Siege of Candia
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Siege of Candia | |||||||||
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Part of the Cretan War (Fifth Ottoman–Venetian War) | |||||||||
The siege of Candia by N. Visscher, c. 1680 | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Republic of Algiers (1667)[1] | |||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed | Francesco Morosini | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||||
118,754 soldiers (Venetian reports)[3] | 30,985 Venetian soldiers (Venetian reports)[3] |
The siege of Candia (now Heraklion, Crete) was a military conflict in which Ottoman forces besieged the Venetian-ruled capital city of the Kingdom of Candia.[4] Lasting from 1648 to 1669, or a total of 21 years, it is the second-longest siege in history after the siege of Ceuta. It ended with an Ottoman victory, but the effort and cost of the siege contributed to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, especially after the Great Turkish War.
Background
In the 17th century, Venice's power in the Mediterranean was waning as Ottoman power grew. The Republic of Venice believed that the Ottomans would use any excuse to pursue further hostilities.
In 1644, the
In response, 60,000 Ottoman troops led by
Siege
The siege of Candia began in May 1648. The Ottomans spent three months laying siege to the city, cutting off the water supply, and disrupting Venice's sea lanes to the city. They would bombard the city for the next 16 years to little effect.
The Venetians, in turn, sought to blockade the Ottoman-held Dardanelles to prevent the resupply of the Ottoman expeditionary force on Crete. This effort led to a series of naval actions. On 21 June 1655 and 26 August 1656, the Venetians were victorious, although the Venetian commander, Lorenzo Marcello, was killed in the latter engagement. However, on 17–19 July 1657, the Ottoman navy soundly defeated the Venetians. The Venetian captain, Lazzaro Mocenigo, was killed by a falling mast.
Venice received more aid from other western European states after the 7 November 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees and the consequent peace between France and Spain. However, the Peace of Vasvár (August 1664) released additional Ottoman forces for action against the Venetians in Candia.
In 1666, a Venetian attempt to recapture La Canea failed. The following year, Colonel Andrea Barozzi, a Venetian
Chastened by their failed relief effort and the loss of so valuable a warship, the French abandoned Candia in August 1669, leaving
As part of the surrender terms, all Christians were allowed to leave Candia with whatever they could carry. At the same time, Venice retained possession of
Proposed biological warfare attack
Data obtained from the Archives of the Venetian State, relating to an operation organized by the Venetian Intelligence Services, describes a plan aimed at lifting the siege by infecting the Ottoman soldiers with plague; this was to be done by attacking them with a liquid made from the spleens and buboes of plague victims. "Although the plan was perfectly organized, and the deadly mixture was ready to use, the attack was ultimately never carried out."[5] According to a scholar from the USA's National Defense University, this attack was previously unknown to historians of biological warfare until published in December 2015.[6]
Other participants
- Knights of Malta fought at the siege of Candia (in Crete) in 1668
- François de Beaufort, who died there
- duke of Beaufort
- duke of Beaufort
- Vincenzo Rospigliosi, admiral of the fleet and Pope Clement's nephew
- Georg Rimpler, German engineer
- Charles de Sévigné
- Louis de Buade de Frontenac
In fiction
The siege of Candia is an integral part of the background to the historical novel An Instance of the Fingerpost, where a significant protagonist is a Venetian veteran of that siege and several plot developments become clear through extensive flashbacks to the Candia events.
In season 6, episode 3 of the HBO series Silicon Valley, Gilfoyle (incorrectly) states that the Siege of Candia was only ended by use of biological warfare, where the Ottomans were defeated when they became infected with the plague infested lymph nodes of the dead.
See also
- Naval battles of the Cretan Wars
- History of the Republic of Venice
- Ottoman Navy
- Ottoman wars in Europe
References
- ^ Louis PIESSE (1862). Collection des Guides-Joanne. Itinéraire historique et descriptif de l'Algérie, comprenant le Tell et le Sahara, etc.
- ^ ورقات جزائرية. 2000.
- ^ a b Paoletti, Ciro (2008). A Military History of Italy. p. 33.
- .
- PMID 26894254.
Citing public domain text from the CDC
- PMID 27533653.
- The War for Candia, by the VENIVA consortium.
- Venice Republic: Renaissance Archived 2015-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, 1645–69 The war of Candia, by Marco Antonio Bragadin.
- The Cretan War – 1645–1669 by Chrysoula Tzompanaki (in Greek).
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