Imperio Otomano - History Lab

File on the merits and services of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:04 +0000

File on the merits and services of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, containing the following documents: 1.- Memorial (apparently in Cervantes’ own handwriting) in which he sets out his merits and services performed in Italy, in the battle of Lepanto and elsewhere, on the occasion of requesting the granting of any of the four vacant posts he sets out: the accounting of the New Kingdom of Granada, the governorship of Soconusco, the accounting of the galleys of Cartagena de Indias, or the corregimiento of the city of La Paz (1590). Folios 1-2 2.- Certification given by the Duke of Sesa confirming the merits and services of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1578). Folio 3. 2.- Information at the request of Rodrigo de Cervantes, father of Miguel de Cervantes, made in Madrid before a court mayor to prove that he is his son, that he is noble, the services he contracted in Italy, that he was captive in Algiers and that because his father is poor he will not be able to ransom him (1578). Folios 4-13. 3.- Information made in Algiers before the Trinitarian Redemptor Father Fray Juan Gil and before the notary Pedro de Rivera, at the request of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, in which the services he has done and the great labours he suffered in his captivity are stated. All verified with the certification of the said redeeming father (1580). This information was made a few days after the rescue of Cervantes. Folios 14-52.

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Plan of the order of battle of the armies at the Battle of Lepanto

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:58 +0000

The first of the Holy League’s objectives (1571) was to recruit a navy of galleys to confront the Turkish navy. In the end, 206 galleys and 6 galleys (large, heavily armed galleys) under the command of Juan de Austria, Luis de Requesens, Álvaro de Bazán, Gianandrea Doria, Agostino Barbarigo and Marcantonio Colonna were ordered. On 7 October 1571 they were confronted by just over 300 Turkish ships off the coast of Naupactos in the Gulf of Patras. The League’s superiority was due to its cannon (the Turks much preferred to sweep the decks with arrows) and the quality of the Spanish infantry on board. The battle was nothing more than a battle of infantry on ships: the League fought in three blocks: one along the coast, with Venetian galleys commanded by Agostino Barbarigo; one in the centre, commanded directly by John of Austria and Marcantonio Colonna; and one towards the open sea, under the command of Gianandrea Doria. The reserve was commanded by Álvaro de Bazán. In the central clash the Turkish admiralty ship, the Sultana, almost took the League’s admiral, the Royal, but the help of Marcantonio Colonna’s galleys reversed the situation and the Turkish admiralty was taken, annihilating all its crew, including Admiral Ali Paschá.By the end of the day the League had sunk 50 ships, taken about 140, taken 10,000 Turkish prisoners and freed the Turkish prisoners.despite the resounding victory (“the highest occasion that the past centuries have seen, the present nor the future centuries hope to see”, in the words of Miguel de Cervantes – who fought on the galley Marquesa – in the prologue to his Don Quixote) neither the League nor Spain nor Venice knew how to profit from it. Two years later the Turkish navy had completely recovered and Venice ceded Cyprus to the Ottoman Empire.

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Plan of the Peñón Vélez de la Gomera square

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:25 +0000

The Vélez de Gomera rock was one of Spain’s coastal defence enclaves during the modern era. The policy of North African conquest promoted by the Catholic Monarchs was redirected by Ferdinand the Catholic, who sought to create defence rings to protect his peninsular and Italian possessions. To this end, coastal towns with ports were subdued in order to put an end to the North African corsairs. The arrival of Barbarossa and the Ottomans in North Africa meant the emergence of Algeria as a potential maritime enemy. In 1554, the Algerian beylerbey Salah Raiss restored the Sultan of Fez, who in return had to cede the Rock to the Algerians. From then on, an arraez named Yahia Raiss was stationed there and harassed the coasts of the mainland until, for unknown reasons, he abandoned the place. The Sa’adi sultans’ fear of the nearby Algerian/Ottoman presence was decisive in Muhammad Asheikh, Sultan of Marrakesh, handing over the Rock to the Spanish in exchange for protection. This handover took effect ten years later, and it has remained under Spanish sovereignty until now. Since then, it has been used as a defensive enclave against Berber raids.

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Publishing production on Turkey and the Indies (1490-1950)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:56 +0000

When we analyse the books and publishing production on aspects related to the Ottoman Empire and the Indies, we can see a demand directly related to the events that took place and the ideological currents of the population. From the beginning of the printing press until 1850, there was a great danger to the Spanish collective imagination of the Modern Age, reflected in printed matter that mentioned the Turks or the Ottoman Empire, which was replaced from the 17th century onwards by those referring to the American Indies.
In absolute terms, the volume of printed matter on the two subjects is very different. Although it is higher in the American case, until the 17th century they were subjects that aroused practically similar interest, with production on the Indies beginning to stand out from 1550 onwards after the Sepúlveda-Las Casas debate, but being abruptly interrupted between 1680 and 1690, mainly due to the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683.
Another of the conclusions that this research shows is the differentiation in the channels of diffusion that the two subjects had. While the cultural differences between Turks and Spaniards led to a majority of event reports as a means of distribution, in the American case the book-based format dominated.

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