THE NAVAL BATTLE OF LEPANTO - 1571.

Introduction
This is the third and last installment of the three naval battles which saved the WEST from Eastern or North African domination. The previous two naval engagements, I already posted: SALAMIS in 480 BCE and ACTIUM in 31 BCE.
Gaining supremacy of the Mediterranean basin was of supreme strategic importance for whoever ruled the sea could then invade southern Europe at will, anywhere from Greece to Spain. Occupying Sicily and southern Italy which are at the center of the Mediterranea would be the first tactical objective to be used as the jumping off point for a future invasion of Europe. In the VIII th century, the Arabs did conquer Sicily and Sardinia and kept them for 300 years. Now, 500 years later, was the time of the OTTOMAN Turks.

 OTTOMAN EMPIRE

SHOWING LEPANTO

 THE NAVAL BATTLE OF LEPANTO - 1571

The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement taking place on 7 October 1571 in which a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of European Catholic maritime states arranged by Pope Pius V, financed by Habsburg Spain and led by admiral John of Austria, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras, where the Ottoman forces sailing westwards from their naval station in Lepanto (the Venetian name of ancient Naupactus Ναύπακτος, Ottoman İnebahtı) met the fleet of the Holy League sailing east from Messina, Sicily.

In the history of naval warfare, Lepanto marks the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought entirely or almost entirely between rowing vessels, the galleys and galeasses which were still the direct descendants of the ancient trireme warships. The battle was in essence an "infantry battle on floating platforms". It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, involving more than 400 warships.

PREAMBULE
The Christian coalition had been promoted by Pope Pius V to rescue the Venetian colony of Famagusta, on the island of Cyprus, which was being besieged by the Turks in early 1571 subsequent to the fall of Nicosia and other Venetian possessions in Cyprus in the course of 1570. On 1 August, the Venetians had surrendered after being reassured that they could leave Cyprus freely. However, the Ottoman commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, who had lost some 50,000 men in the siege, broke his word, imprisoning the Venetians. On 17 August, Marco Antonio Bragadin was flayed alive and his corpse hung on Mustafa's galley together with the heads of the Venetian commanders, Astorre Baglioni, Alvise Martinengo and Gianantonio Querini.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 

The Battle of Lepanto took place between the Holy League, consisting of Spain, Venice and the Papacy, and the Ottoman Empire, which lay to the south of Poland and Russia. Two thirds of the Holy League ships were Italian, but Spain contributed most of the financing. The Holy League, under the command of Don Juan of Austria, met the Ottoman fleet, led by Ali Pasha, at Lepanto on 7th October 1571.

 There had long been tensions between the Muslim Ottomans and the Catholic Spanish in the Mediterranean. Spain had captured Tripoli and Bougie in 1510, and in 1551 and 1555 the Ottomans recaptured them. By the late 1550s the Spanish felt that their coastline was threatened by the advancing Ottomans, and there were concerns that the converted Muslims (Moriscos) in Spain would assist an Ottoman invasion: between 1568 and 1570 there was a serious revolt of the Moriscos in Granada. In 1570 the Ottomans captured Cyprus from the Venetians. It was the last of the crusader states still in western European hands, and the Sultan, Selim, claimed it as King of Jerusalem. Additionally, the Venetian forces there were failing to prevent western corsairs from using the Cypriot coast to launch attacks on Muslim pilgrim ships on their way to Egypt and Mecca.

 THE HOLY LEAGUE

The members of the Holy League were the Republic of Venice, the Spanish Empire (including the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdoms of Sicily and Sardinia as part of the Spanish possessions), the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchies of Savoy, Urbino and Tuscany, the Knights Hospitaller and others.


THE LEAGUE'S COMMANDERS

John of Austria (24 February 1547 – 1 October 1578), in English traditionally known as Don John of Austria, in Spanish as Don Juan de Austria[1] and in German as Ritter Johann von Österreich, was an illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He became a military leader in the service of his half-brother, King Philip II of Spain and is best known for his role as the admiral of the Holy Alliance fleet at the Battle of Lepanto 

Marcantonio II Colonna (sometimes spelled Marc'Antonio; 1535[1] – August 1, 1584), Duke of Tagliacozzo and Duke and Prince of Paliano, was an Italian aristocrat who served as a Viceroy of Sicily in the service of the Spanish Crown, Spanish general, and Captain General of the Church. He is best remembered for his part as the admiral of the Papal fleet in the Battle of Lepanto.