1. Empires of the Sea
By: Roger Crowley
Presented by Eddie Gonzalez

2. Mini Summary
• Empires of the sea discusses the arms race for control of the
Mediterranean Sea
• The two parties consisted of the Ottoman Empire and Spain
• Both desired to conquer the world by taking the Mediterranean first
:Spain ultimately wanted Constantinople
• :Ottoman Empire wanted to take Rome
• Both Failed to take control of whole Mediterianan and internal
problems of both parties caused a stalemate
• Ottoman Empire failed to move west which is still Christian and Spain
failed to conquer East which is still heavily Islamic
• The Stalemate has caused two separate religions to thrive and cultures
to develop and the results of the Battle of Lepanta is still important
today

3. Ottoman Sultan
• Sultan Sulieman
-The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who was successful in conquering man peoples and brought more
prosperity than his father the previous Sultan
-He was able to conquer Rhodes which was a Christian land near the empire
-This conquering put fear into the Christian world believing this was the beginning of Ottoman
Empire to conquer Europe
-He also conquered Belgrade which was considered the gateway to Hungary and other Christian lands (5)
-He was absolutely hated and feared by the Christian world and no power in Europe could match his
Empire
-When he was in his 70’s he started an attempt to conquer Malta in 1563 which sat in the middle of the
Mediterranean
-He did not go however but sent 3 of his best men: Mustapha Pasha, Piyale Pasha, and Turgut (95)
-With the naval technology at the time, there were only certain parts of the year when an army
can invade a land, especially islands. Suliemans army was on a timetable and they must take Malta before
winter
-The people of Malta and the Knights of Saint John knew this and were able to hold out and force
the Ottomans back home in defeat
-This was the last campaign Sulieman organized in the Mediterranean

4. King of Spain
• King Charles was the King of Spain during Sulieman’s reign of the Ottoman
Empire
• He attempted to check the power of the Ottomans but never had a
powerful enough naval force to defend the western Mediterranean
• He attempted to control parts of North Africa which at best were loosely
controlled
• He attempted to take Tunis but failed miserably, and lost his whole fleet
• He would be remembered as a failure to protect his Empire

5. Barbarossa
• In essence this man was a Muslim pirate who raided and enslaved
thousands of Christians
• The Christians called him the King of Evil (42)
• He was infamous for his raids and eventually hired by Suleiman to
command his navy
• He was known for making safe decisions and avoiding major battles to
save his galleons
• He defeats the holy alliance which was a minimal defeat but a huge
political and psychological defeat for the Christian world
– The defeat caused the Holy Alliance of Europe to collapse
– This collapse made the Mediterranean easy to raid Christian lands and enslaved many
for years

6. King Phillip
• He became successor of King Charles
• He took less chances than Charles and built up his navy
• His alliance which revived the Holy League helped build the navy faster by
funds by the Venetians and the Pope
• With the huge fleet he assigned Don Juan of Austria to command the
Spanish part of the navy along with a council to help Don Juan who was
inexperienced (and to veto any ideas of using the Galleons in major
warfare)
• King Phillip used all his power to build a navy but avoided using it

7. Don Juan of Austria
• He was known to be very charismatic, good looking, Christ’s General, and
he wanted Glory (232)
• King Phillip assigned him as commander of the expedition to take on the
Turks
• With his inexperience in Naval affairs he decides to attack the Turks strait
on with his huge fleet
• He won the huge battle against the Turks known as the battle of Lepanto
(276)
• His win helped the European psyche and helped create a stalemate of the
two Empires
– No other major battle in Mediterranean was fought against each other and a peace was
created later
– 40 thousand men died and over 100 ships destroyed in the battle (276)