 1574 and died two years later, such plans could not be realized when a civil war broke out in Persia (which the Turks took advantage of by invading Iran in 1578).[8]
The same year saw the first peace offer of the Kingdom of Spain, but it did not bring any results. In contrast, the peace negotiations of the Ottomans with Venice were concluded positively and the Holy Alliance was effectively ended as a result of the agreement signed between the parties on March 7, 1573. With Venice's withdrawal from the war, the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire were left alone in the struggle. Indeed, in the summer of 1573, while the Ottoman navy under the command of Piyale Pasha and Kapudan PashaKılıç Ali Pashatargeted the Apulia lands of the Kingdom of Naples, which was affiliated with Spain, the Spanish navy under the command of Juan de Austria took advantage of this and targeted the city of Tunis (which had been annexed to the Ottoman lands in 1569) and captured it on October 10, 1573.
Algerian military campaigns at the time.
Thereupon, the main objective of the Ottoman navy in the following campaign season (1574) was to liberate Tunis from occupation. The Ottoman navy under the command of Kılıç Ali Pasha and the Ottoman forces under the command of Ciğalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, as a result of the successful military operations between 12 July and 13 September 1574, finally annexed Tunisia to the Ottoman lands (until the French occupation in 1881), being the final direct confrontation between Crown of Castile forces against the Turks for a long time.[71]
Map of the Dutch Revolt at the end of Spanish-Ottoman total warfare.
Despite Philip II of Spain, in the name of prudence due to economical problems, quit from the development of further big military operations against the Ottomans, he still supported the military operations from other allied rulers to have indirect conflicts against the Turks, like the project of Sebastian I of Portugal to help Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi (who first wanted help from Spain, but not getting it due to the less belicist Spanish foreign policy at the time) in reconquer Saadi Morocco against the Ottoman-Algerian capture of Fez (1576). This led in 1578 to the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, in which Habsburg Spain financed and give permission to Portuguese and Moroccans to recruit auxiliary forces in his territory (and convinced the HRE to do so)[73] fearing the menaces of an Ottoman Suzerainty so close to Iberian Peninsula (as it risked the security of not only the Metropoli of the Empire, but also was a potential threat for the Iberian routes to the Atlantic Ocean and Americas).[74] However, it ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the Ottoman-Algerian-Moroccan coallition (supported by Morisco contingents and Sephardic capital who feared Spanish Inquisition)[75][76] against the Europpean-Saadi coallition.[77]
Following the conquest of Tunisia by the Ottomans, the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire realized that their borders in the Mediterranean had come to an end. Although the Ottomans continued to gain territory with Tunisia, the expedition, which required the equipping of a large Ottoman fleet and the transportation of a significant landing force over a long distance, caused great expenses.[78] (The income from Tunisia was far below this expense). In addition, the internal unrest in Persia following the death of Shah Tahmasb I of Iran on 25 May 1576 began to draw the Ottomans' attention to the eastern front. In this context, the Ottomans, who had made peace with Venice in 1573, established a supportive administration in the north by placing the Voivode of Transylvania, Stephen Báthory, on the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1575 (being perceived as the establishment of a vassal government in the north), and after Rudolf II ascended to the throne on 25 December 1576, they renewed the 1568 treaty with the Holy Roman Empire, so Ottomans were in a position to close other fronts in the west.
The problems in the Spanish Empire were much greater. In addition to the large sums spent on the struggle against the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean, the Dutch Revolt that began in 1568 began to strain the budget of King Felipe II, who pursued an economic policy focused on excessive debt, and in November 1575 the King declared the treasury bankrupt.[79] Following these developments, King Felipe II secretly offered a ceasefire/peace to the Ottomans.[80]
Essentially, an ambassador named Martin de Acuña ensured that a five-year armistice agreement was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples (which was vassal of the Crown of Aragon) in February 1577.[81] The same ambassador also offered mediation to the Crown of Castile and, after King Philip II found it appropriate, he began making efforts at the Ottoman Palace in the same year. A draft text emerged on March 18, 1577.[82]
In this way, an unofficial ceasefire environment was established between the parties. The parties did not allow their navies to attack each other's lands, and Philip II did not send the troops he had withdrawn from the Spanish Netherlands against the Ottomans. As a result of the negotiations provided by this environment, the Spanish ambassadors Giovanni Margliani and Bruti, who delivered the letter of the Grand VizierSokollu Mehmed Pasha to Philip II, ensured that the draft ceasefire agreement was signed on 18 March 1578 (7 February 1578 according to some sources).[83]
Ottoman Caliphate sphere of influence according to the truce (including self-perceived nominal vassals like Lehistan and others).
Following this first agreement, which foresaw a ceasefire between the parties for a period of three years (1577–1580), a one-year ceasefire agreement was signed between March 21, 1580, and January 1581, and then a three-year ceasefire agreement was signed on February 4, 1581. The 1581 agreement was renewed in 1584, 1587 and 1591.[85] In between the total war of 1515-1575 and the peace treaty of 1782 succeeded some Ottoman-Spanish conflicts of minor impact (except for the Long Turkish War, Bohemian Revolt and the Great Turkish War, although Spain was a minor party), like the 3rd Duke of Osuna corsair war during 1620s, the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718) or the Spanish–Algerian War (1775–1785), among others. The next time that Spanish-Ottoman hostilities would resume will be in 1594 due to the support of Philip II to the Holy League (1594), without reaching the magnitude of yesteryear.[86]
Although the signed armistice was renewed several times, it could not be converted into a formal peace treaty and the state of war between the two parties continued (specially in Spanish Philippines and Portuguese India against Aceh Sultanate, an Ottoman vassal in modern Indonesia) until the signing of a definitive Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce (the so-called Treaty of Constantinople [es]) of 1782.[87] Despite it, both empires diplomatically were conspiring against the other and preparing for a possible renewal of the total war.
Persians and Arabs and Egyptians and Turks brought [Muhammad's] veneration and evil sect here, and even Moors from Tunis and Granada came here, sometimes in the armadas of Campson [Kait Bey], former Sultan of Cairo and King of Egypt... Thus it seems to me that these Moros of the Philippine Islands [are] mainly those who, as had been said, come from Egypt and Arabia and Mecca, and are their relatives, disciples and members, and every year they say that Turks come to Sumatra and Borneo, and to Ternate, where there are now some of those defeated in the famous battle which Señor Don Juan de Austria won.
The perfect excuse for a Turkish intervention was the appearance of an envoy from Ajuran Sultanate vassals (allies of Arabs and Swahilis merchants) to the Ottoman corsair Mir Ali Bey who invited him to intervene in the region and to develop a Somali-Turkish joint expedition against the Portuguese Mozambique.[125] After the Ottomans arrived at Mogadishu (Somalia) in 1586, the local population recognised submission to the Sultan of Sultans and with enthusiasm helped the Turks by contributing with resources and mans to the Ottoman expedition, and the same support was given by a lot of coastal territories (like Barawa, Pate Island, Pemba Island, Kilwa Kisiwani) until stablishing at Lamu (Kenya), while the Portuguese leaded by Ruy Lopes Salgado withdraw and hide themselves on Malindi, while a ship from Portuguese India commanded by Roque de Brito Falcão was captured and plundered by the corsairs. The Turks returned with 24 ships, a treasure of 150000 gold cruzados (Portuguese currency), and 60 Portuguese captives. Despite the lack of preparation from the Portuguese Navy (worried by the increased contact between Somali sailors and Ottomancorsairs) that caused those initial defeats, the response was the sent of a big fleet of 26 vessels commanded by Ruy Gonçalves da Câmara with the serious goal to block the Red Sea, although the Portuguese failed in catch the Turkish Corsairs and due to economical problems, they quit to Portuguese Oman and their results discouraged the King Philip I of Portugal from further aggressive strategies, who then pleaded prudence to the Viceroy of Goa, D. Duarte de Menezes, advising him to be less belicist with the Ottomans in what he considered was a minor theater of war for the Iberian Empire.[126]
Since in these parts [i.e. Europe] there are many affairs deserving of attention, it will from now on be necessary for you to preserve the gains that have already been made rather than seek out new ventures. Keep in mind that offensive wars have many disadvantages, as has been demonstrated by the armada which you sent under Ruy Gonsalves da Camara to the Red Sea which, far from resulting in any of the successes that had been hoped for, served only to provoke the Turks at great and unprofitable expense and with much discredit to the state..
However, Duarte de Menezes wasn't sattisfied with the status quo, so he ordered in January 1587 another big fleet to expel the Ottomans and restore Portuguese suzerainty, this time composed of 2 galleons, 3 galleys, 13 light-galleys, and 650 soldiers under the command of Martim Afonso de Melo, who then subjected Faza and Mombasa, and then arrived at Malindi (still loyal to the Portuguese) to restore the Colonial pacts in the Zanzibar Channel and improve the diplomatic relations of Portuguese with the locals. Then he returned to Goa via Socotra and Ormus after not being capable to capture Mir Ali Beg.[127] After that, started to collapse the Ottoman project to seize the Portuguese Sphere of influence on modern Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania, being the Turks defeated like 4 times during 1586 in their attempts failing to conquer Pate, Mombasa and other cities, while didn't help that Mir Ali Beg started to extract a heavy tribute to cities still in his control like Mogadishu or attempted to sack the cities loyal to Portuguese like Malindi (being bombarded by the Portuguese captain of the east-African coast Mateus Mendes de Vasconcelos), which now made him alienate his former allies in a critical moment that a network of spies and informants within the Red Sea was developed by the Portuguese to anticipate the Ottoman movements.[128] Finally, the governor of Portuguese India, Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, sent in 1589 an armada of 2 galleons, 5 galleys, 6 half-galleys, and 6 light-galleys with 900 Portuguese soldiers, commanded by his brother Tomé de Sousa Coutinho, which would be joined by the troops of Mateus de Vasconcelos at Malindi (adding half-galley and two light-galleys) on February, and then they would have a definitive clash with Mir Ali Beg in March 5–7 of 1589 at the Battle of Mombasa (1589), crushing (with help of the canibalistic Zimba Tribe) his small fort by the shoreline, sacking 3 Turkish galleys with 30 guns, and capturing Mir Ali Beg, while evacuating Mombasa inhabitants from the cannibalistic tribe incursion.[129][130] Later, the Portuguese managed to re-take most of the lost cities Revolted in South East Africa and began punishing their leaders, although Mogadishu seizured its independence and the Ottomans remained as major economic partners of Ajuran Sultanate.[131]
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