The Hapsburg-Ottoman conflict in the Mediterranean during the sixteenth century

Abstract

The Mediterranean in the sixteenth century was dominated by two powers: the Hapsburg Spanish Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. This dissertation will analyse the limitations of the Mahanian doctrine when applied to maritime warfare in the sixteenth century Mediterranean and to what extent the fleets of the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans were capable of dominating this region. It will further analyse the different objectives which these two powers strived to achieve in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century and the naval strategies which these two powers adopted in order to achieve them. It will attempt to answer questions such as: what instigated the Hapsburg-Ottoman conflict in the Mediterranean and what factors brought this conflict to an end? how real was the Ottoman threat to the Italian peninsula in the sixteenth century? how important were Venice and France in this conflict? how important was the Mediterranean fleet in the overall Hapsburg Imperial strategy in relation to different regions within its Empire not only within the Mediterranean such as Naples, Sicily and the Maghreb but also beyond such as the Netherlands? Furthermore, the dissertation will seek to comprehend better and will attempt to give its own interpretation with regards to the outcome of a number of main naval events that took place during this period such as the battles of Preveza in 1538 and Lepanto in 1571 and the Siege of Malta in 1565 within the context of the objectives and the strategies pursued by the two powers as analysed above. Lepanto, for instance, is often referred to as a futile victory that brought no significant geo-political changes in the Mediterranean. In The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Braudel calls the battle as ‘the most spectacular military event in the Mediterranean during the entire sixteenth century’. But for Faroqhi, the battle was ‘merely a single episode, well publicized but in no way decisive’. Within the naval reality of the sixteenth century Mediterranean, however, is it correct to expect a single naval engagement, irrespective of its magnitude, to give its victor supremacy of the Mediterranean similar to what the British achieved in 1798 at the Battle of the Nile? This dissertation will also analyse whether the clash between the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans could be defined as a ‘clash of civilizations’. In 1992, the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington gave a lecture at the American Enterprise Institute entitled ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ during which he insisted that cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. Huntington believes that the fundamental source of conflict in today’s world will not be primarily ideological or economic but cultural.