The Crescent, the Lion and the Eagle: re-analyzing the Ottoman Apulian Campaign and Attack on Corfu (1537) in the context of Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry
Author
Otman, Elvin
Advisor
Latimer, Paul
Date
2018-02Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This dissertation produces a detailed historical narrative of the Ottoman Apulian
Campaign and the Attack on Corfu in 1537. Although the Apulian Campaign, a
natural consequence of the Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry, which characterized the
sixteenth-century Ottoman policies and discourse of universal sovereignty, was
originally planned as an Ottoman-French joint military operation, it remained as an
individual Ottoman attack on the south eastern Italy since the French King did not
offer his already promised military support during the campaign. The attacks of
Andrea Doria and the Venetian captains on the Ottoman ships during the campaign
changed the course of the initiative and Sultan Süleyman I ordered the attack on the
island of Corfu, under Venetian control. The Ottoman attack were ended since the season of war ended and the Ottoman army returned to Constantinople without
having completed the conquest of Corfu.
This dissertation mainly argues that one could not understand why the Ottomans
engaged in such a venture without analyzing the nature of the rivalry between the
Ottoman and Habsburg dynasties in the sixteenth-century. The study defines the
campaign as the Apulian Campaign and defends the argument that the Ottoman
sought to establish some sort of suzerainty in south eastern Italy, bound to the
Habsburg realm. Moreover, it asserted that the campaign should not be evaluated as
the “Expedition of Corfu” by stating that Corfu was not the principal target of the
Ottomans in 1537. The impact of the 1537 Campaign on the Ottoman-Venetian
relations is also discussed in this study.