War for Crete
The siege of Candia by the Ottomans, as of 1667/1668. To the right of the city are the Ottoman gun emplacements and trenches, behind and to the left of the city as tents the quarters of the besiegers.
| date | 1645 to 1669 |
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| place | Crete , Aegean Sea , Dalmatia |
| Casus Belli | Maltese attack on Turkish convoy |
| output | Victory of the Ottomans |
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| Commander | |
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The War for Crete was a war between the Republic of Venice with its allies and the Ottoman Empire for the island of Crete , which lasted from 1645 to 1669.
prehistory
Since 1204 Crete was a Venetian colony . From 1538, the Ottomans, under the leadership of Admiral Chaireddin Barbarossa, temporarily conquered parts of central and western Crete. Otherwise Crete remained largely undisturbed, but the constant attacks by the Maltese on Turkish shipping were just as much a pirate act as the Christians saw the attacks of the barbarians .
An action by the Maltese finally triggered the war for Crete. On September 28, 1644, the Maltese fleet attacked a Turkish convoy with six galleys near Cyprus , which was on its way to Constantinople from Alexandria . A large galleon with one of Sultan's İbrahim's favorite wives on board also fell into the hands of the Maltese. These brought their booty to Crete. Then the Ottoman Empire began preparing for war. In June 1645 a Turkish fleet with 60,000 Ottoman soldiers set sail for Crete.
Course of war
The land war
On June 25, 1645, a 60,000 strong Ottoman army landed west of Canea and took the fortress island of San Todero (Theodorou) in front of the city of Canea the following night and on the following day .
From June 26, 1645, Canea was besieged by about 50,000 Turks under the leadership of Yusuf. The small force of Venetians and Cretans repulsed numerous attacks that cost the Turks 20,000 men. Canea capitulated on August 17th and was one of the first cities in Crete to fall into the hands of the Turkish conquerors. According to the terms of surrender, the Venetians were granted free travel on five ships on August 22, 1645.
The Turkish troops moved further east by land, and on September 29, 1646 the Ottomans stood in front of the fortress of Rethymno . The poorly fortified city was taken by the troops of its commander-in-chief Hussein Pascha after 14 days in October 1646. General Cornaro and Provveditore Molino fell on the Venetian side during the fighting . After the siege of the fortress, into which the city's population had withdrawn, and the demolition and storming of the large tower on the sea side of the fortress on November 13, 1646, the defenders surrendered the following day. The Venetians were able to negotiate favorable terms of surrender and were given free travel to Candia .
Soon the entire island was occupied by the Ottomans, and only the heavily fortified Candia fortress held out. The Ottomans under Gazi Hüseyin Pasha began the siege of Candia on May 1, 1648. The fortress was held by a small Venetian garrison under Luigi Mocenigo. In the first six months the Turks lost 20,000 men in the siege.
The battle for Candia dragged on for twenty years. The supply of the defenders as well as the besiegers became of decisive importance. In order to be able to wage such a war, Venice recruited troops from all over Europe. The city received supplies and reinforcements from time to time from the Venetians and the French.
The naval war
The increasingly important naval war was almost always carried out with mixed formations of sailing ships ( galleons ) and rowing ships . As early as August 14, 1646, the Venetian fleet, reinforced with departments of the Papal States , the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and Malta , attacked the Turks in front of Canea without success. In January 1647 there was a first meeting of two squadrons near Euboea .
On March 17th, the Venetian fleet lost 18 galleys and nine sailing ships in a storm off Psara . In May 1649 19 Venetian galleons under Giacomo Riva were victorious at Smyrna over a Turkish fleet consisting of 90 ships. The Turks lost 17 ships; the Venetians only three.
From 1650 the Turks expanded their fleet of sailing ships in order to make up for the gap with the Venetians in this type of ship. From July 10th to 13th, 1651, the sea battle took place near the island of Paros . 58 ships of the Venetians under Alvise Mocenigo met an approximately 100 Turkish fleet; the Turks lost around 15 ships in a battle of pursuit.
(Pieter_Casteleyn,_1657).jpg)
Now the Venetians tried to interrupt the Turkish supply by blocking the Dardanelles . In a first meeting off the Dardanelles in May 1654, the Turkish fleet of 76 ships fought its way through the strait against 26 Venetian blockade ships. At the second meeting in front of the Dardanelles on June 21, 1655, 36 Venetian ships under Lazzaro Mocenigo competed against 100 Turkish ships. The Turkish fleet lost 16 ships in its breakthrough.
During the Battle of the Dardanelles in 1656 , Lorenzo Marcello with 29 sailors and 38 galleys was able to destroy the Turkish fleet, consisting of 28 sailors and 100 galleys, in a new attempt to break through on June 26, 1656. Only 14 Turkish galleys escaped while the Venetians lost only three ships.
During the Battle of the Dardanelles in 1657, Lazzaro Mocenigo could not prevent the outbreak of the Turks from July 17 to 21, 1657. The Turks lost ten sailing ships and several galleys, the Venetians lost one galley. In August 1660 the Venice fleet undertook an unsuccessful landing operation in the Suda Bay near the besieged Candia. The following month the landing forces were returned to Candia. On September 29, 1662 the Venetians captured four large and 28 small ships from a Turkish convoy between Kos and Kalymnos .
On March 8, 1668, twelve Turkish galleys met 20 Venetian galleys under Francesco Morosini in the battle in front of Candia. The Venetians were able to drive out the Turks, but lost seven ships and over 1,100 men (dead and wounded combined). A last attempt to avert the impending fall of Candias was made by a fleet consisting mainly of French ships on July 24, 1669. When shelling Turkish positions around Candia, they themselves suffered considerable losses, whereupon the strong French contingent returned.
End of war
On September 27, 1669, the Venetian occupation of Candias under Francesco Morosini had to surrender. In the same year Venice made peace with the Sublime Porte . Venice lost Crete, many Aegean islands and bases in Dalmatia to the Turks. The old trade republic had lost its supremacy in these regions of the Mediterranean.
The Venetians only had three fortresses left on the offshore islands of Crete: Gramvoussa in the northwest of Crete, Souda on an island in the bay of the same name near the town of Chanea and Spinalonga in the Mirabello Bay in eastern Crete. The fortress on the island of Gramvoussa in the northwest could last until 1692, the fortresses Spinalonga and Souda fell to the Ottoman Empire in the Peace of Passarowitz in 1715.
literature
- Helmut Pemsel : Command of the Sea. a maritime world history from the beginnings of seafaring to the present. Volume 1: Beginning of seafaring until 1850 , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-7637-5420-2
- Georg Bruce: Lexicon of battles. Translated and edited by Gerhard Hartmann , Verlag Styria, Graz, Vienna, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-222-11484-6
- Nicolae Jorga: History of the Ottoman Empire based on the sources , (1908–1913) Neuausg. Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1990, ISBN 3-8218-5026-4 , Vol. 4, pp. 1–155
