: Dennis Showalter
: Early Modern Wars 1500-1775
: Amber Books Ltd
: 9781782741213
: 1
: CHF 5.70
:
: Geschichte
: English
: 424
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
The Early Modern era was a transformative period in the history of warfare. Armies became larger and increasingly professionalized, while gunpowder weaponry changed warfare forever with new firearms and artillery. The Early Modern Wars 1500-1775 - the third volume in the Encyclopedia of Warfare Series - charts this explosive era of invasion, revolt and civil war. A chronological guide to conflict on every continent, including the wars of the Ottoman Empire, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) that decimated much of central Europe and the Seven Years' War that saw some of Frederick the Great's most famous victories, this volume gives a comprehensive guide to wars from throughout the period, covering the battlegrounds both on land and at sea. Featuring full colour maps illustrating the formations and strategies used, plus narrative descriptions of the circumstances behind each battle, this is a comprehensive guide to the conflicts of the early modern world. The Encyclopedia of Warfare Series is an authoritative compendium of almost five millennia of conflict, from the ancient world to the Arab Spring. Written in a style accessible to both the student and the general enthusiast, it reflects the latest thinking among military historians and will prove an indispensible reference guide.

Ottoman Wars 1500–1775


■DIU, 3 FEBRUARY 1509
Aggressive Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean during the first decade of the sixteenth century threatened both the balance of power in the region and long-established Ottoman and Mamluk trading interests. This provoked an alliance between the Ottomans, Mamlûks, the Sultanate of Gujarat and the ruler of Calicut, who assembled a fleet of almost 120 vessels to oppose the 18 Portuguese warships under the Viceroy, Dom Francisco de Almeida, which were based at Fort Kochi, southwest India. The Portuguese fleet comprised:

• Five large carracks or naus:Flor de la mar (Viceroy’s flagship),Espírito Santo (Cap Nuno Vaz Pereira),Belém (Jorge de Melo Pereira),Great King (Francisco de Távora) andGreat Taforea (Fernão de Magalhães). These were large vessels with high stern and forecastles and usually three masts. The foremast and mainmast were square-rigged, while the mizzenmast was lateen-rigged (triangular sail);

• Four smaller naus (each probably with three masts):Small Taforea (Garcia de Sousa),Santo António (Martim Coelho),Small King (Manuel Teles Barreto) andAndorinho (Dom António de Noronha);

• Four caravelas redondas, three-masted ships with a square foresail and lateen sails on the other two masts. They were probably up to 30m in length and averaged 50 tonnes (captains António do Campo, Pero Cão, Filipe Rodrigues and Rui Soares);

• Two caravelas Latinas (captains Álvaro Peçanha and Luís Preto);

• Two gales, probably two-masted, lateen rigged galleys with 25–30 oars per side, with three men to an oar. Like most galleys, a gale had only forward-firing guns, but could also carry up to 200 troops (captains Paio Rodrigues de Sousa and Diogo Pires de Miranda);

• One bergantim, a smaller, two-masted vessel with a square sail on the foremast and lateen- rigged on the other (captain Simão Martins).

The allied fleet commanded by Ottoman Adm Mir Hussein Pasha included approximately 100 vessels from Gujarat and Calicut, mainly small dhows of limited combat value. Its most effective warships were:

• Four naus from Gujarat

• Four Mamlûk naus

• Two caravelas

• Four galeotas (galliots), small galleys with two lateen-rigged sails and up to 20 oars per side

• Two gales.

Although heavily outnumbered, Almeida’s ships were armed with far more effective cannon than even the best allied vessels, while the 1500 Portuguese troops that it carried were more heavily armed and better armoured than their opponents.

Adm Mir Hussein Pasha deployed the allied fleet in the inner h