Lepanto 1571: Shattering the Idea of Ottoman Invincibility

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There's a reason why historians consider this battle to have a much more signficant strategic impact towards World History than the Battle of Vienna did: This Battle was the Ottomans' LAST chance to prove themselves a world naval power, breakout of the Mediterreanean and eventually become a blue water navy. This battle ensured that the Ottomans would forever be bottled up and restricted to their own brown waters by the superior Navies of Western Europe.

Cervantes the writer of "El Quijote" fought in this battle and lost a hand. He was later impresioned in Africa and tried escape several times. He only got back to Spain when somebody paid for his liberation.

I read a conving argument in a book about sea power that the true loss for the Ottomans at Lepanto wasn't in ships, but in skilled mariners (many of whom were killed after the battle). This loss of institutional knowledge, and maritime culture, significiantly curtailed the ability of the Ottomans to conduct aggressive naval operations for many decades, during a time when European powers were placing a greater and greater focus on their navies. The Ottoman response was to rebuild a huge number of ships, they should have built naval colleges instead.

Forgot to mention that two of the large galleasses were commanded by Ambrosio and Antonio Bragadino, younger brothers of the previously tortured governor of Famagusta, Marcantonio Bragadino. You can just imagine their thirst for revenge. 20:25 But not without taking with him, the captured Maltese Cross ensign of the Capitana of the Order, still displayed to this day, in some North African museum.

It's kind of a crime not mentioning at all the figure of Alvaro de Bazan commanding the League's reserve, as he is not only considered by many the greatest admiral of its time (of all time, some claim), but also is said to have been the key figure for the victory in Lepanto by interveening in the critical moments of the battle and preventing a possible disaster, as he was the one responsible for sending in the reserve to counter both Sirocco´s flanking attempt and Uluj Ali´s pounce for the League´s open right flank, as well as reinforcing the Christian center when both rival flagships clashed and exploiting the opportunity when the ottoman flagship fell. Also present in the battle were a 26 year old Alessandro Farnese (who features in your channel and was one of the greatest generals of the time) and a 24 year old Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, who lost an arm in the battle and was captured by the Ottomans in his way back, spending 5 years as a slave in Algiers during which he himself engineered a handful of scape attempts. If the Brits had Nelson, Wellington and Shakespeare all together in any battle (let alone one of this massive scale and significance) you can bet your ass they would not waste any time mentioning them at every chance and making a thousand documentaries and movies about them. =) As a bit of trivia, if you ever go to Barcelona, in the Naval Museum you can go on a real-size replica of the Real, the Christian flagship, and sprinkled around Spain you have other relics such as the huge banner of the Real (in Toledo, I believe) or the captured lanterns of the Ottoman's admiral.

In the small Spanish village of Enciso, there is an exact copy of a Spanish warship that participated in the Lepanto battle. It was given a a token of gratitude and respect for the heroic fighting of a Spanish sailor from that small village. The strange thing is, if you are alone in that beautiful medieval church, and observe the almost one meter long replica, floating 3 meter above ground level in the centre of the church, one can almost travel in time back into that fateful battle.

Spanish class is when i heard the name Lepanto for the first time, and i thought it was some land battle until i read Roger Crowley's "Empires of the Seas" the book starts about the ottoman-spanish conflict, the conquest of Tunis and Djerba, then moves on to the siege of Malta (one of the best descriptions i ever came across) and finnishes with the battle of Lepanto. It's a good book.

The Great Siege of Malta in 1565 was the first major defeat the shattered the myth of ottoman invincibility. As Voltaire wrote, “there is nothing more renown than the Siege of Malta.malta was meant to fall in a short 3 week campaign and then to be used as a launching pad into southern Europe. Three months later the Ottomans withdrew in utter defeat.

cool intro. Your animation style has come a long way over the years. Yet your handwriting is still somewhat similar like in the beginning. feels like you just pushed your skills and got better without imitating anybody else. good job.

My favourite part of this battle is When a Venetian named Antonio Canale jumped on an enemy vessel wearing a gambeson,and wielding a two handed sword, and “fece della persona sua meravigliose prove, con notabil danno degli inimici”, “proved himself by notably damaging the enemies” and captured a galley by himself

All the blood and death of a day that has slowly merged into history. On an afternoon in 1997, we were being conducted on a tour of El Escorial, not far from Madrid, and as we walked in through the entrance hall, we could see a huge, faded depiction of a naval battle on the wall. Our guide, who was also incompetent in other respects, responded to someone’s query with a dismissive “Oh, that was just some battle.” I walked closer and read the plaque identifying the scene, turned to him and told him that was the Battle of Lepanto. That wasn’t “some battle,” it was the Trafalgar or Midway of the 16th century. Unfortunately, he failed to grasp my allusion….

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The Ottomans went from regularly raiding across the Med to raiding one more time and never raiding again. They lost control of the Barbary Pirates, formerly their vassals, and never threatened the Med again as they had before the battle. They rebuilt their fleet, but it was never as good as the original. They never replaced the lost experience of the sailors who died at Lepanto. The modern concensus sees that the Ottomans built a new fleet and ignores that it was basically never used again. It's much more significant than is now imagined. The bravado of the Ottomans after the battle is just hot air.

This was a Spanish battle, not German and less Austrian! John of Austria was the illegitimate son of the king of Spain, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Charles V met his son only once, recognizing him in a codicil to his will. John became a military leader in the service of his half-brother, King Philip II of Spain, Charles V's heir, and is best known for his role as the admiral of the Holy League fleet at the Battle of Lepanto.

This was even more epic than I expected! As a side note, it's nice to hear that the sources for once don't disagree greatly about the numbers of opposing forces. Just before this video I have finished watching a new one about the battle of Orsha in 1514 (a third one in the last couple of months, this time in Polish), and this is definitely a problem with that battle.

In my hometown there is a column commemorating the battle and the 2 galleys that my town provided.

The great Don Juan of Austria lies on El Escorial in Madrid. It is a great thing to visit his tomb and greets his efforts for the cristiany as one of the last crusaders.

i can't understand how people are diminishing the strategic importance of lepanto, yes the holy league did poorly in exploiting the victory and using the following period of relative naval dominance to achieve more victorys etc, but it was a strategic victory and broke the ottoman dominance, and also marked the shift towards more firepower in european, the ottomans basicly had to learn that they could no pursue large scale naval operations in the adria and central mediterranean sea without european powers succesfully reacting anymore also to say "they just won bc of superior firepower" is like saying a machine gun just shoots faster than a rifle. it was a great victory for the european powers, and it was such a breakthrough that they felt much less threatened after wards and the 17th century then told that story again, where the ottomans could only expand into the much less developed eastern parts of europea via raids even tho much of central europe was locked into a series of civil wars, and the ottomans had to basicly watch and mainly stay out bc any attempt of attacking into the west could basicly make this religious strife end as people might see a common thread. basicly at lepanto, the ottomans shattered their teeth, they had cracked and the sultans from then new that using them without thinking strategically and clearly would make them fell out. when they attempted the second siege of vienna, that was a last ditch attempt at relevancy on the global stage. even if vienna had fallen there were armys on the way to recapture it. and it would likely have been retaken in time. european army size in the meantime had increased coordination discipline and firepower were outdoing ottomans by far, and european fleets were composed of high board artillery platforms that carried the worth of entire fortresses on their decks. while europe was beating each other over the head who would control which part of the globe, any outside power seriously threatening the great powers of europe would basicly kicking the hornets nest, and what happened after the second siege of vienna was that. bamely austria would roll back the sucesses the ottoman had achieved over 2-3 centurys in much fewer time.

Amazing video, guys! I'm generally not a fan of naval battles, but this one was so well done! One of your best videos yet. Keep on with the great job!