Everything about Cretan War 1645 1669 totally explained
The
Cretan War, as the sixth
Turkish–Venetian War is better known, was a conflict between the
Republic of Venice and her allies (the
Knights of Malta, the
Papal States,
French volunteers and
pirates from
Mani) against the
Ottoman Empire and the
Barbary States, fought over the Venetian possession of
Crete. The war lasted from 1645 to 1669 and was fought in Dalmatia, Crete and in numerous naval engagements in the
Aegean Sea. The prolonged
Siege of Candia (modern
Heraklion), the capital of Crete, was the central event of the war, and its eventual fall in 1669 sealed the fate of the island, ending the war in an Ottoman victory.
Background
After the loss of
Cyprus to the Ottomans in the fifth
Turkish–Venetian War (1570–1573), the island of Crete was the last major overseas possession of Venice. Its important strategic position made it an obvious target for Ottoman expansion, and the
Serenissima, with its weak military and great dependence on uninterrupted trade, was anxious not to provoke the Ottomans. Venice scrupulously observed the terms of its treaty with the Ottomans, securing over sixty years of peaceful relations. Thus in 1638, when a Venetian fleet attacked a fleet of Barbary pirates that had sought protection in the Ottoman port of
Valona, the situation was defused, with the Republic paying the Ottomans an indemnity.
A similar episode, however, that occurred in 1644, had an entirely different outcome: on
28 September, the Knights of Malta
attacked an Ottoman convoy on its way from
Constantinople to
Alexandria, aboard which were the exiled Chief Black Eunuch Sünbül Aga, as well as a number of
pilgrims bound for
Mecca. The Knights loaded their loot on a ship, which docked at Candia for a few days. The Ottomans were enraged at the incident, and accused the Venetians of deliberate collusion with the Knights. The Venetians denied this, but, with the hawkish party being then dominant in the Ottoman court, an expedition was quickly assembled with 60,000 troops under Silahdar Yusuf Pasha.
The war
Early Ottoman operations in Crete
The Venetians were taken by surprise at the arrival of the Ottoman fleet on
26 June 1645, as they expected it to head towards Malta. They were thoroughly unprepared, and the local Greek population wasn't well-disposed towards them. Nevertheless, the Ottomans made good progress, taking Rettimo (
Rethymno) early in 1646, and gradually reducing the Venetian strongholds throughout the island. By 1648, all of Crete, with the exception of Candia and a few strongholds like
Gramvousa, was in Ottoman hands. The Ottoman besiegers were adversely affected by the bad supply situation which the activity of the Christian fleets in the Aegean had caused (see
below). In addition, the overall Ottoman war effort was severely hampered by increased domestic instability and the diversion of resources to other fronts. The lack of supplies and reinforcements, and the horrible conditions of the siege trenches caused occasional outbursts of mutiny among the war-weary troops, like in August 1649, when the
Janissaries demanded to be sent back. The siege continued without much prospect on either side, until the arrival of a new Ottoman expeditionary force in 1666.
The naval war
» For a complete list of naval engagements, see Naval battles of the Cretan War
Venice couldn't directly confront the large Ottoman expeditionary force on Crete, but it did possess a fine navy, that could intervene and cut the Ottoman supply routes. In 1645, the Venetians and their allies possessed a fleet of 60–70
galleys, 4
galleasses and about 36
galleons. In addition, the Venetians hired armed merchantmen from the
Netherlands, and later also from
England, to augment their forces. Their first operation was a landing on the strategically important island of
Tenedos at the entrance of the
Dardanelles in 1646. Although they were eventually driven off, the Venetians returned in 1648 and succeeded in blockading the Straits for a whole year. The Ottomans countered this in part by building a new fleet at
Çeşme, and in 1649, a strengthened Ottoman fleet broke the blockade. This victory enabled the Venetians to seize Tenedos on
8 July and
Lemnos on
20 August, effectively cutting off the resupply of Crete and causing a shortage of food in Constantinople.
In 1657, the Ottomans reversed the situation. A new and energetic
Grand Vizier,
Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, had been appointed, who reinvigorated the Ottoman war effort. Several naval actions occurred between the Ottomans and the Venetians, and despite achieving some victories, most notably the three-day action of
17–20 July 1657, the overstretched Venetians were forced to abandon Lemnos and Tenedos. In 1658, Ottoman power was redirected north in a campaign against
George II Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, which evolved into a long drawn-out conflict with the
Habsburgs. In the meantime, war-weariness had set in among the Venetians, who suffered from the disruption in trade. Peace feelers were sent to the Ottomans, but their demand for the full concession of Crete as a condition for peace was unacceptable to the Republic. and in May 1666, the Ottoman army departed from Thrace for southern Greece, whence it would embark for Crete.
The Siege of Candia ends
The Ottoman army arrived on the island during the winter of 1666/1667, and in May, the final phase of the siege, overseen by the Grand Vizier himself, began. It would last for 22 months and cost the lives of 70,000 Turks, 38,000 Cretans and slaves and 29,088 of the city's Christian defenders. With the departure of the French force in August and the city literally in ruins, Morosini was forced, after a council of war on 27 August, but without first consulting Venice, to capitulate. On
27 September 1669, the city was surrendered to the Ottomans, while the survivors of the garrison and the citizens were evacuated.
Peace treaty and aftermath
The surrender of Candia ended the four and a half centuries of
Venetian rule in Crete. On his own initiative, Morosini concluded a permanent peace agreement with the Ottomans. Under the circumstances, it was relatively lenient: Venice would retain the island of
Tinos and the isolated Cretan fortresses of
Spinalonga,
Gramvousa and
Souda, as well as the gains made in Dalmatia.
[ Nevertheless, Venice had lost its greatest and most prosperous colony, and the small gains it made in Dalmatia were insufficient compensation. Upon his return to Venice in 1670, Morosini was tried on charges of insubordination and treason, but was acquitted. Fifteen years later, he'd lead the Venetian forces in the Morean War, where the Republic attempted, for the last time, to reverse its losses and reestablish itself as one of the major powers of the Eastern Mediterranean.][ During that war, in 1692, a Venetian fleet attempted to retake Candia, but failed. Crete would remain in Ottoman hands until 1912, when, during the First Balkan War, it was united to Greece.]
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