The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia , Northeast Africa and Europe . Spices, such as cinnamon , cassia , cardamom , ginger , pepper , nutmeg , star anise , clove , and turmeric , were known and used in antiquity and traded in the Eastern World . These spices found their way into the Near East before the beginning of the Christian era, with fantastic tales hiding their true sources.
161-731: The Cretan War ( Greek : Κρητικός Πόλεμος , romanized : Kritikós Pólemos ; Turkish : Girit'in Fethi ), also known as the War of Candia ( Italian : Guerra di Candia ) or the fifth Ottoman–Venetian war , was a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta , the Papal States and France ) against the Ottoman Empire and
322-624: A war with the Persians , the situation was defused with the Republic paying the Ottomans an indemnity of 250,000 sequins . A similar episode however in 1644 had an entirely different outcome: on 28 September, the Knights of Malta attacked an Ottoman convoy of sailing ships on its way from Constantinople to Alexandria , aboard which were a number of pilgrims bound for Mecca , including
483-604: A Venetian fleet of 41 vessels maintained the blockade of the Dardanelles, prohibiting Haideragazade Mehmed Pasha from sailing for Crete. He was replaced late in the year by Hozamzade Ali Pasha, governor of Rhodes , who used a clever ploy to get through the blockade: waiting until winter, when the Venetians withdrew their forces, he assembled a small number of ships and embarked several thousand troops with many provisions on them, and sailed unmolested to Crete. On 10 July 1651,
644-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
805-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
966-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
1127-596: A few minor successes: he broke an Ottoman blockade of Tinos, and, pursuing the Ottoman fleet, defeated it off Milos . The next few years however were relatively idle. Although the Ottomans were heavily engaged with the Austrians in Hungary, and that their fleet rarely sallied forth, the Venetians failed to make use of this opportunity, and, except for the intercept of a supply convoy from Alexandria off Kos in 1662 , there
1288-472: A fleet of 80 warships against the Venetians, but his fleet was driven back into the Dardanelles on 26 May . However, the blockading fleet was unable to stop the next exit of the Ottoman fleet on 4 June, when the lack of wind enabled the Ottoman galleys to evade the Venetian sailing ships. The Ottomans were thus able to land new troops and supplies on Crete unopposed. The efforts of the Venetian fleet to counter
1449-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
1610-509: A further period of confusion within the Ottoman government. The lack of supplies had forced the Ottoman commander Gazi Hüseyin Pasha to lift the siege in early 1649, but it was renewed for a short period of two months after the arrival of the Ottoman fleet in June. The Ottomans assailed the fortifications, exploding over 70 mines , but the defenders held firm. The Ottomans lost over 1,000 men, and
1771-553: A monopoly on European trade with the Middle East. The silk and spice trade, involving spices , incense , herbs , drugs and opium , made these Mediterranean city-states extremely wealthy. Spices were among the most expensive and in-demand products of the Middle Ages, used in medicine as well as in the kitchen. They were all imported from Asia and Africa. Venetian and other navigators of maritime republics then distributed
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#17327829253751932-515: A more tempting prize than Malta . On the Venetian side, the Serenissima , with its weak military and great dependence on uninterrupted trade, was anxious not to provoke the Ottomans. Hence Venice scrupulously observed the terms of its treaty with the Ottomans, securing over sixty years of peaceful relations. By the early 17th century moreover, Venetian power had declined considerably. Its economy, which had once prospered because of its control over
2093-476: A number of sailors and slaves. The Ottomans were enraged at the incident, and the Porte accused the Venetians of deliberate collusion with the Knights , something the Venetians vehemently denied. With the hawkish party being then dominant in the Ottoman court, the incident was seen as a perfect pretext for war with a weakened Venice. Despite a long period of negotiations, which lasted until well into 1645, and against
2254-458: A result, the resupply of Crete was effectively cut off, and Constantinople itself suffered a shortage of food during the following winter. In 1657, the Ottomans reversed the situation. A new and energetic Grand Vizier , Köprülü Mehmed Pasha , armed with almost dictatorial authority, had been appointed in September 1656, and reinvigorated the Ottoman war effort. The fleet was strengthened under
2415-453: A strong garrison and returned to Constantinople for the winter. There however, he fell foul of the Sultan and was executed. Nevertheless, Ottoman preparations continued in order to renew and expand the war, while the Venetians were frantically trying to raise money and men, and attempting to induce other European powers to join them against the Ottomans. However, as most of Europe was locked into
2576-455: A struggling economy, despite the prospect of considerable reinforcements from Western Europe, in 1668 the Signoria hoped to end the war by striking a peace settlement with the Ottomans. Indeed, the Venetians hoped to use the imminent arrival of reinforcements to secure concessions from the Ottomans. Admiral Andrea Valier was at first appointed as envoy, but fell ill and was quickly replaced by
2737-466: Is a record from Tamil texts of Greeks purchasing large sacks of black pepper from India, and many recipes in the 1st-century Roman cookbook Apicius make use of the spice. The trade in spices lessened after the fall of the Roman Empire , but demand for ginger , black pepper, cloves , cinnamon and nutmeg revived the trade in later centuries. Rome played a part in the spice trade during
2898-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
3059-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
3220-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
3381-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
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#17327829253753542-823: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Spice trade The maritime aspect of
3703-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
3864-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
4025-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
4186-621: The Abbasid Caliphate and inspired famous legends such as that of Sinbad the Sailor . These early sailors and merchants would often set sail from the port city of Basra and, after many ports of call, would return to sell their goods, including spices, in Baghdad . The fame of many spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon are attributed to these early spice merchants. The Indian commercial connection with South East Asia proved vital to
4347-682: The Arabian Peninsula , resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued into historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road . In the first millennium BC the Arabs , Phoenicians , and Indians were also engaged in sea and land trade in luxury goods such as spices, gold, precious stones, leather of exotic animals, ebony and pearls. The sea trade
4508-866: The Balkan Wars . In their aftermath, the Ottoman Sultan dropped any claim on the island, and on 1 December 1913 it was formally united to Greece. Following the fall of Candia, fears rose that the Ottomans would attack Malta . In 1670, the Order of St. John began to improve the island's defences with the construction of the Cottonera Lines and Fort Ricasoli . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
4669-571: The Barbary States , because it was largely fought over the island of Crete , Venice's largest and richest overseas possession . The war lasted from 1645 to 1669 and was fought in Crete , especially in the city of Candia , and in numerous naval engagements and raids around the Aegean Sea , with Dalmatia providing a secondary theater of operations. Although most of Crete was conquered by
4830-653: The Bay of Bengal served as bridges for cultural and commercial exchanges between diverse cultures as nations struggled to gain control of the trade along the many spice routes. In 1571 the Spanish opened the first trans-Pacific route between its territories of the Philippines and Mexico, served by the Manila Galleon . This trade route lasted until 1815. The Portuguese trade routes were mainly restricted and limited by
4991-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
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5152-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
5313-600: The Spice Islands ( cloves and nutmeg ). It also connected the material cultures of India and China later on via the Maritime Silk Road. Indonesians in particular were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia ) with East Africa using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the westerlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and
5474-630: The Strait of Magellan in the southern tip of South America, opening the Pacific to European exploration. On March 16, 1521, the ships reached the Philippines and soon after the Spice Islands, ultimately resulting decades later in the Manila Galleon trade, the first westward spice trade route to Asia. After Magellan's death in the Philippines, navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano took command of
5635-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
5796-674: The sultan of Yemen . Indian spice exports find mention in the works of Ibn Khurdadhbeh (850), al-Ghafiqi (1150), Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al Kalkashandi (14th century). Chinese traveler Xuanzang mentions the town of Puri where "merchants depart for distant countries." From there, overland routes led to the Mediterranean coasts. From the 8th until the 15th century, maritime republics ( Republic of Venice , Republic of Pisa , Republic of Genoa , Duchy of Amalfi , Duchy of Gaeta , Republic of Ancona and Republic of Ragusa ) held
5957-420: The 25th were repulsed, but to Morosini, it was clear that the city could no longer be held. After a council of war on 27 August, but without first consulting Venice, it was decided to capitulate. On 5 September 1669, the city was surrendered to the Ottomans, while the survivors of the garrison, the citizens and their treasures were evacuated. On his own initiative, Morosini concluded a permanent peace agreement with
6118-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
6279-459: The 5th century, but this role did not last through the Middle Ages. The rise of Islam brought a significant change to the trade as Radhanite Jewish and Arab merchants, particularly from Egypt , eventually took over conveying goods via the Levant to Europe . At times, Jews enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the spice trade in large parts of Western Europe. The spice trade had brought great riches to
6440-537: The Aegean and 14 ships from Barbary stood by to reinforce it off the Straits. This force considerably outnumbered the 26 ships of the Venetian blockade fleet under Giuseppe Dolfin. Although the battle that followed resulted in an Ottoman victory, for the Venetians, given the successful escape of their fleet from the superior Ottoman force, coupled with reports of large Ottomans casualties and the great bravery displayed by
6601-483: The Aegean. The battle ended in the evening of 19 July, when an explosion destroyed the Venetian flagship and killed Mocenigo, forcing the allied fleet to withdraw. In this battle, the Venetians had inflicted heavier casualties on the Ottomans than they had suffered, but the Ottomans had achieved their goal: the blockade was broken. Under the personal direction of the Grand Vizier and strengthened by men and ships from
Cretan War (1645–1669) - Misplaced Pages Continue
6762-668: The Arabs had control over the sea trade with India. In the late second century BC, the Greeks from the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt learned from the Indians how to sail directly from Aden to the west coast of India using the monsoon winds (as did Hippalus ) and took control of the sea trade via Red Sea ports. Spices are discussed in biblical narratives, and there is literary evidence for their use in ancient Greek and Roman society. There
6923-523: The Barbary states, the Ottoman fleet proceeded to recover Lemnos, on 31 August, and Tenedos, on 12 November, thus removing any hope the Venetians may have had of re-establishing the blockade as firmly as before. In 1658, Ottoman power was redirected north in a campaign against George II Rákóczi , Prince of Transylvania , which evolved into a long conflict with the Habsburgs . For the next few years,
7084-490: The Cyclades. A week after his departure however, on 21 June, the Ottoman fleet, numbering 143 ships under Mustapha Pasha, appeared. The resulting battle was a clear Venetian victory. The Ottoman fleet avoided action for the remainder of the year, before it withdrew to winter quarters, leaving Morosini free to undertake an ultimately unsuccessful siege of the strategically important island fortress of Malvasia ( Monemvasia ) off
7245-503: The Dardanelles in September due to agitation among the fleet's Janissaries. The final months of 1654 were marked by a significant change in the Venetian leadership: Mocenigo died at Candia, and was succeeded as acting Captain General of the Sea by Francesco Morosini , who had distinguished himself in the previous battles. Morosini initiated a more energetic approach in the Venetian pursuit of
7406-405: The Dardanelles, awaiting the renewed sally of the Ottoman fleet, which came on 17 July. Due to disagreements among the Christian commanders, the allied battle line had not been completely formed, and the Ottoman fleet was able to exit the Narrows before battle was joined . The battle consisted of a series of actions over three days, with both fleets drifting south and west out of the Dardanelles into
7567-400: The Eastern spice trade , had suffered as a result of the opening of the new Atlantic trade routes, and from the loss of the important German market because of the Thirty Years' War . In addition, the Republic had become embroiled in a series of wars in northern Italy like the Mantuan War and was further weakened by an outbreak of the plague in 1629–1631. The potential for conflict between
7728-458: The French some 800 dead, including the Duke of Beaufort himself, who was hit by a bullet and left on the field. The arrival of the second half of the French expeditionary force revived the defenders' morale, and a combined attack was agreed upon, involving bombardment of the Ottoman siege lines by the powerful allied fleet. The attack was launched on 25 July, in an impressive display of firepower: up to 15,000 cannonballs were said to have been fired by
7889-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
8050-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
8211-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
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#17327829253758372-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
8533-446: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
8694-413: The Indian Ocean was by the Austronesian peoples of Island Southeast Asia . They established trade routes with Southern India and Sri Lanka from around 1500 BC to 600 BC, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans , outrigger boats , lashed-lug and sewn-plank boats, and paan ) and cultigens (like coconuts , sandalwood , bananas , and sugarcane ), as well as spices endemic to
8855-423: The Mediterranean had diminished, and its treasury was exhausted, having spent some 4,253,000 ducats on the defense of Candia alone. To all this, the Dalmatian gains 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 would lead the Venetian forces in the Morean War , where the Republic attempted, for
9016-524: The Middle East and eastern Africa by the 1st millennium AD, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar . Within specific regions, the Kingdom of Axum (5th century BC–AD 11th century) had pioneered the Red Sea route before the 1st century AD. During the first millennium AD, Ethiopians became the maritime trading power of the Red Sea . By this period, trade routes existed from Sri Lanka (the Roman Taprobane ) and India, which had acquired maritime technology from early Austronesian contact. By
9177-532: The Moluccas and Maloko , and navigational works of the 14th and 15th centuries contain the first unequivocal Arab reference to Moluccas. Sulaima al-Mahr writes: "East of Timor [where sandalwood is found] are the islands of Bandam and they are the islands where nutmeg and mace are found. The islands of cloves are called Maluku ....." Moluccan products were shipped to trading emporiums in India, passing through ports like Kozhikode in Kerala and through Sri Lanka . From there they were shipped westward across
9338-534: The Ottoman armada from eventually reaching Crete. This highlighted the weakness of the Venetian position: maintaining long blockades with galleys was an inherently difficult task, and the Republic did not have enough ships to control both the Dardanelles and the passage of Chios at the same time. In addition, in a major development, 1648 the Ottomans decided, in a meeting chaired by the Sultan himself, to build and employ galleons in their fleet, instead of relying exclusively on oared galleys as hitherto. For most of 1650,
9499-485: The Ottoman fleet was in disarray, but the allied Christian fleet, under the cautious command of Niccolò Ludovisi , the Pope's nephew, failed to exploit the opportunity for a decisive strike. When the Christian forces finally moved to retake Canea on 1 October, with a fleet of about 90 ships, the stout Ottoman defense and the Allies' lack of cooperation doomed the attack. Soon thereafter, the Venetian allies returned to their bases. In November, Silahdar Yusuf Pasha left behind
9660-417: The Ottoman land operations in Crete likewise failed, through a combination of timidity on behalf of their commanders, the delays in payment for the crews, and the effects of a widespread plague. On 27 January 1647, the Venetians lost Tommaso Morosini, when his ship was forced to face the entire Ottoman fleet of 45 galleys. In the ensuing fight, Morosini was killed, but managed to cause significant casualties to
9821-444: The Ottoman supply routes. In 1645, the Venetians and their allies possessed a fleet of 60–70 galleys, 4 galleasses and about 36 galleons . The Venetians were also superior in their use of a mixed fleet of both galleys and sailing ships, while initially, the Ottoman navy relied almost exclusively on galleys. In order to bolster their forces, both opponents hired armed merchantmen from the Netherlands, and later from England (especially
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#17327829253759982-421: The Ottomans and Venice was still present, as evidenced in 1638, when a Venetian fleet attacked and destroyed a fleet of Barbary pirates that had sought protection in the Ottoman port of Valona , bombarding the city in the process. Sultan Murad IV was enraged: he threatened to execute all Venetians in the Empire, and put an embargo on Venetian trade. Eventually, and given that the Ottomans were still engaged in
10143-472: The Ottomans in the first few years of the war, the fortress of Candia (modern Heraklion ), the capital of Crete, resisted successfully. Its prolonged siege , " Troy's rival" as Lord Byron called it, forced both sides to focus their attention on the supply of their respective forces on the island. For the Venetians in particular, their only hope for victory over the larger Ottoman army in Crete lay in successfully starving it of supplies and reinforcements. Hence
10304-503: The Ottomans were still free to roam the Aegean and resupply their forces in Crete, in particular through the use of supply fleets from places like Alexandria , Rhodes, Chios or Monemvasia in the Peloponnese. In June 1656 however, a combined Venetian–Maltese fleet of 67 ships under Marcello inflicted on the Ottomans, with 108 ships under Kenan Pasha, their "worst naval defeat since Lepanto ": Sixty Ottoman ships were destroyed and 24 captured and 5,000 Christian galley slaves set free, although
10465-425: The Ottomans), to augment their forces. The first Venetian operation was an attempt to blockade the Dardanelles in 1646. To interdict the supplies headed to the Ottoman forces in Crete, a force of 23 Venetian ships under Tommaso Morosini scoured the Aegean for Ottoman shipping, and attempted to capture the strategically important island of Tenedos at the entrance of the Dardanelles. The Kapudan Pasha Koca Musa led
10626-500: The Ottomans, but their demand for the full concession of Crete as a condition for peace was unacceptable to the Republic. With the end of the war between France and Spain however, the Venetians became encouraged, hoping to receive increased assistance in money and men, especially from the French, whose traditionally good relations with the Porte had soured of late. This support did indeed soon develop, when individuals or whole companies of men from across Western Europe volunteered for
10787-408: The Ottomans, including Koca Musa Pasha himself. The ship itself was rescued by the timely arrival of the Venetian fleet under the new Captain General, Giovanni Battista Grimani. This stand-off, where a single ship had caused such damage and casualties to the entire Ottoman fleet, was a major blow to Ottoman morale. Despite some successes like a raid in Çeşme , the remainder of the year was a failure for
10948-552: The Ottomans, it was too far away and relatively insignificant, while the Venetians operated near their own bases of supply and had undisputed control of the sea, being thus able to easily reinforce their coastal strongholds. The Ottomans launched a large-scale attack in 1646, and made some significant gains, including the capture of the islands of Krk , Pag and Cres , and most importantly, the supposedly impregnable fortress of Novigrad , which surrendered on 4 July, after only two days of bombardment. The Ottomans were now able to threaten
11109-445: The Ottomans, which, under the circumstances, was relatively generous: Venice would retain the Aegean islands of Tinos and Kythera and the isolated island fortresses of Spinalonga , Gramvousa and Souda off the Cretan coast, as well as the gains made in Dalmatia. The Dalmatian front was a separate theater of operations, which was involved in the early phase of the war. The conditions there were almost reverse to those in Crete: for
11270-497: The Papal States, Malta, Naples , Sicily contributed ships and men) hampered operations. At the time, Catherine of Braganza , Queen of England, involved herself in the effort to relieve Candia, but failed to persuade her husband Charles II to take any action. Francesco Morosini, now again Captain General, sought to engage the Ottomans, but they avoided battle, and using their superior resources and bases, they steadily kept their forces on Crete supplied. The only allied success in 1667
11431-434: The Portuguese had complete control of the African sea route, which extended through a long network of routes that linked three oceans, from the Moluccas (the Spice Islands) in the Pacific Ocean limits, through Malacca, Kerala and Sri Lanka, to Lisbon in Portugal. The Crown of Castile had organized the expedition of Christopher Columbus to compete with Portugal for the spice trade with Asia, but when Columbus landed on
11592-623: The Republic never had enough ships to fully cut off the flow of supplies and reinforcements to Crete. The Ottomans were hampered in their efforts by domestic turmoil, as well as by the diversion of their forces north towards Transylvania and the Habsburg monarchy . The prolonged conflict exhausted the economy of the Republic, which relied on the lucrative trade with the Ottoman Empire. By the 1660s, despite increased aid from other Christian nations, war-weariness had set in. The Ottomans on
11753-492: The Republic nothing of substance. On the Ottoman side, Köprülü Mehmed ordered the construction of two new forts, Sedd el Bahr ("Rampart of the Sea") and Kilid Bahr ("Key of the Sea"), at the European shore of the entrance of the Dardanelles, to prohibit the Venetians from entering the Straits again. In the meantime, war-weariness had set in among the Venetians, who suffered from the disruption in trade. Peace feelers were sent to
11914-537: The Republic's army, while Christian rulers also felt obliged to provide men, supplies and ships. The first French contingent of 4,200 men under Prince Almerigo d'Este arrived in April 1660, along with further contingents of German mercenaries, troops from Savoy, and Maltese, Tuscan and French ships. Despite this increase in strength, Morosini's operations in 1660 were a failure: an assault on Canea in August succeeded in taking
12075-408: The Straits for a whole year. The Ottomans countered this in part by building a new fleet at Çeşme, forcing the Venetians to divide their forces, and in 1649, a strengthened Ottoman fleet under Kapudan Pasha Voinok Ahmed broke the blockade. Despite scoring a victory over the Ottoman fleet in its anchorage at Phocaea on 12 May 1649, capturing or destroying several ships, da Riva was not able to prevent
12236-835: The Turks. Such uprisings mainly took place in the Peloponnese and the Aegean islands , where the presence of Christian navy emboldened the Greeks to rebel against Ottoman rule. In 1647, when the Venetian general Giovanni Battista Grimani had blocked a large part of the Ottoman navy in Argolis , there was an uprising in Nauplio which was largely unsuccessful. In 1659 there were several small uprisings in Laconia , Messenia and Argolis. During
12397-459: The Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles and the political turmoil at the Ottoman court, the Ottoman forces were kept well supplied enough to sustain themselves, although too weak to engage in offensive actions against Candia itself. In 1653, the Ottomans took the island fortress of Selino in Suda Bay, and San Todero, captured a few years previously, was refortified. The Venetian naval successes over
12558-418: The Venetian crews, it counted as a moral victory. The Ottoman fleet, now reinforced by the Aegean and Barbary squadrons, plundered the Venetian island of Tinos , but retreated after only a brief skirmish with the Venetians under Alvise Mocenigo on 21 June. Kara Murad Pasha succeeded in evading the Venetians for the remainder of the year, with both fleets sailing back and forth in the Aegean, before returning to
12719-761: The Venetian fleet, again under the command of Morosini, unsuccessfully attempted to maintain the blockade of the Straits of the Dardanelles. Morosini also resumed his tactic of attacking Ottoman strongholds: a siege of the island of Santa Maura ( Lefkada ) in August 1658 failed, but in 1659, the Venetians, aided by the Maniots , sacked Kalamata in the Peloponnese, followed by Torone in the Chalcidice , Karystos in Euboea , and Çeşme . However, since Venice could not spare forces to occupy these places, these raids gained
12880-572: The Venetians and Maltese suffered some casualties too, including the loss of Captain General Marcello. Although in the aftermath of this victory the Maltese contingent departed, the scale of their success enabled the Venetians under Barbado Doer to seize Tenedos on 8 July and Lemnos on 20 August. Using the two islands, strategically located near the entrance of the Straits, as forward bases, the Venetian blockade became much more effective. As
13041-617: The Venetians at Zadar, while both sides focused their resources in the Aegean area. As other fronts took priority for the Ottomans, no further operations occurred in the Dalmatian theater. Peace in 1669 found the Republic of Venice with significant gains in Dalmatia, its territory tripled, and its control of the Adriatic thus secured. During the course of the war, the Venetians sought to instigate Greek uprisings in several regions against
13202-536: The Venetians maintained a blockade of Canea, the Ottomans' main supply base, during summer. To secure their anchorage off St Todero island, the allied forces seized the fortress island of St Marina, a minor success which did not in the end prevent the Kapudan pasha's fleet, bearing fresh troops and supplies, from reaching Canea in September, after the Maltese–Papal squadron had departed. The new Ottoman army arrived on
13363-404: The Venetians, as several attempts to blockade Ottoman harbors failed to stem the flow of supplies and reinforcements to Crete. The Venetians returned to the Dardanelles in 1648. Despite losing many ships and admiral Grimani himself in a storm in mid-March, reinforcements under Giacomo da Riva brought the Venetian fleet back up to strength (some 65 vessels), and allowed them to successfully blockade
13524-475: The activity of the Christian fleets in the Aegean, who intercepted Ottoman convoys carrying supplies and reinforcements to the island. In addition, the overall Ottoman war effort was severely hampered by increased domestic instability caused by Sultan Ibrahim 's erratic policies and his summary execution of leading state officials. It ultimately led to his deposition in favor of his son Mehmed IV , ushering in
13685-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
13846-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
14007-413: The city fell on 20 October, while the citadel held out until 13 November. During the winter of 1646–1647, both sides suffered from an outbreak of plague , and throughout the spring of 1647, operations did not make much headway. In mid-June however, a small Ottoman force routed a larger body of Venetian mercenaries. This Ottoman success paved the way for Gazi Hüseyin Pasha , the local commander, to conquer
14168-808: The command of navigator Vasco da Gama continued beyond to the eastern coast of Africa to Malindi and sailed across the Indian Ocean to Calicut , on the Malabar Coast in Kerala in South India — the capital of the local Zamorin rulers. The wealth of the Indies was now open for the Europeans to explore; the Portuguese Empire was the earliest European seaborne empire to grow from
14329-585: The commander of which, the Istrian Blasio Zulian, blew himself, the fortress and its garrison up rather than let it fall to the Ottomans. The Ottoman army next advanced to the city of Canea itself, which fell on 22 August, after a siege that lasted for 56 days. At the same time, however, the Venetians were strengthened, as the promised help started to arrive in the form of galleys from the Papal States, Tuscany, Malta and Naples. In September,
14490-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
14651-463: The eastern half of the island, except for the fortress of Siteia . The Venetians and the local population suffered some grievous losses: it is estimated that by 1648, almost 40% of the Cretan population had perished of disease or warfare, and in 1677, the island's pre-war population of ca. 260,000 had dropped to about 80,000. By the beginning of 1648, all of Crete, except Candia and a few strongholds like
14812-514: The elderly nobleman Alvise da Molin. Molin and his embassy traveled to Larissa , where the Ottoman court resided during one of the Sultan's hunting expeditions. The Ottomans proposed that Venice keep one half of Crete, but the Signoria , emboldened by further pledges of reinforcements, especially from France, and renewed turmoil at the Ottoman court and within the Empire, refused the offer. Molin, in
14973-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
15134-411: The exiled Kızlar Ağa (Chief Black Eunuch) Sünbül Ağa, the kadi of Cairo and the nurse of the future sultan Mehmed IV . During the fight, Sünbül Ağa and most of the important pilgrims were slain, while 350 men and 30 women were taken to be sold as slaves. The Knights loaded their loot on a ship, which then docked at a small harbor on the southern coast of Crete for a few days, where it disembarked
15295-664: The expedition and drove it across the Indian Ocean and back to Spain, where they arrived in 1522 aboard the last remaining ship, the Victoria . For the next two-and-a-half centuries, Spain controlled a vast trade network that linked three continents: Asia, the Americas and Europe. A global spice route had been created: from Manila in the Philippines (Asia) to Seville in Spain (Europe), via Acapulco in Mexico (North America). One of
15456-704: The fierce antagonisms of the Thirty Years' War , their pleas fell mostly on deaf ears. The Venetians were hard pressed by the financial demands of the war: besides placing taxes on the Italian mainland possessions (the Terraferma ), they resorted to the sale of nobility titles and state offices to fill their war coffer. To lead the effort against the Ottomans, the Senate initially appointed the 80-year-old doge Francesco Erizzo , but after his death in early 1646, he
15617-599: The first Europeans to arrive, in early 1512. Abreu's expedition reached Buru , Ambon and Seram Islands, and then Banda. From 1507 to 1515 Albuquerque tried to completely block Arab and other traditional routes that stretched from the shores of Western India to the Mediterranean Sea, through the conquest of strategic bases in the Persian Gulf and at the entry of the Red Sea. By the early 16th century
15778-416: The first significant naval battle of the war was fought south of Naxos , a three-day engagement in which the Venetians with 58 ships under Alvise Mocenigo were victorious over the twice as large Ottoman fleet. The remainders of the Ottoman fleet withdrew to Rhodes, from where they were however able to reach Candia. Mocenigo was replaced soon after by Leonardo Foscolo, but both sides did not accomplish much in
15939-471: The fleet alone. The Ottomans however were well-protected by their deep earthworks, and suffered comparatively little damage, while things went awry for the Christian fleet, as an accident caused the explosion of the French flagship Thérèse , which in turn caused significant casualties among the surrounding French and Venetian ships. This failure, coupled with the disaster of the previous month, further soured
16100-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
16261-455: The four and a half centuries of Venetian rule in Crete, and brought the Ottoman Empire to its temporary territorial zenith. At the same time, the cost and casualties incurred during this prolonged war contributed greatly to the decline of the Ottoman state during the latter 17th century. On the other hand, Venice had lost its greatest and most prosperous colony, its pre-eminent trading position in
16422-492: The galley fleet, would arrive on 3 July. The Ottomans had been making steady progress over the past years, having reached the outer bastions of the fortress; the defenders were in dire straits, while most of the city of Candia lay ruined. The French staged their first sally on 25 June. Caught by surprise, the Ottomans were quickly routed, but the French became disorganized among the siege trenches, and an Ottoman counter-attack drove them back. The attack thus ended in disaster, costing
16583-767: The goods through Europe. The Republic of Venice had become a formidable power and a key player in the Eastern spice trade. Other powers, in an attempt to break the Venetian hold on spice trade, began to build up maritime capability. Until the mid-15th century, trade with the East was achieved through the Silk Road , with the Byzantine Empire and the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa acting as middlemen. The first country to attempt to circumnavigate Africa
16744-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
16905-423: The island and ending the war in an Ottoman victory. In the final peace treaty, Venice retained a few isolated island fortresses off Crete, and made some territorial gains in Dalmatia. The Venetian desire for a revanche would lead, barely 15 years later, to a renewed war , from which Venice would emerge victorious. Crete, however, would remain under Ottoman control until 1897, when it became an autonomous state ; it
17066-464: The island during the winter of 1666/1667, and in 22 May, the final phase of the siege, overseen by the Grand Vizier himself, began. It lasted 28 months. In the assaults sorties that followed, 108,000 Turks and 29,088 Christians lost their lives. These casualties included 280 Venetian noblemen, a figure equivalent to roughly a quarter of the Grand Council. Faced with the renewed Ottoman assault and
17227-562: The island of Gramvousa , was in Ottoman hands. The siege began in May 1648. The Ottomans spent three months investing the city, which included cutting off the water supply. Eventually, it would last until 1669, the second longest siege in history after the Siege of Ceuta (1694-1727) by the Moors under Moulay Ismail . The Ottoman besiegers were adversely affected by the bad supply situation caused by
17388-582: The island of Hispaniola (in what is now Haiti ) instead of in the Indies , the search for a route to Asia was postponed until a few years later. After Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513, the Spanish Crown prepared a westward voyage by Ferdinand Magellan in order to reach Asia from Spain across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On October 21, 1520, his expedition crossed
17549-642: The land trade of spices from South Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea . These tribes were the M'ain , Qataban , Hadhramaut , Saba and Himyarite . In the north the Nabateans took control of the trade route that crossed the Negev from Petra to Gaza . The trade enriched these tribes. South Arabia was called Eudaemon Arabia (the elated Arabia) by the Greeks and was on the agenda of conquests of Alexander of Macedonia before he died. The Indians and
17710-514: 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. The last Venetian strongholds off Crete fell in the last Ottoman–Venetian War in 1715. Crete would remain under Ottoman control until 1897, when it became an autonomous state . The island continued under nominal Ottoman suzerainty until
17871-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
18032-472: The maritime trade, promoting coinage, art, and literacy. Islam spread throughout the East, reaching maritime Southeast Asia in the 10th century; Muslim merchants played a crucial part in the trade. Christian missionaries, such as Saint Francis Xavier , were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the East. Christianity competed with Islam to become the dominant religion of the Moluccas. However,
18193-411: The meantime transported by the Ottomans to Canea in Crete, was ordered to continue negotiations and to continue observing the Ottomans' strength and intentions, but not commit himself or the Republic. On 19 June, the first part of the long-awaited French contingent (in total some 6,000 soldiers and 31 ships), under the command of François, Duke of Beaufort , arrived at Candia. The second part, comprising
18354-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
18515-475: The merchants of Arabia and Persia during the 7th and 8th centuries. Arab traders — mainly descendants of sailors from Yemen and Oman — dominated maritime routes throughout the Indian Ocean, tapping source regions in the Far East and linking to the secret "spice islands" ( Maluku Islands and Banda Islands ). The islands of Molucca also find mention in several records: a Javanese chronicle (1365) mentions
18676-525: The mid-7th century AD, after the rise of Islam , Arab traders started plying these maritime routes and dominated the western Indian Ocean maritime routes. Arab traders eventually took over conveying goods via the Levant and Venetian merchants to Europe until the rise of the Seljuk Turks in 1090. Later the Ottoman Turks held the route again by 1453 respectively. Overland routes helped
18837-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
18998-976: The most important technological exchanges of the spice trade network was the early introduction of maritime technologies to India, the Middle East, East Africa, and China by the Austronesian peoples . These technologies include the plank-sewn hulls, catamarans , outrigger boats , and possibly the lateen sail . This is still evident in Sri Lankan and South Indian languages. For example, Tamil paṭavu , Telugu paḍava , and Kannada paḍahu , all meaning "ship", are all derived from Proto-Hesperonesian *padaw , "sailboat", with Austronesian cognates like Javanese perahu , Kadazan padau , Maranao padaw , Cebuano paráw , Samoan folau , Hawaiian halau , and Māori wharau . Austronesians also introduced many Austronesian cultigens to southern India, Sri Lanka, and eastern Africa that figured prominently in
19159-530: The natives of the Spice Islands accommodated to aspects of both religions easily. The Portuguese colonial settlements saw traders, such as the Gujarati banias , South Indian Chettis , Syrian Christians , Chinese from Fujian province, and Arabs from Aden , involved in the spice trade. Epics, languages, and cultural customs were borrowed by Southeast Asia from India, and later China. Knowledge of Portuguese language became essential for merchants involved in
19320-466: The new Kapudan Pasha, Topal Mehmed, and in March, the Ottomans succeeded in evading the Venetian blockade of the Straits and sailed towards Tenedos. They did not attack the island however, because the Venetian garrison was too strong. In May, the Venetians under Lazzaro Mocenigo achieved some minor victories, on 3 May and two weeks later at Suazich . Reinforced by Papal and Maltese ships, Mocenigo sailed to
19481-411: The next few years further reduced the offensive ability of the Ottoman army in Crete, but the blockade of Candia continued, and the Ottomans retained possession of their other conquests on the island, until the arrival of a new Ottoman expeditionary force in 1666. Venice could not directly confront the large Ottoman expeditionary force on Crete, but it did possess a fine navy, that could intervene and cut
19642-633: The next two years, although the Ottomans did succeed in supplying their forces on Crete while keeping their fleet intact. For 1654, the Ottomans marshaled their strength: the Arsenal ( Tersâne-i Âmire ) in the Golden Horn produced new warships, and squadrons from Tripolitania and Tunis arrived to strengthen the Ottoman fleet. The strengthened Ottoman fleet that sailed forth from the Dardanelles in early May numbered 79 ships (40 sailing ships, 33 galleys and 6 galleasses), and further 22 galleys from around
19803-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
19964-572: The objections of the Grand Vizier Sultanzade Mehmed Pasha , war was decided upon. An expedition was quickly assembled with over 50,000 troops and reputedly 416 vessels, under Kapudan Pasha Silahdar Yusuf Pasha , the Sultan's son-in-law. The Ottoman armada sailed from the Dardanelles on 30 April, heading towards the harbor of Navarino in the Peloponnese , where it remained for three weeks. The fleet's target
20125-470: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
20286-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
20447-568: The other hand, having managed to sustain their forces on Crete and reinvigorated under the capable leadership of the Köprülü family , sent a final great expedition in 1666 under the direct supervision of the Grand Vizier . This began the final and bloodiest stage of the Siege of Candia, which lasted for more than two years. It ended with the negotiated surrender of the fortress, sealing the fate of
20608-424: The outlying fortifications but failed to retake the city itself; similarly, an attack against the Ottoman siege lines at Candia in September achieved some success, but did not break the Ottoman siege. Following the death of Prince d'Este at Naxos shortly after, the French contingent returned home, followed soon after by a disheartened Morosini, who was succeeded by his kinsman Giorgio. In 1661, Giorgio Morosini scored
20769-621: The ports of Arabia to the Near East, to Ormus in the Persian Gulf and Jeddah in the Red Sea and sometimes to East Africa , where they were used for many purposes, including burial rites. The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta , Aden and Siraf as entry ports to trade with India and China. Merchants arriving from India in the port city of Aden paid tribute in form of musk , camphor , ambergris and sandalwood to Ibn Ziyad ,
20930-433: The relations between the French and the Venetians. Cooperation was distinctly lacking in the few operations attempted during the next few weeks, while the bad supply situation, the spread of sickness among their troops and the continuous attrition of their forces in the everyday fighting at Candia made the French commanders especially keen to depart. The French contingent eventually departed on 20 August. Two Ottoman assaults on
21091-512: The same time. However, when the Ottomans counter-attacked, Morosini left the Peloponnese with several Greek notables and went to Milos . In August, in order to continue the uprisings, Morosini sent two Greek clerics from Crete to the Peloponnese, promising future military interventions from Venice, which never happened. Ultimately, the Ottomans closed in on the rebels, forcing them to either surrender or flee to Italy (especially Cargèse , Corsica , in modern-day France). The surrender of Candia ended
21252-466: The south-eastern coast of the Peloponnese . In September, Morosini was posted as the new provveditore of Crete, with Lorenzo Marcello as the new Captain General of the Sea. Although in the previous years the Venetians had generally held the upper hand against the Ottomans, largely controlling the Aegean and able to extract tribute and recruits from its islands, they had been unable to transform this superiority into concrete results. Despite their defeats,
21413-541: The spice trade initially, but maritime trade routes led to tremendous growth in commercial activities to Europe. The trade was changed by the Crusades and later the European Age of Discovery , during which the spice trade, particularly in black pepper , became an influential activity for European traders. From the 11th to the 15th centuries, the Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa monopolized
21574-473: The spice trade. In 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca for Portugal, then the center of Asian trade. East of Malacca, Albuquerque sent several diplomatic and exploratory missions, including to the Moluccas. Learning the secret location of the Spice Islands , mainly the Banda Islands, then the world source of nutmeg, he sent an expedition led by António de Abreu to Banda, where they were
21735-587: The spice trade. They include bananas , Pacific domesticated coconuts , Dioscorea yams, wetland rice, sandalwood , giant taro , Polynesian arrowroot , ginger , lengkuas , tailed pepper , betel , areca nut , and sugarcane . Hindu and Buddhist religious establishments of Southeast Asia came to be associated with economic activity and commerce as patrons, entrusted large funds which would later be used to benefit local economies by estate management, craftsmanship, and promotion of trading activities. Buddhism , in particular, traveled alongside
21896-526: The spring of 1659, Francesco Morosini departed for Sifnos , where he met the former Patriarch of Constantinople Joannicius II and several other Greek clerics; subsequently they went to the Mani Peninsula in order to encourage a rebellion. In March 1959, although initially reluctant, the Maniots invaded and conquered Kalamata with support from the Christian allies. Several villages in northeastern Pelopponese, from Mani to Elis , rebelled around
22057-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
22218-465: The subsequent withdrawal of 1,500 Janissaries and the lack of any further reinforcements over the course of 1650 left Hüseyin Pasha with little option but to continue maintaining as tight a blockade as possible. The Ottomans strengthened their positions with the construction of three forts in the Canea area, and the arrival of reinforcements in late 1650 allowed them to keep up their tight blockade. Despite
22379-635: The trade between Europe and Asia. The Cape Route from Europe to the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope was pioneered by the Portuguese explorer navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498, resulting in new maritime routes for trade. This trade, which drove world trade from the end of the Middle Ages well into the Renaissance , ushered in an age of European domination in the East. Channels such as
22540-438: The trade in historical periods are the Egyptians . In the 3rd millennium BC, they traded with the Land of Punt , which is believed to have been situated in an area encompassing northern Somalia , Djibouti , Eritrea and the Red Sea coast of Sudan . The spice trade was associated with overland routes early on, but maritime routes proved to be the factor which helped the trade grow. The first true maritime trade network in
22701-452: The trade was dominated by the Austronesian peoples in Southeast Asia , namely the ancient Indonesian sailors who established routes from Southeast Asia to Sri Lanka and India (and later China) by 1500 BC. These goods were then transported by land towards the Mediterranean and the Greco-Roman world via the incense route and the Roman–India routes by Indian and Persian traders. The Austronesian maritime trade lanes later expanded into
22862-466: The trade. The colonial pepper trade drastically changed the experience of modernity in Europe, and in Kerala and it brought, along with colonialism, early capitalism to India's Malabar Coast, changing cultures of work and caste. Indian merchants involved in spice trade took Indian cuisine to Southeast Asia, notably present day Malaysia and Indonesia , where spice mixtures and black pepper became popular. Conversely, Southeast Asian cuisine and crops
23023-464: The two main Venetian strongholds in Dalmatia, Zadar and Split . In the next year however, the tide turned, as the Venetian commander Leonardo Foscolo seized several forts, retook Novigrad, temporarily captured the fortress of Knin and took Klis , while a month-long siege of the fortress of Šibenik by the Ottomans in August and September failed. During the next few years, military operations stalled because of an outbreak of famine and plague amongst
23184-428: The use of ancient routes, ports, and nations that were difficult to dominate. The Dutch were later able to bypass many of these problems by pioneering a direct ocean route from the Cape of Good Hope to the Sunda Strait in Indonesia . People from the Neolithic period traded in spices , obsidian , sea shells , precious stones and other high-value materials as early as the 10th millennium BC. The first to mention
23345-444: The war turned into a series of naval encounters between the two navies and their allies. Venice was aided by various Western European nations, who, exhorted by the Pope and in a revival of crusading spirit , sent men, ships and supplies "to defend Christendom". Throughout the war, Venice maintained overall naval superiority, winning most naval engagements, but the efforts to blockade the Dardanelles were only partially successful, and
23506-426: The war: in the spring of 1655, he raided the Ottoman supply depot at Aigina and razed the port town of Volos in a night attack on 23 March. In early June, Morosini sailed to the Dardanelles, awaiting the sally of the Ottoman fleet, which was however delayed because of political upheaval in the Ottoman government. Leaving Lazzaro Mocenigo with half the fleet (36 ships) to keep watch at the Straits, Morosini returned to
23667-421: Was Portugal, which had, since the early 15th century, begun to explore northern Africa under Henry the Navigator . Emboldened by these early successes and eyeing a lucrative monopoly on a possible sea route to the Indies , the Portuguese first rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 on an expedition led by Bartolomeu Dias . Just nine years later in 1497, on the orders of Manuel I of Portugal , four vessels under
23828-515: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
23989-431: Was also introduced to India and Sri Lanka, where rice cakes and coconut milk -based dishes are still dominant. European people intermarried with Indians and popularized valuable culinary skills , such as baking , in India. Indian food, adapted to the European palate, became visible in England by 1811 as exclusive establishments began catering to the tastes of both the curious and those returning from India. Opium
24150-423: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
24311-442: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
24472-413: Was finally united with Greece in 1913. After the loss of Cyprus to the Ottomans in the fourth Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) , the island of Crete (the " Kingdom of Candia ") was the last major overseas possession of Venice. Its important strategic position made it an obvious target for future Ottoman expansion, while its size and fertile ground, together with the bad state of its fortresses, made it
24633-416: Was in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean . The sea route in the Red Sea was from Bab-el-Mandeb to Berenike , from there by land to the Nile , and then by boats to Alexandria . Luxury goods including Indian spices, ebony , silk and fine textiles were traded along the overland incense route . In the second half of the first millennium BC the Arab tribes of South and West Arabia took control over
24794-442: Was little action. If the Venetians were idle, the Ottomans were not: with the signing of the Peace of Vasvár in 1664, they were able to focus their strength against Crete. Grand Vizier Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed initiated large preparations in the winter of 1665/66, and dispatched 9,000 men to bolster the Ottoman forces in Crete. An Ottoman peace proposal, which would have allowed Venice to keep Candia against an annual payment of tribute
24955-478: Was not announced, but the Ottomans, to allay Venetian fears, implied that it would be Malta . The Venetians were indeed fooled by the Ottoman subterfuge and were taken by surprise at the arrival of the Ottoman fleet at Crete on 23 June 1645. Despite the efforts of the recently appointed provveditore generale , Andrea Corner, the Venetian defenses were still in a bad state. The island's fortifications were substantial, but they had been long neglected, and much effort
25116-411: Was put into repairing them. Anxious about Ottoman preparations, the Republic reinforced Crete in late 1644 with 2,500 troops and provisions, and began arming its fleet, while assistance was promised in the event of war by the Pope and Tuscany . The Ottomans first landed 15 miles west of Canea ( Chania ), where the local militia fled before them. They then attacked the small island fortress of St. Todero,
25277-432: Was rejected, and in May 1666, the Ottoman army, under the personal leadership of the Grand Vizier, departed from Thrace for southern Greece, whence it would embark for Crete during the winter. In February 1667, the Venetians received significant reinforcements from France and Savoy, totaling 21 warships and some 6,000 men, but, as in past years, disagreements among the leaders of the various contingents over precedence (France,
25438-402: Was replaced by the 73-year-old Giovanni Cappello as Captain General of the Sea . Cappello's performance in 1646 was distinctly lackluster: he failed to interdict the arrival of Ottoman reinforcements under Koca Musa Pasha in June (see below ), and an attack on the Ottoman fleet at Chania Bay in August failed, as did his attempt to break the Ottoman blockade of Rettimo ( Rethymno ). As a result,
25599-453: Was the repulsion of an Ottoman raid on Cerigo ( Kythera ). On 8 March 1668, the Venetians were victorious in a hard-fought night battle off the island of St Pelagia, where 2,000 Ottoman troops and 12 galleys attempted to seize a small Venetian galley squadron. Forewarned of their intentions Morosini reinforced it, and won a costly victory, which was to be Venice's last victory at sea in this war. Reinforced again with Papal and Hospitaller ships,
25760-453: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
25921-450: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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