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Ottoman-Portuguese War
Portuguese carracks defeat Muslim ships off Diu.
Date 16th century Location Indian Ocean/East/Africa Result Portuguese victory Territorial changes The Portuguese Empire controlls the Indian Ocean, builds fortresses along the coast of Africa and India and retains the monopoly of spice trade. The Ottomans retreat to the Red Sea.
Belligerents
Portuguese Empire Supported by: Habsburg Spain Holy League	Ottoman Empire Supported by: Adal Sultanate  India (Kingdom of Calicut) Mughal Empire Mamluk Sultanate Aceh Sultanate Gujarat Sultanate Somali Ajuran Empire
Commanders and leaders
Francisco de Almeida Afonso de Albuquerque Cristóvão da Gama Diogo de Noronha	Suleiman Pasha Piri Reis Ali Beg Mustafa Pasha

The Ottoman–Portuguese war refers to a series of different military battles between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Other European powers supported the Portuguese in some battles. The Ottomans, however, fought allied with other muslim powers like India, Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo), Mughal Empire, Adal Sultanate, Somalia, Aceh Sultanate in most of those battles. This war raged for the whole of the 16th century.

Portuguese background

It all started in the beginning of the 15th century when Portugal captured the city of Ceuta, in Morocco. From that year on the portuguese would cross the boundaries of the known world: for the first time in the history of men the Ocean would be navigated with scientific and geografical precision. And, as it should be obvious, the instrument for this unique achievement was their seapower. Seapower, here, can be translated in two words for the world of the portuguese at that time: Ships and warfare. Indeed, according to professor John C. Marshman, "during the whole of the sixteenth century the maritime power of the portuguese continued to be the most formidable in the eastern hemisphere, and terror of every state on the seaboard." So, from the 15th century on, this maritime power made Portugal the first World Power in history and the leading Global Economy from the end of the 15th to the 16th century, due to the African Gold and Asian spices. The leading authority about the Portuguese Empire, Charles Boxer, concludes: "In the 16th century the Portuguese dominated a part of the Planet and commerce superior to any other country". "Unfortunately to the East, the Portuguese were the heir of the medieval military dexterity longly accumulated from the last fase of the middles ages...their ships had the best artillery produced in Europe." From 1498 on, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Francisco de Almeida and Afonso de Albuquerque were the face of this powerful Empire.

Ottoman background

Certainly, this newcome powerful nation in the Indian Ocean spread an aura of "terror" there. The only capable force to face it was the Ottoman Empire, as its involvement in almost every battle against the portuguese in the 16th century suggests. But as early as the 16th century began, this muslim power was already suffering the economic impact from the arrival of the first Europeans. The Indian historian P. Malekandathil says that "The Portuguese efforts to monopolize the eastern trade by making the commodities flow to Europe through the Cape route had started at the cost of the Ottomans and reduced the flow of wealth to the treasury of the Ottomans." As a result, the Empire started a chain of struggles to challenge the portuguese in the Indian Ocean and their coastal areas. The Ottomans "smelt a severe political danger in their neighbourhood. Till 1515, the Europeans appeared to be an enemy of the Turks only in the western front. But in that year with the occupation of Hormuz (lying in the eastern part of the Turkish Empire) by the Lusitanians, the Ottomans found themselves being virtually encircled by the Europeans, which in fact sent political messages of caution to the Ottomans. The evolving economic pressure and the political threats emerging from the encircling European expansion made the Ottomans tum their attention increasingly to the politics of the Indian Ocean regions and interfere in them to their advantage." The Turks considered the Portuguese as a huge threat to their monopoly in the area. Professor G. Casale puts it best: the Ottomans launched "a systematic ideological, military and commercial challenge to the Portuguese Empire, their main rival for control of the lucrative trade routes of maritime Asia."

The war

As we can see, the military strife between the Portuguese and the Ottomans started mainly from economical issues. It should also be noted that this was a long-term conflict that lasted for most of the 16th century.

As early as 1506, the Ottomans and their allies faced the Portuguese in the famous Battle of Cannanore. This fateful Battle would sketch the whole scenario of conflicts between those powers later on. Renowned Indian historian K. K. N. Kurup explains that in this very battle "The three Portuguese naus and a caravel bombarded the sixty naus and hundreds of paraus as well as zabuqs...The Portuguese artillery played an important role with the help of the big gun installed on the wall of the fortress at Cannanore and killed more than 3,000 men. This was a decisive Portuguese victory." In the same manner, historian Bailey W. Diffie, says that the muslim naus ran afoul of a "small Portuguese squadron commanded by Vicero'y son Lourenço. There fallowed a protrected engagement in which one gathers the Hindu, Arab, and Turkish crews." Interestingly, this battle represented a pattern to be repeated in every engagement to come.

Military Aspects

Menpower vs Seapower

On one side, the Ottomans always had overwhelming numeric superiority not only from the empire alone but also from other muslims caliphates that greatly supported them, and vice versa. On the other, the Portuguese with very limited numbers and rarely supported by important allies. In this context, the Battle of Diu (1509) is another great example that directs us to that conclusion. Again, K. K. N. Kurup tells us that in this battle "The turkish fleet consisting of 2000 men under Amir Husayn proceded from the Red Sea with the destination of Diu to join forces with the men of Malik Ayyaz and of the other rulers of the Indian coast. On the Indian side, Malik led the fleet composed of the men of Gujarat, Bijapur Ahmednagar and Calicut. The contingent of Amir Husayn consisting of The Egyptians, Venetians and others in cooperation with the Indian fleet...faced the Portuguese Fleet at Diu and fought desperately. About 6,000 soldiers of the united front fought against the Portuguese in this battle. Now, the historian goes to the portuguese force, consisting of "nineteen vessels and 1,200 men." He finishes: "about 1,500 soldiers of the combined forces were murdered in this confrontation." The historian Willian Weir confirms these numbers: "Husain returned with even more ships. The great majority were galleys, mounting three cannons in the bow over the big bronze beak used for ramming. There were 200 ships, thousands of rowers, and 1,500 soldiers for boarding enemy craft. Besides swords and spears, the soldiers carried bows or matchlocks. They had grappling irons for seizing ships and fire pots for dropping on their decks...When the Muslims returned, Almeida had 17 ships"

These two examples alone provide us with the assumption that the Ottomans and their allies, although really superior in numbers of menpower and ships were not as militarily efficient as the Portuguese. The reason for this conclusion is explained by professor Geoffrey Parker: "For the problems of naval strategy that faced the Iberian powers in the sixteenth century were entirely different from those confronting England. The countries bordering on the North Sea and the Channel, where deep water ports were numerous and the theatre of operations relatively small, could rely upon their huge and unwieldy gun-ships for defence. But Portugal and Spain required men-of-war able to sail to distant oceans, through seas of unparalleled malignance, there both to trade and to destroy the ships of any other power operating without their permission. This called for a highly versatile vessel, and it took years before the small 'caravels' of Columbus and Vasco da Gama gave way to the purpose-built, ocean-going warship known as the galleon. Both the design - with its beak-shaped prow, its low lines, and shallow draft - and the very name 'galleon' reflect the fact that the new vessels owed much to the galley." He explains this point after saying ,in the paragraph before, that."the most modern men-of-war were the squadrons of Portuguese galleons which, in normal times, policed successfully an empire on which the sun never set."

So, once more, the reason for the Portuguese success against the Ottomans is, according to professor G. Modelski, Seapower.

Fortresses

Here is another key element for the succsess of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean: Forts. Authors like Roger Crowley, stress their huge importance and impact for the development of the Empire, as well as for winning battles, saying that "technological expertise in fortress building.... facilitated a new form of long range seaborne empire, able to control trade and resources across enormous distances." Liam Matthew Brockey goes the same way, saying that "The portuguese planned their fortresses well...adopeted the latest ideas in fortification...They were very difficult to capture and gave the Portuguese a defensive strengh far greater."

The battles

In the list below, it is possible to see the most known battles as well as academic sources recognizing the victor, in chronological order:

Result

As the table of battles above explicits, in the end of the century the Portuguese proved to be militarily superior to the Ottomans, defeating them in the vast majority of battles, as G. Modelski concludes: "the Turks never won a clear victory on the ocean. The Mediterranean galleys they employed proved no match against the great ships of Portugal." In fact, the portuguese prevailing over the Ottomans effort is almost a consensus among scholars, both from the West and East. The historian Palmira Brummett agrees: "it's clear that the Ottomans failed in their bid to challenge the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean."

In accordance, the Indian author Pius Malekandathil says: "Though both the Portuguese and the Ottomans moved to the maritime space of Indian Ocean almost simultaneously, the Portuguese managed to appropriate a major portion of it. The chain of Portuguese fortresses erected along coastal western India did a lot to prevent the Ottomans from completely integrating the economic activities of India into their designs, which they were cherishing from the middle of the fifteenth century onwards." The Author M.A Cook registers what happened after the Battle of Mombasa, in 1589: "Ali Beg in 1584 moved down the coast of East Africa as far as Malindi. He repeated the venture in 1589, this time reaching Mombasa, where his squadron succumbed, however, to the assault of a superior Portuguese fleet from Goa in western India. Thus ended the last Ottoman endeavour to challenge the domination of Portugal over the waters of India." Lincoln Payne also states that "The official Ottoman campaign against the Portuguese ended with Sokullu’s assassination in 1579, but a decade later a fleet of five ships was sent to seize Mombasa...the Ottomans surrendered to the Portuguese, thus ending Ottoman efforts to influence events in the Indian Ocean.

Lastly, the Indian author G.A Ballard says: "it was an era of repeated stress and strife, but of stationary general conditions nevertheless; for in spite of being constantly attacked at this point or that, the portuguese were never driven away anywhere, and even when suffering temporary local reverses always recovered their supremacy sooner or later."

Notes

1. Lee, Wayne, 2016, Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History, p. 261
2. G. Modelski, 1988, Seapower on Global Politics, p. 157.
3. Pius Malekandathil, 2010, MARITIME INDIA Trade, Religion and Polity in the Indian Ocean, p.122 and 123
4. Svat Soucek, 2014: PIRI REIS His uniqueness among cartographers and hydrographers of the Renaissance, p. 144.
5. Lee, Wayne, 2016, Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History, p. 261
6. G. Modelski, 1988, Seapower on Global Politics, p. 157.
7. Pius Malekandathil, 2010, MARITIME INDIA Trade, Religion and Polity in the Indian Ocean, p.122 and 123
8. Lincoln Paine, 2013, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, p. 430.
9. Rogerson, Barnaby (2011-03-29). The Last Crusaders: East, West, and the Battle for the Center of the World. The Overlook Press. ISBN 9781468302882.
10. Mohammed Hasen al- Aidarous, The Ottoman-portuguese conflict in the Arabian Gulf during the second half of the 16th century.
11. Suraiya Faroqhi, Approaching Ottoman history: an introduction to the sources, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 68.
12. Salih Özbaran, The Ottoman response to European expansion: studies on Ottoman-Portuguese relations in the Indian Ocean and Ottoman administration in the Arab lands during the sixteenth century, Isis Press, 1994, viii
13. ^ Crowley, Roger (2015-12-01). Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9780812994018.
14. Modelski, George; Thompson, William R. (1988-06-18). Seapower in Global Politics, 1494–1993. Springer. ISBN 9781349091546.
15. ^ Marshman, John Clark (2010-11-18). History of India from the Earliest Period to the Close of the East India Company's Government. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108021043.
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References

• Attila & Balázs Weiszhár, Háborúk lexikona, Atheneaum, Budapest, 2004 (in Hungarian; title means in English Lexicon of Wars)

• Wars involving Portugal
• Wars involving the Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts