Random House, 2008

Hardcover, 368 pages, $30

A timely book about a horrific war

Following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottoman Turks, made plans to expand his empire to the western part of the Mediterranean Sea. Standing in the way was a scattering of European outposts including Christian fortresses on the islands of Rhodes and Malta.

At the other end of the Mediterranean, Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor had very much the same idea, except that he was looking east. As author Roger Crowley writes, “Madrid and Istanbul, were like giant mirrors reflecting the same sun, initially too far apart to be mutually visible.” “Nowadays,” Crowley continues, “you can fly the length of the Mediterranean in three hours…From the air it is a peaceful prospect; the orderly procession of ships moves tamely on the glittering surface.” Five-hundred years ago…the Mediterranean was a sea of troubles and, after 1453, it became the epicenter of a world war.”

 Empires of the Sea is the story of that war. The book begins with an account of the siege of Rhodes, which the author calls “the best-defended city on earth.” In the Eastern Mediterranean the Crusader bastion stood alone against Islam. The author reminds us that although Europe’s leaders understood the importance of Rhodes, they stood by as the citadel fell in 1523, following a bloody18-month siege.

By the 1530’s Crowley tells us that the Western Mediterranean was “stark with terror” at the threat posed by Ottoman fleets who roamed the seas at will. By 1565 only Malta stood against the Turks in the Eastern Mediterranean. The result was a massive Ottoman offensive against the island citadel, an assault Crowley describes in grim and vivid detail. Following a prolonged siege, and amid scenes of incredible savagery on both sides, the attack finally ground to a halt in a “murderous stalemate.” Christian Europe drew a collective sigh of relief, although we are reminded, “Southern Europe had escaped by the skin of its teeth.”

The climax of the book is the Battle of Lepanto, fought in 1571 and considered by historians to be a decisive battle in world history. The scale of the carnage left even the exhausted victors of the Holy League coalition “shaken and appalled by the work of their hands. They had witnessed killing on an industrial scale. In four hours 40,000 men were dead and nearly 100 ships destroyed.” The author tells us that not until 1916 and the World War One battle of Loos “would this rate of slaughter be surpassed.”

In the final chapter, British author Crowley appears surprisingly ambivalent when discussing the results of Lepanto. On the one hand he calls it “Europe’s Trafalgar,” the point being that the continent was now free from further Ottoman incursions. (The rejoicing across Europe after Lepanto was similar to the jubilations in England following the 1805 defeat of the French fleet at Trafalgar). Yet a few pages later Crowley writes, “What seemed at the time to be Europe’s iconic sea battle is no longer viewed as a pivotal event.” He goes on to refer to it as “the victory that led to nowhere.”

Nevertheless, this is a timely book. Though it is not the author’s primary purpose to draw parallels with the present day situation in the Middle East, it is hard not to see a number of similarities: the slaughter of innocent civilians, indecisive reactions by European countries, the fanaticism of Islamic extremists and the resulting fear produced in western minds. In 1965 Pope Paul V1 returned the Ottoman battle flags to Istanbul. Let us hope that it doesn’t take another 400 years for our current crisis to subside.