The+Surrounding+Countries+-+Greece,+Turkey,+and+the+Ottoman+Empire

= Surrounding Countries: Politics = (Langer, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World)

Since the Roman occupation under Alexander the Great in 146 BCE, Greece had been a significant part of the Byzantine (New Rome) empire. This region was the Eastern part of the Roman Empire that continued long after the West Roman Empire failed. For over 1,000 years, the Byzantines played an influential role in the politics of the area. Finally, in 1453, the Ottomans took over, toppling the Byzantine empire. Many of the former Byzantines emigrated from Greece to parts of Western Europe, bringing with them stories and knowledge of ancient Greece. This migration was critical to the European Renaissance.   The Ottoman Empire, largely situated in Turkey, grew to be a formidible power. Its position between Asia and Europe gave it the natural ability to control trade between cultures. Ottoman's commanded a vast expanse of territory, always trying to push into Europe from the East. They came to a virtual wall as they clashed with stronger European powers such as the Holy Roman Empire of Central Europe.

 Venice diplomatically aquired Cyprus from Charles VIII of France in the 15th century. From then on, the Turks and the Venecians were constantly at war. At one point, in 1570, the sultan of the Ottomans declared war on the Venecians and invaded Cyprus, the most econimically important Venecian posession in the Mediterranean. The battle of Lepanto ensued, which was the most intense naval battle of the era. The Holy League (Spain, Papacy, Venice, et al.) fought brutally against the Ottomans and delivered a crushing defeat. The Holy League could not agree on several issues in the aftermath, so the battle's legacy resulted in the Venecians making peace and leaving Cyprus after the Ottomans reconquered the area.  Despite all the conflic in the Mediterranean, Western Europeans found other ways to the East, so there was less and less need to deal with Venice or the Mediterranean routes. Venice began to decline because of the economic problems that came out of a diminishing need for its trade routes.   By the 1580s, the Ottoman Empire was on the decline.   Below is a document of a map of the Ottoman Empire and its region of the Mediterranean in the 16th Century. [| Doc1.docx]