The Forgotten Slave Trade by Simon Webb

Author:Simon Webb [Webb, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Tags: History / Europe / General
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2020-12-27T16:00:00+00:00

Fame, swifter than your winged navy, flies Through every land that near the ocean lies, Sounding your name, and telling dreadful news To all that piracy and rapine use. (Chernaik, 1964)

The English attack on Tunis had far-reaching effects, although not altogether those which had been hoped for and expected when they set out on their punitive expedition. The loss of the nine ships at Porto Farina affected the outcome of the sea battle fought between the Ottomans and Venetians a few months later. This was the Battle of the Dardanelles, which was, in retrospect, of great geopolitical significance, being essentially part of a struggle for the future of Europe. On such engagements as the naval battles between Venice and the Ottomans would hinge the question of whether Christendom or Islam triumphed in Europe.

The Venetians had for some years been fighting the Ottomans for mastery of the island of Crete. As part of this campaign, the ships of Venice were, in the summer of 1655, lying in wait for the Ottoman fleet to leave Constantinople and sail through the Dardanelles and into the Aegean Sea. On 21 June, the Ottoman ships left the Dardanelles and found the Venetians waiting for them. It was a hard-fought battle in which another nine or ten ships on the side of the Ottomans might well have made all the difference between victory or defeat. As it was, the Venetian routed the Ottomans. Although Crete fell to the Ottomans, within 15 years Venice was ultimately victorious.

The Barbary States and their ships were thus part of a monumental struggle for the very soul of Europe. The Pope was urging Christians on to the defence of their lands, warning that Christianity itself was in peril. The spirit of the Crusades was invoked, making this in at least some sense a religious war. For the Ottomans, the case was even more clear cut; the ships of the Barbary Coast and their own fleet were part of a marine jihad, whose aim was nothing less than the conquest of Europe and the imposition of Islam upon it. The battles between the Barbary corsairs and European ships were thus a small part of a momentous battle for the preservation of Christian civilization.

The Ottoman Empire had not yet entered its long decline, which would last for 250 years and end with the First World War. In the mid-seventeenth century it was very far from being the ‘sick man of Europe’, as it was famously described during the Crimean War. On the contrary, it was still thrusting aggressively westwards, seeking to absorb even more of Europe; a trend which would culminate with the siege of Vienna in 1683.

We looked above at a forgotten poem from English history, one with which few modern readers are likely to be familiar. The same cannot be said for Rule, Britannia!. The song Rule, Britannia! is represented by many liberal and progressive people to be a militaristic and imperialist paean, glorying in the superiority of the British armed forces over those of other nations.

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