Conquest of Tunis (1574)

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Conquest of Tunis
Part of the
Ottoman-Habsburg wars

The Ottoman fleet attacking Tunis at La Goulette in 1574.
Date12 July – 13 September 1574[1]
Location
Tunis
Result Ottoman victory
Territorial
changes		 Ottomans capture Tunis
Belligerents
Spain Spanish Empire Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Spain Gabrio Serbelloni (POW) Occhiali[1]
Cığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha[1]
Strength
Total men: 7,000 250–300 warships
Total men: 100,000
Casualties and losses
6,700 killed, 300 prisoners 25,000[2]
(Spanish claim)

The conquest of Tunis in 1574 marked the conquest of Tunis by the Ottoman Empire over the Spanish Empire, which had seized the place a year earlier. The event virtually determined the supremacy in North Africa vied between both empires in favour of the former,[3] sealing the Ottoman domination over eastern and central Maghreb,[4] with the Ottoman dependencies in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli ensuingly coming to experience a golden age as corsair states.[3]

Background

Uluç Ali, Pasha of Algiers
, marching on Tunis in 1569

Tunis had

Battle of Lepanto, John of Austria managed to take Tunis in October 1573.[3][5]

Capture of Tunis

In 1574,

Moriscos of Spain and the pirates of Algiers.[7] Selim also sent a great fleet to attack Tunis in the Autumn of 1574, thus succeeding in reducing Spanish pressure on the Dutch.[7]

In the Battle of

Alūj Ali.[9] The Ottoman fleet combined with troops sent by the governors of Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, giving a combined strength of about 100,000.[9] The army attacked Tunis and La Goleta; the presidio of La Goleta, defended by 7,000 men, fell on 24 August 1574. The last Christian troops in a small fort opposite Tunis surrendered on 13 September 1574.[9]

John of Austria attempted several times to relieve the siege, but in vain.
Cığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, an Italian Muslim, led the Ottoman capture of Tunis.

John of Austria attempted to relieve the siege with a fleet of galleys from Naples and Sicily but failed due to storms.[10] The Spanish crown, being heavily involved in the Netherlands and short of funds was unable to help significantly.[10]

Miguel de Cervantes, future author of Don Quixote, participated in these events as a soldier, and was among the troops of Don Juan of Austria which tried to rescue the city.[2] He claims that the Ottomans led 22 assaults against the fort of Tunis, losing 25,000 men, while only 300 Christians survived.[2] He wrote about the battle:

"If Goleta and the fort, put together, held barely 7,000 soldiers, how could such a small force, however resolute, come out and hold its own against so huge an enemy army. And how can you help losing a stronghold that is not relieved, and especially when it is surrounded by a stubborn and very numerous army, and on its own ground?"

— Cervantes, DQ I, 39.[2]

Abd al-Malik, the future Moroccan King, participated in the 1574 conquest of Tunis on the side of the Ottomans.[11]

Gabrio Serbelloni was the commander of the fort of Tunis. The general of La Goleta, Don Pedro Portocarerro, was taken as a captive to Constantinople, but died on the way.[2] The captured soldiers were employed as slaves on galleys.[2]

The capture of Tunis gave the territories of the Hafsid dynasty to the Ottoman Empire.

The battle marked the final establishment of Ottoman rule in Tunis, putting an end to the Hafsid dynasty and the Spanish presence in Tunis.[5]

Aftermath

See also: Ottoman Tunisia

The success of the Turks under

Persia in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590).[7] The Spanish crown fell into bankruptcy on 1 September 1575.[10]

After the truce, Ottoman-Spanish hostilities resumed in 1591, even if they would not reach the magnitude of yesteryear.[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1984). The Papacy and the Levant, 1204–1571: Vol.IV. Philadelphia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Garcés, p.222
  3. ^ a b c The new Cambridge modern history R. B. Wernham, p.354
  4. ISBN 0-415-29781-8, p.3 [1]
  5. ^ a b [2][dead link]
  6. ISBN 9780710088659
    . Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d Parker, p.61
  8. ISBN 9780826514707
    . Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  9. ^ a b c Garcés, p.220
  10. ^ a b c Garcés, p.221
  11. ^ The last great Muslim empires: history of the Muslim world by Frank Ronald Charles Bagley, Hans Joachim Kissling p.103ff
  12. ^ Tarih Sitesi: Kılıç Ali Paşa
  13. ^ Goris, J.A. (1922-1923) Turksche kooplieden te antwerpen in de XVIe Bijdragentot de Geschiedenis 14/1:30
  14. ISSN 1130-4340
    .

References

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