Spanish–Ottoman Wars

The Spanish–Ottoman wars were a series of wars fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire for Mediterranean and overseas influence, and specially for global religious dominance between the Catholic Church and Ottoman Caliphate. The peak of the conflict was in the 16th century, during the reigns of Charles V, Philip II of Spain, and Suleiman the Magnificent in the years 1515–1577, although it formally ended in 1782.

Prelude

Clash of interests in the Mediterranean and Europe

The Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula, which began in 711, experienced its last glorious period during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman III (929–961); after his death, the Andalusian Umayyad State began to decline, and with the collapse of this state in 1031, the ''Tawaif-i Mulûk'' period, in which various Muslim emirates (at one point 34) ruled together, took place between 1031 – 1090. Although Muslims tried to resist the attacks of the Christian kingdoms in the peninsula ( León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Galicia and Portugal) within the framework of the goal of ''Reconquista'' during the Almoravid and Almohad periods (1090–1248), the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, which took place in 1212, was an important turning point in Islamic history. After the decisive victory of the Christians, the Emirate of Granada continued its existence in the lands confined to the south of the peninsula as a dependency of Castile between 1232 and 1492, but with the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1469, it began to face a more aggressive Spanish policy. Having lost its lands one by one in the Granada War that began in 1482, the Emirate of Granada was wiped off the stage of history when its capital, Granada, fell on January 2, 1492, after an eight-month siege. The relations between the Ottoman Empire and Spain also began indirectly with the Granada War. Emir Abu Abdullah, who was in a difficult situation due to the serial land losses during the war, sent an ambassador to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II and asked for help. However, Bayezid II was busy with his brother Cem on the one hand and fighting with the Mamluks on the other, so he could not send the requested help.

The Spanish Empire expanded its military operations to the North African coast and, with the help of its strengthened navy and the leadership of Cardinal Cisneros, they settled at Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña in 1478, then occupied Melilla on the Moroccan coast and the island of Djerba on the Tunisian coast in 1497, Mers El Kebir in 1505, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in 1508, Oran in 1509, and Béjaïa and Tripoli in 1510. It also built a fortress on the island opposite the city of Algiers ( recently conquered) and took the city indirectly under its control. Although were defeated on Djerba (1510). Simultaneously a new phase in the Moroccan–Portuguese conflicts started in which the Portuguese conquered the territories of Asilah and Tangier in 1471, Castelo Real in 1506, won the Azemmour in 1513, and the Tednest and the Boulaouane in 1514. Although failed at Graciosa in 1498, and at Mamora and Marrakesh in 1515, and at Doukkala in 1516.

This Iberian expansion over North Africa had it's formalization at 1509, when the Crown of Castile and Crown of Portugal signed the Capitulation of Cintra in which both Kingdoms partitioned the Maghreb into two spheres of influence, in which Morocco and Western Sahara were considered part of Portuguese Empire's projection of power and territorial expansionism, while Algeria, Tunisia and Libya were part of the Spanish Empire's one. The main objective was to establish cooperation between the Iberian kingdoms for the conquest of North Africa, which was considered a continuation of Reconquista to avoid further Berber-Islamic interventions in Iberia like in times of Marinid dynasty (legitimizing it by claiming that Mauretania Tingitana was part of the ''Hispanidad''/Iberism due to former links with Visigothic and Roman Hispania, along the existent in Al-Andalus era), so it was needed to avoid a Luso-Castilian war for the control of the Berber states, so it was agreed that the Portuguese would abandon the conquest of Vélez de la Gomera and the rest of the eastward territories (ensuring the Castilian sovereignty of Melilla and Cazaza), while the Castilians accepted Portuguese sovereignty over the North African territories between Vélez and Cape Bojador (on the Atlantic coast)

During this period, all of North Africa, except Egypt, was ruled by local emirates that lacked military power and were not strong enough to resist the Spanish invasions. Two developments changed this disadvantageous situation in the early 1500s. The first was that after the prohibition of Islam in Spain in 1502, tens of thousands of Muslims from Andalusia migrated to North Africa, creating a fresh and dynamic population. The second important development was that Turkish sailors from the western Anatolian coasts based themselves in the region and began resistance against the Spanish.

Within this framework, Oruç Reis and Kemal Reis, who were based on the island of Djerba in 1503, carried Muslims and Jews from Spain to North Africa and also started to clash with the Spanish. Oruç Reis and Hızır Reis (Hayreddin Barbarrosa), who joined him, made an agreement with the Hafsid Ruler of Tunisia, Muhammed El-Mutawakkil IV, and settled in La Goulette in 1504. From here until 1513, and from 1513 onwards, they began to struggle with the Spanish and their allies on land and sea from their new base in Cherchell. However, since they did not have enough power to cope with the Spanish Navy, in 1515 they sent gifts to the Ottoman Padishah Sultan Selim I by ship and showed their loyalty, and in return they were granted the authority to collect ships and soldiers from the Western Anatolian coasts. In this way, fighting began between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire over Algeria and Tunisia (which would later turn into all-out war).

Clash of oversea interests and Globalization of War

Since both empires coincided in the development of a great naval power, they would begin to carry out large expeditions that would increase their diplomatic rank, which would involve more regional powers from very different territories into the Spanish–Ottoman and Catholic-Islamic conflict, being in some ways a World war in the long-term. Moreover, after Ottoman emperors got the tittle of Ottoman caliphs by overwhelming Abbasid Dynasty after the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517), they were considered heads of the ''Dar as-Islam'' and have the power to involve the rest of the Sunni Muslim states (focusing to involve the Berber States, Horn of Africa Sultanates, Arabian Emirates, Indian Sultanates, Malaysian Sultanates and Indonesian sultanates affected by Iberian Colonialism), despite that already having the possession of Ottoman Balkans, Levant and Egypt. Also, Habsburg Spain would be intimately bound with the Austrian branch of Habsburg monarchy (Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia) and would be in possession of Habsburg Netherlands and Italian domains (Kingdom of Naples, Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of Sardinia, Duchy of Milan), of which the latter allowed for closer ties with the Papal States (an Universal power among the Res publica Christiana) and restore the Gelasian political philosophy of Dominium Mundi to involve all Christendom against the '' Türkenkriege'' in Europe and also to start campaigns for Catholic Church's Potestas over Infidel societies outside Europe (which justified a first wave of European colonialism). This made the first stages of the Spanish–Ottoman struggle into a total global war between Muslim World and Christendom for the conquest of an Universal monarchy (The Pope and Holy Roman Emperor vs the Ottoman Caliph to be King of Kings of the Abrahamic world) and suppress the existence of the other "False religion", while also Evangelizing the Pagans of Africa and Asia, adding also a maximalist goal for World domination, and a minimalist goal of being considered the Successor of the Roman Empire and have political preponderance on Europe.

The first contacts were carried with Safavid Iran through Petrus de Monte Libano (a Maronite ambassador), who developed a report to Shah Ismail I of the political situation in Europe and the greatness of Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (being compared with Charlemagne), as well as brother-in-law of the King of Hungary Louis II of Hungary. This informs were done to reach a possible ally for Persia against the Ottomans after the Turkish conquest of Egypt. The Venetian republic was considered first, but they rejected the offers due to the Persian interests to include Portuguese Empire (a rival of Venetians in the Spice trade) in the alliance after Afonso de Albuquerque on Goa stablished good relations with Safavids on 1513. Although Spanish envoy in the Mamluk Court, Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, hear about the Persian-Venetian conversations and communicated it to Pedro Fajardo with stories that the Shah was a powerful sovereign capable of challenging all the princes of the world, generating fascination among Spanish diplomacy (which already were interested in Persia since the suggestion of Pope Leo X to Ferdinand II of Aragon about a mutual Catholic-Shia alliance between Portugal, Castile-Aragon Union, Jagiellonian Hungary and Ṣafavids against Sunni Ottoman Caliphate), motivating Spain to send missions to Iran in 1516 to 1519. So it was developed a Habsburg–Persian alliance, and the Persians in 1524 proposed to Habsburg Spain the development of a Two-front war against Ottoman Empire with the condition to not conclude separate peaces. Also Charles V communicated to Persians about the French–Habsburg rivalry and the need of Persian support against a possible Franco-Ottoman alliance. However, the subsequent Shah Tahmasp I encountered logistical difficulties implementing the agreements reached due to delayed communications (having long delays of between 7–8 years due to technological deficiencies). However, the Iranians and the Spanish were de facto allies, and Ottoman war plans always included securing the border with Persia when campaigning against Spain, and vice versa, even Álvaro de Bazán, testified in his Chronicles that Suleiman the Magnificent had fears of a two-front war against Spain and Persia simultaneously. To reinforce this project, Persians under Qadi Jahan Qazvini reinforced their contacts with the Portuguese, the Venetians, the Mughals, and the Shiite Deccan sultanates. Also influenced in this approach the Portuguese maritime exploration, which brought news of the Turkish-Iranian Wars (full of victories for the Persians until the Battle of Chaldiran) and the testimonies of the travels of explorers, both foreigners such as the Italian Ludovico de Varthema, and those of Spaniards such as Martín Fernández de Figueroa (a Spanish soldier in the Portuguese Empire during his expeditions to the Persian Gulf and India) and his work '' Tratado de la conquista de las Islas de Persia y Arabia'', edited by Juan Agüero de Trasmiera. Even Ferdinand Columbus would tell King Charles I that Spain had the right to conquer Persia.

In turn, Spaniards such as Martín de Salinas became involved as intermediaries for embassies from other European powers to Persia, specially the ones which were favorable to the Habsburg Empire of Charles V (in his case, serving the Archduchy of Austria of Franz Ferdinand, brother of Charles), who in 1524 communicated that a Persian ambassador would appear in Burgos to communicate with Charles, in response to the proposals of alliance with the Holy Roman Empire that were sent by Ferdinand of Austria. Another Persian embassy arrived in Spain in late 1528, with ambassador imploring the Persians to expedite the conclusion of joint operations during 1529. Therefore, another ambassador, Jean de Balbi (a Savoyard of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem), was sent via Portuguese Goa. He was to report on the latest developments in Europe (especially the Treaty of Madrid (1526), the League of Cognac, and the Battle of Mohács) to commit the Persians to the alliance and ensure unity against the common enemy. Later, in the 1540s, another Persian emissary visited Charles V in Germany, and there was also a covert mission to Spain (possibly carried out by the Venetian Michele Membré); however, there is no precise information about the meeting. All of this Iberian-Italian-German-Hungarian-Persian communications revealed the existence of a formal Anti-Ottoman coalition leaded by Spanish diplomacy.

Another involvement came from the Ethiopian Empire, an Eastern Christian nation that was under the king Alfonso V of Aragon's interests, who wanted to make an alliance with Yeshaq I and Zara Yaqob against Mamluks of Egypt and Ottoman Turks. The Ethiopian Monarchy increased its foreign relations with Europe with the main objective to get help against the Ottoman wars in Africa, which in turn made Ethiopia from 1500 to 1672 a part of the Kingdom of Portugal's Sphere of influence (after the embassy of Pêro da Covilhã of 1493 in search of Prester John, and the Cristóvão da Gama expedition of 1541–1543), and then of the Habsburg Spain's one through the Iberian Union since 1580, and before through Ignatian missionaries at service of John III of Portugal (like Andrés de Oviedo, who presided the first permanent Roman catholic mission on Ethiopian Catholic Church since 1557). The years of 1556 to 1632 were very important in due to the political influence of the Jesuits in the internal affairs of the Solomonic dynasty despite the logistical problems due to Turkish military (Pope Gregory XIII did not want to quit the Jesuit mission in Ethiopia, as he feared losing the Christian country to the Muslim world), being relevant the influence of Spanish missionaries like Pedro Páez, who converted Emperor Susenyos I, who in turn desired the Catholicisation of his country despite the hostility from Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The Iberians believed that the alliance with the Ethiopians would facilitate their control of maritime traffic through the Red Sea, an objective that, with the rise of Ottoman power in the area, became one of the unresolved issues for the Portuguese crown during its expansion in the Eastern Hemisphere (as stipulated with Spain in the Treaty of Tordesillas) and the ambitious project of Manuel I of Portugal, Manuel of Portugal and Philip II of Spain to destroy the centers of Islam in Arab world, Arabia and Egypt.

Declared War

The struggle between Oruç Reis and Hayreddin Barbarrosa with Ottoman support (1515–1529)

The Barbarrosa brothers, who came under the protection of Sultan Selim in 1515, captured the city of Algiers in 1516 after a delegation from Algeria asked for their help against the Spanish Army. After Oruç Reis was declared the Regency of Algiers, Sultan of Algeria in Cherchell, he captured Tenes and Tlemcen and expanded his territory to Morocco, but he lost his life in the Spanish counter-attack of May 1518. Tlemcen fell back into the hands of the Zayenids under Spanish protection.

On the other hand, the Ottoman conquest of Egypt finished in 1517, consolidating the Ottoman Naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea beyond the Balkans and Anatolia, while introducing them into the Red Sea, starting a new series of Ottoman wars in Africa and Ottoman wars in Asia, in Asia, which then would make them clash with the Template:Campaignbox Spanish expansion to the Maghreb, Spanish expansionist campaigns in the Maghreb and the Portuguese maritime exploration on the Indian Ocean. Another consequence was that the Ottoman dynasty got the Ottoman Caliphate, which made them Sultan of Sultans among all the Sunni Muslims (nominally from Morocco to Muslim in india, Muslim india and Indonesia, although initially only Arab states who currently recognised Abbasids or were menaced by Portuguese India Armadas submitted to the Ottoman political bodies) and so were considered by the Muslim Barbary corsairs as their Natural Protectors, and by the Catholic societies as the Political Heads of a unified Muslim world that at any moment could threaten Christianity due to the bellicose policy of the Ottoman Empire.

Hayreddin Barbarossa replaced Oruç Reis and in October 1519, this time he sent a delegation of Algerian dignitaries and Muslim jurists to Selim I, Sultan Selim with a petition of the Algerian people asking for help and be annexed to the Ottoman Empire. This solicitation, that generated initial hesitations from the Turks, would be answered positively by Suleiman the Magnificent, who then turned the Regency of Algiers into an Ottoman Eyalet in 1521.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese Empire, ally of Spain with the delegated task of fighting the Muslim states on the "''Mar de África''" (African coast outside Mediterranean Sea) according to the spheres of influence in the Treaty of Alcáçovas, started to develop Factory (trading post), factories on the Swahili coast and the Gulf of Aden to fight against Ottoman Corsairs on the Indian Ocean and to expand their economical and militar presence in the region while menacing the security of Egypt Eyalet and the Holiest sites in Islam. However, the admiral Selman Reis defeated them on Kamaran Island and later led an expedition into the interior of Yemen to subdue the area, which benefited Ottomans in consolidating their naval presence on the Red Sea and their land one over Southern Arabia, stopping the Portuguese raids since 1527 and increasing their international prestige among Asian states, like the Vizier of Ormus, Hormuz or the Zamorin of History of Kozhikode, Calicut.

Spanish counter-offensive (1529–1541)

The Capture of Peñón of Algiers (1529), loss of the island of Algiers caused a major shock in Spain. In 1529, a Spanish fleet of 10 ships carrying reinforcements to the besieged island was destroyed by the skillful counter-attack of Hayreddin Barbarossa Pasha, who had already passed the island. In July 1531, the 50-man Spanish-Genoese fleet under the command of Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria suffered an even greater defeat in the Cherchell Campaign. Likewise, the Ottomans in 1534 were able to recapture the port of Koroni (at the tip of the Morea), which Andrea Doria had captured in 1532.

It was in these years that another Front (military), war front opened for the Spanish Monarchy in Central Europe during the Habsburg–Ottoman wars in Hungary (1526–1568), Little War in Hungary (1526–1568), in which after the Battle of Mohács, Charles summoned the Cortes (politics), Spanish Cortes in Valladolid requesting that Spanish military assistance should be provided to the Holy Roman Empire, Archduchy of Austria, Austria and Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867), Habsburg Hungary to prevent the Turks from advancing into Hungary, Germany and Italy (arguing that Spanish interests were menace there and also of the Christendom as a whole). So, since 1529, Charles V and Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands), Mary of Hungary sent a Spanish Expeditionary force composed of the Army of Flanders, Tercio of Flanders (which included also Italians and Portuguese) that fought along Germans, Flemish people, Flemish, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Hungarians and Romanians in major battles of the Habsburg–Ottoman war of 1529–1533, 1529–1533 campaign like the Siege of Vienna (1529), 1st Siege of Vienna or Siege of Buda (1530), 2nd Siege of Buda, in addition to participating in the battles of the Hungarian castles and mansions, Hungarian castles, in defense of the fortress of Visegrád, Szeged, Lippa (town), Lippa and Timisoara for Ferdinand I of Hungary against the Ottoman puppet John Zápolya, John Zápolya of Hungary with his Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Transylvanian, Moldavian, Serbs, Serbian and Turkish people, Turkish troops. Some subjects of Habsburg Spain that resalted in the Austro-Hungarian Theater (warfare), theater were Luis de Ávalos, :es:Luis de la Cueva y Toledo, Luis de la Cueva y Toledo, Luis de Guevara, Juan de Salinas, Jaime García de Guzmán, Jorge Manrique, Cristóbal de Aranda, John of God, :es:Bernardo de Aldana, Bernaldo de Aldana, Hurtado de Mendoza, Gianbattista Castaido and Caste Lluvio. However, the year 1533 also witnessed important turning points in the Ottoman-Spanish War. Indeed, the Ottoman Empire signed a peace treaty for the first time with the Holy Roman Empire, which also included the Habsburg Spain, Spanish Empire. With this treaty, the war between the Ottomans and the Archduchy of Austria, Austrian Archduchy on the Little War in Hungary, Hungarian front ended, while the war with the other vassals of the Holy Roman Empire (the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Genoa) not covered by the treaty continued uninterruptedly in the Mediterranean. At the same year occurred the Siege of Agadir (1533) between Moroccans (backed by Ottomans) and Portuguese (backed by Spaniards), wining the latter.

The second important development in 1533 was that the Ottoman fleet under the command of Kemankeş Ahmed Paşa, who wanted to retake Koroni, was ineffective against the Genoese fleet, and the Ottoman capital turned to Hayreddin Barbarossa and the Turkish leaders for a stronger fleet in the Mediterranean. Barbarossa, who was called to Istanbul in 1532, was appointed Kapudan Pasha in 1533. Hayreddin Barbarossa Pasha, who set sail for the Mediterranean with the strong fleet he had prepared in the winter of 1533–1534, devastated the coasts of the Kingdom of Naples and then Conquest of Tunis (1534), conquered Tunis on August 16, 1534.

This strategic move by the Ottomans caused the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to turn completely to the Mediterranean. In 1535, Charles V personally Conquest of Tunis (1535), led an expedition and took back Tunis in June with the help of a Christian coalition between Spain, HRE, Italian States and Portugal (which was already in its own Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations, Ottoman Wars since 1517 on the Indian Ocean and Horn of Africa). In response, Hayreddin Barbarossa Pasha, who managed to smuggle his fleet to Annabe, sailed to the Western Mediterranean and invaded Minorca, one of the Balearic Islands of the Spanish Empire. In September, the Spanish attack on Tlemcen was also repelled by the Ottomans.

In 1537, the Ottoman navy under the command of Barbarossa, and the Ottoman Armed Forces, Turkish troops under the command of Lutfi Pasha, invaded Puglia, the lands of the Kingdom of Naples. The Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–1540), Ottoman-Venetian War began in the same year. Thereupon, with the encouragement of Pope Paul III, the Holy League (1538), Holy Alliance was formed with the participation of the Republic of Venice, the Spanish Empire, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa and the Knights of Malta. However, in the Battle of Preveza on September 28, 1538, the Ottoman navy under the command of Barbarossa won a great victory (the Christian navy also included 50 Spanish galleons and 61 Genoese-Papal warships).

Herceg Novi, Castelnouvo, which was captured by the Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria (at the service of Habsburg Spain) in the same year to be used as a base against the Ottomans in the future, Siege of Castelnuovo, was recaptured by Barbarossa in 1539 in a siege in which the 6,000-man Spanish garrison was annihilated. During the Spanish occupation of Herceg Novi, they made incursions into Dubrovnik to defend Habsburg Croatia and Republic of Ragusa interests. This was the last military operation of the Spanish Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean until the Battle of Lepanto. In particular, the hesitation of the Genoese Admiral Doria to include Genoese ships in the battle of Preveza, even though he was allied with Venice, Genoese's historical rival, led to criticism of the said person. (Ultimately, the Holy Alliance soon fell apart.)
In 1540, an Ottoman fleet from Regency of Algiers, Algeria invaded Gibraltar, but the Spanish Navy balanced the situation with its success in the Battle of Alborán, while the Spanish-Genoese fleet under the command of Giannettino Doria defeated another Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Girolata on June 15, 1540, and managed to capture Turgut Reis. Taking advantage of Turgut Reis' defeat, Andrea Doria set sail from Messina in the summer of 1540 with a fleet of over 80 ships (51 galleys and over 30 galleys and fustas) and 14 Spanish infantry divisions led by García Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, Garcia de Toledo, the Governor General of Sicily of the Kingdom of Spain, and landed in Tunis, capturing the fortresses of Monastir, Tunisia, Monastir, Sousse, Hammamet, Tunisia, Hammamet and Kelibia held by the Hafsids, thus expanding Spanish rule in Tunis.The year 1541 marked the peak of Spain's attacks, which had been ongoing since 1529. After Barbarossa rejected the offer to take command of the Holy Roman Empire's navy, Charles V gathered a large navy (580 ships and 36,000 sailors and soldiers), and was devastated by a storm during the Algiers expedition (1541), Algiers Naval Expedition of 1541, and suffered a great defeat in front of Algiers, which was defended by Hasan Agha, Hasan Ağa. Although 2 years later would be launched the Spanish expedition to Tlemcen (1543), in which Spanish force defeated Zayyanids from the Kingdom of Tlemcen (supported by Ottoman Algeria and Wattasid dynasty, Wattasid Morocco) and ended in a total success as Abu Abdallah VI was restored to the throne as a Spanish vassal.

On the Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1560), Portuguese theater, the Ottomans became allies of Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah's Gujarat Sultanate and Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi's Adal Sultanate with the main goal to continue the Mamluk–Portuguese conflicts, Mamluk Egypt–Portuguese conflicts and develop its naval and economic power on the recently conquered Suez Port. So, in 1538 an Ottoman-Egypt expeditionary force lead by Hadım Suleiman Pasha was Siege of Diu (1538), sent to Diu to help Guajarats and stablish Ottoman influence on Indian Ocean, but they were defeated by Portuguese India militia (although they conquered Ottoman Yemen at the return of the expedition). Then the Portuguese sent Estêvão da Gama (16th century), Estêvão da Gama to lead a Battle of Suez (1541), military expedition to Suez in 1541 with the main goal to crush the Red Sea's Ottoman fleet (the main Turkish navy that served to intervene on Indian Ocean), although initially victory at the Battle of Suakin (1541), Battle of Suakin, however it ended that campaign in a militar Stalemate that was politically favorable for Ottomans (the Portuguese withdrew from Egypt after Attack on Jeddah (1541), Attack on Jeddah and Battle of Suez (1541), Battle of Suez due to stagnation) but economically favorable for Portuguese as the Muslim trade in Red Sea was blocked from Gulf of Aden (and the Portuguese were capable to raid there like in the Battle of El Tor, even launched an intervention in the Ethiopian–Adal War, although being crushed initially on the Battle of Massawa (1541), Battle of Massawa). Despite the recent failures, the corsair Piri Reis, famous for developing a very accurate Piri Reis map, Nautical Map of the World, was turned into ''Kapudan Pasha, Hind Kapudan-ı Derya'' (grand admiral of the Ottoman Fleet in the Indian Ocean) to led campaigns in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf (taking advantage of the recent Baghdad Eyalet, Ottoman conquest of Basra). Also at 1541 succeeded the Fall of Agadir, a big defeat in which the Saadians expelled Portuguese Empire from Agadir (Morocco), and in consequence, king John III of Portugal, John III ordered the evacuation of Portuguese positions at Azemmour and Safi, Morocco, Safi (which were too expensive to maintain without Agadir) with the main goal to concentrate on building a more defensible position at Mazagan, Mazagão instead.

The Ottomans took the war to the Western Mediterranean (1542–1559)

The Holy Roman Empire's great defeat in Algeria temporarily ended the Spanish attacks on Ottoman lands, and the Ottomans carried the struggle to the Western Mediterranean, where the Spanish Empire was the dominant element. With the Ottoman Empire's involvement in the Italian Wars within the framework of its alliance with Kingdom of France, France, the Ottoman fleet under the command of Barbarossa invaded the ports held by the Kingdom of Naples, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa and the Duchy of Savoy in 1543 and Ottoman wintering in Toulon, wintered in Toulon in the winter of 1543–1544, continuing its operations on these coasts in 1544. Also on 1543 was launched the Expedition to Mostaganem (1543), Expedition to Mostaganem by Martín Alonso Fernández de Córdoba Montemayor y Velasco, conde de Alcaudete, Count Alcaudete, although they were defeated by the Ottoman-Algerian forces. In 1546, the great Turkish sailor Hayreddin Barbarossa Pasha died.

Meanwhile, due to the throne dispute in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was subject to the Ottomans, the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire began a Habsburg–Ottoman war of 1540–1547, new war in 1540. In this context, the two empires continued their fierce struggle in the Mediterranean and Hungary. After the Ottomans emerged victorious from the war, the parties signed a ceasefire in 1545 and a peace Truce of Adrianople, treaty in 1547, and entered a period of relative calm in the Mediterranean. Despite it, another Spanish expeditionary force in Hungary was sent on 1548, composed this time by the :es:Tercio Viejo de Nápoles, Tercio Viejo de Nápoles (which had Italians and Germans) under the leadership of :hu:Bernardo de Aldana, Bernardo de Aldana and :hu:Giovanni Battista Castaldo, Giovanni Battista Castaldo, fighting on Transdanubia until 1554 against the oligarchs of Northern Hungary and Slovakia, as well as the Transylvanians, Romanians, French people, Frenchs and Turkish people, Turks who backed them. Those Spaniards defended Royal Hungary, Habsburg Hungary on Čabraď Castle, Csábrág, Léva, Murány, Szolnok and Temesvár (although there they surrendered the fort of Lipova, Arad, Lippa without resistance due to economical problems, which caused Aldana's enemies to imprison him in Trencsén until 1556). Their greatest successes were suppressing the robber knights on :hu:Felvidék, Hungarian Highlands, the rebuild of Szolnok and the occupation of Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, Ottoman Transylvania that briefly deposed John Sigismund Zápolya from 1551 to 1556.

At the same time, on the Horn of Africa, there Ethiopian–Adal War, was a religious war between the Oriental Orthodox Christian Ethiopian Empire (who requested help to the European monarchies) and the Sunni Islam Adal Sultanate (backed by Muslim Somalis and Ottoman Empire from the Yemen Eyalet) since 1529 due to the expansionist ambitions of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, Ahmad ben Ibrahim Al Ghazi (called ''O Granhe'' or the left-handed by Portuguese'')''. On 1542 an ally of Habsburg Spain in the Ottoman War, the Portuguese Empire under Estêvão da Gama (16th century), Estêvão da Gama (governor of Portuguese India), answered those solicitations of help (influenced by the previous Adal-Portuguese Battle of Massawa (1541), Battle of Massawa of 1541 in modern Eritrea) by sending a Portuguese Expeditionary Corp of 400 soldiers led by Cristóvão da Gama to assist the isolated Christian ''Negus Negust'' Gelawdewos. Then, they were victorious at the Battle of Baçente and the Battle of Jarte (in which the Turkish contingent was nearly exterminated). In response, the Ottomans sent a new contingent of 1900 Turks, 2,000 Arabians and some Albanians, which were victorious at the Battle of Wofla (killing half of the Portuguese corp, including Estêvão), but then the Ethiopian-Portuguese troops won a decisive fight at the Battle of Wayna Daga in 1543, which ensured the independence of Ethiopia and the survival of Ethiopian Christianity in the Ethiopian Highlands. Also on the Portuguese front of war succeeded military engagements on the Indian subcontinent at the Siege of Diu (1546), which resulted in Portuguese victory against the Ottoman-Gujarat Sultanate, Guajarati coalition, and on the Arabian Peninsula at the Capture of Aden (1548), which resulted in Ottoman victory against a Portuguese-Yemeni insurgents coalition (being a decisive expel of Portuguese Empire from Yemen Eyalet, Yemen).

Despite the other fronts, there was a brief peace from Ottoman military incursions in the Spanish Domains since 1545. However, the calm between the parties was short-lived, and the Spanish Empire sent a fleet in June 1550 to capture the Ottoman fortress of Mahdia in Ottoman Tunisia, Tunisia, and Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Ferdinand's efforts to recapture Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, Hungary and Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Transylvania through George Martinuzzi led to the start of a Habsburg–Ottoman war of 1551–1562, new war that would last until 1562. In this war, Turgut Reis, who took over the leadership of the Ottoman fleet, and Piyale Pasha, who was appointed Kapudan Pasha in 1553, brought the Ottoman military presence in the Western Mediterranean to its peak, in defiance of the Spanish Empire.

The Mediterranean was the scene of larger-scale operations and important victories for the Ottomans. The operations of the Ottoman Navy in the Mediterranean, in alliance with the Kingdom of France against the Holy Roman Empire, led to the start of an Italian War of 1551–1559, Italian War that lasted from 1551 until 1559.
* In 1551, the Ottoman navy invaded the island of Gozo, which belonged to the Knights of Malta, one of Spain's allies, in July and conquered Tripoli with the land support of the Libyan Arabs as a result of Siege of Tripoli (1551), the siege from 14 to 15 of August. On the other hand, the Ottomans from Algeria launched the Campaign of Tlemcen (1551) against Spanish, Zayyanid dynasty, Zayyaanids and Saadi Moroccan forces, changing the borders in favour of Algerian Regency. Simultaneously, at July also succeeded the Siege of Qatif (1551) against Portuguese presence in Asia, Portuguese empire at the Kingdom of Hormuz, in which the Ottomans from the Basra Eyalet were defeated by Portuguese (with the help of Safavid Persia, who were Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555), in their own conflict with the Turks).
* In 1552, the Ottoman navy also sailed to the Western Mediterranean, invaded Calabria, which was part of the Kingdom of Naples, and (with the help of the French Navy) defeated the Genoese navy (backed by the Spanish Navy) under the command of Andrea Doria in the Battle of Ponza (1552), Battle of Ponza on August. On the same year was dispatched from Egypt Eyalet the Ottoman campaign against Hormuz, Ottoman expedition against Hormuz (led by Admiral Piri Reis and Seydi Ali Reis) against the Portuguese-Iranian alliance in the Persian Gulf, with the main goal to secure the Hijaz from Portuguese raids, reestablish Turkish-Sunni control of the Indian Ocean trade, and conquer Bahrain region to secure Ottoman Iraq from Persians. Before arriving to Hormuz Island, they sacked Portuguese Oman on August at the Capture of Muscat (1552), crushing the Al-Mirani Fort and occupying Southern Arabian coast from Aden to Basra while blocking Red Sea to Portugal. However, at the Siege of Hormuz (1552), Siege of Hormuz in September they were defeated by the Portuguese and so on the Strait of Hormuz wasn't blocked (which let communications with Portuguese India solicitating reinforcements for the revenge the next year).
* In 1553, the struggle in the Mediterranean continued to be active. The Ottoman fleet under the command of Sinan Pasha (Ottoman admiral), Sinan Pasha and Turgut Reis, combined with the French Navy, French fleet under the command of Antoine Escalin des Aimars, struck the coasts of Naples, Sicily and Corsica, and in August and September Invasion of Corsica (1553), captured Corsica, which was under the control of the Republic of Genoa, Genoese, an ally of the Habsburg Spain, Kingdom of Spain. On the other hand, the Kingdom of Spain realized that it could no longer hold Mahdia, which it had occupied in 1550. Emperor Charles V offered to hand the castle over to the Knights of Malta, but when his offer was rejected, he evacuated the castle. Thereupon, the Ottomans recaptured the castle. In the same year, at July, succeeded the Battle of the Bay of Velez between Portuguese-Moroccan and Ottoman-Algerian forces at the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, which ended in Portuguese defeat. Despite Moroccan alliance with Portugal and Spain (in response to the Ottoman expeditions to Morocco), the Ottomans tried to offer the booty to the Saadi dynasty, Saadi ruler as a token of friendship (wanting to avoid possible Moroccan raids on Oran, and to reconciliate Saadians and Wattasid dynasty, Wattasids to help against European enclaves in North Africa before 1830, Iberian enclaves in North Africa and support Mudéjar and Morisco renegades attempts to restore Al-Andalus) but the Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco, Moroccan-Algerian border issues weren't solved and in so was launched later the Battle of Taza (1553), Battle of Taza. In the same year on the Portuguese presence in Asia, Portuguese empire in Asia succeeded the Battle of the Strait of Hormuz (1553), in which the Ottoman Indian Ocean fleet, leaded by Murat Reis the Elder, attempted to transfer 15 galleys from Basra to the Red Sea (needing to cross the Persian Gulf dominated by the Portuguese India Armadas from Ormus) to finish the Portuguese raids in the Gulf of Aden to Suez, but the Ottomans lost that militar engagement and were forced to return to Ottoman Iraq.
* In 1554, the Ottoman fleet plundered the coast of Pula, which was part of the Kingdom of Naples, Spain, and invaded Viesta, then bombarded the coast of Tuscany, which was part of the Republic of Florence, and invaded Orbetello. However, the Ottoman fleet was unable to meet the French fleet and abandoned the planned joint operation on Corsica, returning due to the advance of the season. At the Portuguese front of war, succeeded the Battle of the Gulf of Oman, in which the Ottomans failed to expel Portuguese from the Arabian Gulf (sea), Arabian Gulf or to conquer the Imamate of Oman, but succeeded in finally crossing the Strait of Hormuz and reaching Gujarat Sultanate, Gujarat to help them against Portuguese India. The next engagements were the Sefer Reis#Action at Diu, raids of Diu by Sefer Reis, which ended in a big victory for Ottomans by looting profits of near 160,000 Portuguese cruzado, cruzados and various Portuguese ships from heavy merchant vessels.
** On the other hand, Morocco was in a period of national fragmentation due to the conflicts between Wattasids and Saadis. This led to a Spanish-Ottoman proxy war there. So, the Wattasids leaded by Ali Abu Hassun, after being rejected by the Portuguese Empire, seek help to the Ottomans since 1545 (being too far for a Vassalage, Vassalage pact in which Morocco was annexed to the Ottoman Empire), while the Saadis leaded by Mohammed al-Shaykh, after being offended by the arrogant tone of the Sublime Porte (who addressed List of rulers of Morocco, Moroccan Sultans as a mere "''Sheikh of the Arabs''", which disturbed the former good Saadian-Ottoman relations) seek defensive aid to the Spaniards in response of Turkish interventionism (being too far to invade Ottoman Algeria). So, on 1554 the Ottomans launched the Capture of Fez (1554), Capture of Fez with the goal to conquer Morocco, which briefly they do. Another goal of the Ottomans was to have access to the Atlantic Ocean through occupying the Moroccan port of Tangier, so avoiding the Iberian blockade of Turkish ships on the Strait of Gibraltar, which was a first step of bigger plans to develop Turkish incursions to Spanish America and stablish a Turkish colony with the projected name of "''Vilayet Antilia"'' on the Spanish Main (based in Piri Reis map). However, the Moroccan resistance impided them to execute it.
* In 1555, the activities of the Ottoman navy under the command of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis in the Western Mediterranean continued without slowing down. While the navy devastated the coasts of Calabria, Tuscany, Corsica and Liguria, the Turkish-French raid on Piombino was fruitless. The Regency of Algiers, Governor of Algiers, Salih Reis, managed to Capture of Béjaïa (1555), capture Béjaïa, one of the few bases left by the Spanish in North Africa, on September 28. This loss caused anger in Spain and the commander who surrendered the castle to the Ottomans, Alonso Peralta, was executed in Valladolid.
** On the other hand, the Holy Roman Empire was also going through a historical turning point after the Schmalkaldic War, 1st and Second Schmalkaldic War, 2nd Schmalkaldic War. The Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial Diet convened in Diet of Augsburg, Augsburg to broker peace between the Catholics and Lutheran princes (Schmalkaldic League). With the Peace of Augsburg signed on September 25, 1555, the formula ''cuius regio, eius religio'' (the religion of the ruler is the religion of his country) was adopted, granting each ruler the authority to determine the religion of his own lands. However, Charles V, who had suffered continuous military defeats against the Ottoman Empire, had failed to bring France to heel, had lost Metz in 1554, and had also failed to establish Religious uniformity, religious unity within his country, was psychologically collapsed and prepared to abdicate, dividing the Empire between the Spanish Habsburg, Spanish and Holy Roman Empire, German/Austrian branches. These shocking developments in the Holy Roman Empire continued on January 16, 1556, when Charles V formally abdicated and retired to a monastery in Spain. Charles V's brother and Archduchy of Austria, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand, ascended the throne of the empire, while Charles V's son, Philip II of Spain, Felipe II (1556–1598), became King of Spain. In a global perspective, the Ottoman–Habsburg wars influenced a lot in the consolidation of Protestant reformation despite opposition from the Holy Roman Emperor, as the Empire of Charles V wasn't free to focus in the German-Nordic religious conflict due to the Franco-Ottoman alliance threatening imperial interests on the Italian Wars, Hungarian–Ottoman Wars and the Spanish–Ottoman War. ''"the consolidation, expansion and legitimization of Lutheranism in Germany by 1555 should be attributed to Ottoman imperialism more than to any other single factor"''.
* In 1557, the Ottoman fleet of 60 ships under the command of Turgut Reis and Piyale Pasha hit the coast of Apulia, then landed troops on the coast of Calabria and invaded Cariati. Then, they headed towards Tunisia and managed to conquer Bizerte, which had been under the occupation of the Spanish Empire since 1534.
* In 1558, the Ottoman fleet under the command of Turgut Reis and Piyale Pasha carried out a larger-scale operation in the Western Mediterranean, invading Reggio Calabria, Reggio in Calabria, plundering the Lipari Islands, and capturing Massa Lubrense, Cantone and Sorrento on the Amalfi coast of the Kingdom of Naples. The fleet then bombarded Piombino on the Tuscan coast, headed south and defeated a fleet of the Knights of Malta off the coast of Malta, then Raid of the Balearic islands (1558), headed for the Balearic Islands and captured Ciutadella de Menorca, Ciutadella, the capital of the Menorca, island of Minorca, after an eight-day siege (July 17). The Spanish response (allied with Moroccan troops in Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco, their own conflict with Ottoman Algeria) was the Expedition to Mostaganem (1558) in an attempt to conquer Algiers, but ended in a disastrous failure.

Unsuccessful peace efforts (1558–1559)

While this struggle was ongoing in the Mediterranean, as a result of diplomatic negotiations between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire that had been ongoing since 1557, a permanent armistice was signed between the Ottomans and the Germans on January 31, 1559. On April 29, 1558, Emperor Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand sent four drafts of the Ahidname to the Ottoman side. Although the German ambassador Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq appeared before Suleiman the Magnificent on June 8, he did not receive a positive response to the drafts of the Ahidname. However, it was agreed that the negotiations would continue. Because, in the Ottoman Empire, which Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555), had eliminated the Safavid Iran, Safavid Persian threat in the east with the Treaty of Amasya in 1555, the ongoing civil war based on succession among the princes (since the assassination of Şehzade Mustafa, Prince Mustafa in 1553) had turned Suleiman's attention to the struggles between his sons. The period between Şehzade Bayezid, Prince Bayezid's defeat by Selim in Konya in 1559, his subsequent refuge with the Safavids, and his strangulation by Ottoman executioners in Kazvin as a result of the Ottoman-Safavid reconciliation in 1561, occupied the Ottoman state mechanism considerably.

During the same period, the Habsburg Spain, Spanish branch of the Habsburg Dynasty also sought peace with the Ottomans. So, in March 1558, both the King Philip II of Spain and Pope Pius IV decided to send an emissary to talk with Persian ambassadors via Michel Cernovic, the chief dragoman of the Venetians and agent of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand I of the HRE, as well as of Habsburg Spain, in Constantinople. However, he was more concerned with negotiating (together with the County of Flanders, Flemish ambassador for the Kingdom of Germany, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq) the Ottoman border treaties in Transylvania and Hungary with the Vienna-based Habsburg monarchy, Habsburgs, than with finalizing anything with Safavid Persia, which also which also made him neglect the negotiations concerning the Spanish–Ottoman conflict. In this context, the ambassadors sent to the Sublime Porte, Ottoman palace in November 1558 and June 1559 were unable to even conclude an armistice, unlike Busbecq, and the Ottoman-Spanish War, which had been going on since 1515, entered its most difficult period in 1560.

Total War (1560–1574): Djerba, Malta, Lepanto and Tunis

The Ottoman Empire's transfer of the war to the Western Mediterranean from 1542 onwards and the devastating attacks of the Ottoman navy on the lands of Spain and its dependencies every year caused the Spanish Empire to turn its attention entirely to the struggle there and appeal to Pope Paul IV. Upon the Pope's call, the Holy Alliance armada of approximately 200 ships, consisting of warships from the Papal States, Papacy, Republic of Genoa, Genoa, Order of Malta, Malta, Kingdom of Naples, Naples-Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily and Duchy of Savoy, Savoy, in addition to Spain, targeted Ottoman Tripolitania, Tripoli, the base of Turgut Reis, who had caused the greatest destruction to Spanish lands between 1551 and 1559 (February 20, 1560). In response, the armada, which headed for the island of Djerba for logistical reasons, captured it and built a fortress, but was forced into battle with the Ottoman fleet under the joint command of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis, which reached the island on May 11. While the Ottoman navy won a great victory in the Battle of Djerba, the Crusader armada lost half of its ships and suffered between 9 and 18,000 deaths and 5,000 prisoners. Spanish Admiral D. Alvaro de Sande, who took over command of the Holy Alliance armada after Genoese Admiral Giovanni Andrea Doria withdrew from the battlefield, was among the prisoners.

While the victory at Djerba was in a sense the peak of the Ottoman navy, for the next 10 years there was no power left to oppose it in the Mediterranean. Indeed; it took a certain amount of time for Spain, which had lost 600 skilled sailors and 2,400 harquebusiers, to recover. However; the Ottomans were not able to reinforce this superiority with additional gains. Because; although during this period, Turgut Reis destroyed the Naples-Sicily fleet in the Battle of Lipari in 1561 and captured the remaining ships of the Kingdom in the , the Ottoman navy under the joint command of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir, could not take Oran, which it besieged (for the second time) in 1563. In the same year, the Spanish fleet and troops under the command of suffered a Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera expedition (1563), heavy defeat in front of the Ottoman base of Peñon de Velez on the northern coast of Morocco, which they besieged, but the following year the Spanish fleet (helped by a Catholic coalition with Portuguese and Italian forces), commanded by García Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, managed to Conquest of the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1564), recapture the base that the Ottomans had evacuated (the mentioned lands are still part of Spain). Also in this period succeeded the Siege of Mazagan (1562), Great Siege of Mazagan (1562) between Portuguese and Moroccan forces led by their prince Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi, Abdallah Mohammed, ending in a Portuguese crucial victory.

The year 1565 saw one of the largest operations of the Ottoman navy. The navy, carrying a force of approximately 25,000 men, reached Malta on May 18, 1565, and laid Great Siege of Malta, siege to the castles on the island defended by the Knights Hospitaller. The Ottoman forces, who had difficulty capturing the St. Elmo Castle, launched a heavy bombardment on August 7 of the island's main fortified positions, St. Michel and St. Angelo, but were unable to capture them with general attacks. The losses suffered and the necessity of the Ottoman navy returning to Istanbul for the winter (due to the change of season to autumn) led Serdar Lala Mustafa Pasha to decide to evacuate the island. When a rescue party of 8,000 men under the command of Don Garcia, sent by the Kingdom of Spain, landed in Malta on September 7, the Ottomans evacuated the island on September 8. In this way, the Knights Hospitaller, an important ally of Spain, and the island of Malta, which protected the Kingdom's lands in Southern Italy, were saved. Although the Ottoman forces suffered losses in Malta, the Ottoman navy continued to maintain its power. Indeed, while the Army of the classical Ottoman Empire, Ottoman army was marching to Hungary in 1566 for the Siege of Szigetvar, the last List of campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent, campaign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman navy under the command of Piyale Pasha conquered Chios, which was ruled by the Genoese, an ally of Spain, in the same year. Then, sailing to the Mediterranean, they struck the Pula coast of the Kingdom of Naples, also an ally of Spain. Later, in 1566, Philip II ordered his ambassador to Portugal, Alonso de Tovar, to prepare an embassy to Persia and to inform him if the Persians were going to break the Peace of Amasya with the Ottomans after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent (however, the mission never reached Iran).

Also in the Portuguese theater will occur the Siege of Malacca (1568) in the Portuguese Empire in the Indonesian Archipelago, Portuguese East Indies, which was instigated by the Ottoman expeditions to Aceh from 1564, whom also supplied cannonneers and mercenaries from all the Turkish Empire to the Aceh Sultanate, Aceh-Kalinyamat Sultanate alliance, although the Portuguese were triumphant in that engagement (with the help of Johor Sultanate). Despite it, the Ottoman-Acehnese alliance still instigated further sieges to Malacca (like in 1570), and would support the offers from the Muslim Indian Deccan sultanates (specially an embassy from Adil Shahi, Adil Shahi/Bijapur in the name of the muslim alliance from the Battle of Talikota against the pro-Portuguese Vijayanagara Empire) to develop an Anti-Portuguese War of the League of the Indies, ''League of the Indies'' (along Kingdom of Sitawaka, Gujarat Sultanate, Johor Sultanate) to expel Catholic Church in India and instigate a war front in the Indian Ocean with the main goal to crush the Portuguese India Armadas from Goa to Malacca (distracting them to support Spaniards in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean-Atlantic Ocean wars of the period).

During this period of armed peace with Ottomans (in between Great Siege of Malta, 1565 to Holy League (1571), 1571), the Kingdom of Spain was busy with both the Rebellion of the Alpujarras (1568–1571), Granada Revolt and Dutch revolt. At the start of the Dutch war of independence, Jan van Nassau and William the Silent, William of Orange, desperate for allies and inspired by the Anti-Catholic Turco-Calvinism, Turco-Calvinist approach, started to send envoys to the Ottoman court after the early stages of the rebellion in 1566, having a response of the Sephardic and Ottoman adviser, Joseph Nasi, in a positive way in a letter to Antwerp authorities claiming that ''"the forces of the Ottomans would soon hit Philip II's affairs so hard that he would not even have the time to think of Flanders"'', and even the Sultan Suleiman offered troops at the time they would request (although the death of Suleiman the Magnificent briefly interrupted Netherlands–Turkey relations due to internal struggles, so no Ottoman material support came until 1574). On the other hand, after Philip II of Spain, Felipe II further tightened his Cultural assimilation, assimilation policy with the decree he issued in 1567, the Moriscos of Granada, who took advantage of the King's dealing with the rebellions launched by Protestants in Germany and Eighty Years' War, Calvinists in the Netherlands, revolted in 1568 under the leadership of Aben Humeya and requested that the Ottoman navy organize an expedition to aid them in a letter they sent to the Beylerbeyi of Algeria, Kılıç Ali Pasha, on 20 April 1568. Ottoman Sultan Selim II, to whom the Moriscos conveyed their requests for aid, stated in a response letter he sent on 16 April 1569 that he was following the uprising closely and was doing his best to provide the necessary aid in a timely manner, but that it was not possible to send the Ottoman navy to the region immediately, as the navy was preparing for the Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573), Cyprus expedition. However, Selim II ordered Kılıç Ali Pasha to support the rebels. Although Kılıç Ali Pasha's attempt to send a fleet to Almería in 1569 to bring soldiers, provisions and weapons failed due to a storm, he managed to send 400-500 soldiers and provisions and weapons in the attempt in 1570. King Felipe II took action in the winter of 1570–71 against the danger of increasing this aid and the spread of the uprising and suppressed the uprising violently. In response, taking advantage of Spain's preoccupation with the uprising, Kılıç Ali Pasha Capture of Tunis (1569), captured Tunis, which was under the control of the Hafsids under Spanish protection, in his expedition at the end of 1569.

After suppressing the Granada Revolt, the Kingdom of Spain refocused on its direct struggle with the Ottoman Empire. During the Ottoman attacks on Cyprus in the early years of the Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573), 1570–1573 Ottoman-Venetian War, the Holy League (1571), Holy Alliance established between the Kingdom of Spain and Council of Italy, its dependencies and Republic of Venice, Venice on 25 May 1571 could not prevent the Ottomans from Siege of Famagusta, capturing Famagusta and completing the conquest of Cyprus, but it did manage to inflict a major defeat on the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 (Spain contributed 49 galleys to the Allied navy in the battle). The Ottomans, who had completely rebuilt their navy, set out for the Mediterranean under the command of Kılıç Ali Pasha in the summer of 1572, but did not engage in a major battle with the Allied navy, to which the Spanish also contributed 55 galleys.

During these years, another attempt at rapprochement with the Persians was done, as the Holy League prepared an embassy in 1572 to inform Shah Tahmasp I about the defeat of the Ottoman army at the Battle of Lepanto and propose renewing the Habsburg-Persian alliance to fight against the Turks. Also, Iñigo López de Mendoza y Mendoza, Íñigo López de Mendoza, viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples (through an Armenian messenger named John the Baptist) sent gifts to the Persian monarch on behalf of the King of Spain, with an offer of friendship. The Shah responded positively and sent John the Baptist himself and a Persian emissary with his reply, full of gifts for Philip II. However, after Tahmasp I fell seriously ill in 1574 and died two years later, such plans could not be realized when a civil war broke out in Persia (which Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590), the Turks took advantage of by invading Iran in 1578).

The same year saw the first peace offer of the Kingdom of Spain, but it did not bring any results. In contrast, the peace negotiations of the Ottomans with Venice were concluded positively and the Holy Alliance was effectively ended as a result of the agreement signed between the parties on March 7, 1573. With Venice's withdrawal from the war, the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire were left alone in the struggle. Indeed, in the summer of 1573, while the Ottoman navy under the command of Piyale Pasha and Kapudan Pasha Kılıç Ali Pasha Battle of Apulia, targeted the Apulia lands of the Kingdom of Naples, which was affiliated with Spain, the Spanish navy under the command of Juan de Austria took advantage of this and targeted the city of Tunis (which had been annexed to the Ottoman lands in 1569) and Conquest of Tunis (1573), captured it on October 10, 1573.

Thereupon, the main objective of the Ottoman navy in the following campaign season (1574) was to liberate Tunis from occupation. The Ottoman navy under the command of Kılıç Ali Pasha and the Ottoman forces under the command of Cığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, Ciğalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, as a result of the successful military operations between 12 July and 13 September 1574, finally Conquest of Tunis (1574), annexed Tunisia to the Ottoman lands (until the French occupation in 1881), being the final direct confrontation between Crown of Castile forces against the Turks for a long time.

Also another goal of the Ottoman campaigns of 1574 was to help the Dutch Revolters in the Spanish Netherlands and consolidate a Turco-Calvinism, Turco-Calvinist aliance by reducing Spanish-Catholic pressure over the Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed through making another war front for Habsburg Spain, which finally lead to the 1575 Spanish-Dutch (developed partially by Philip II desires to focus in the Ottoman War instead of struggling also with the Dutch one) and the establishment of an Ottoman Consulate in Antwerp (''De Griekse Natie'') shortly after to improve Netherlands–Turkey relations in the context of Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

Despite Philip II of Spain, in the name of prudence due to economical problems, quit from the development of further big military operations against the Ottomans, he still supported the military operations from other allied rulers to have indirect conflicts against the Turks, like the project of Sebastian I of Portugal to help Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi (who first wanted help from Spain, but not getting it due to the less bellicose Spanish foreign policy at the time) in reconquer Saadi Sultanate, Saadi Morocco against the Capture of Fez (1576), Ottoman-Algerian capture of Fez (1576). This led in 1578 to the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, in which Habsburg Spain financed and give permission to Portuguese and Moroccans to recruit auxiliary forces in his territory (and convinced the HRE to do so) fearing the menaces of an Ottoman Suzerainty so close to Iberian Peninsula (as it risked the security of not only the Metropolis, Metropoli of the Empire, but also was a potential threat for the Iberian routes to the Atlantic Ocean and Americas). However, it ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the Ottoman-Algerian-Moroccan coalition (supported by Morisco contingents and Sephardic capital who feared Spanish Inquisition) against the European coalition.

Changing priorities and the search for peace

Following the conquest of Tunisia by the Ottomans, the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire realized that their borders in the Mediterranean had come to an end. Although the Ottomans continued to Ottoman Tunisia, gain territory with Tunisia, the expedition, which required the equipping of a large Ottoman fleet and the transportation of a significant landing force over a long distance, caused great expenses. (The income from Tunisia was far below this expense). In addition, the internal unrest in Persia following the death of Tahmasp I, Shah Tahmasb I of Iran on 25 May 1576 began to draw the Ottomans' attention to the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590), eastern front. In this context, the Ottomans, who had made peace with Venice in 1573, established a supportive administration in the north by placing the Voivode of Transylvania, Stephen Báthory, on the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1575 (being perceived as the establishment of a vassal government in the north), and after Rudolf II ascended to the throne on 25 December 1576, they renewed the Treaty of Adrianople (1568), 1568 treaty with the Holy Roman Empire, so Ottomans were in a position to close other fronts in the west.
The problems in the Spanish Empire were much greater. In addition to the large sums spent on the struggle against the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean, the Dutch Revolt that began in 1568 began to strain the budget of King Felipe II, who pursued an economic policy focused on excessive debt, and in November 1575 the King declared the treasury bankrupt. Following these developments, King Felipe II secretly offered a ceasefire/peace to the Ottomans.
Essentially, an ambassador named Martin de Acuña ensured that a five-year armistice agreement was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples (which was vassal of the Crown of Aragon) in February 1577. The same ambassador also offered mediation to the Crown of Castile and, after King Philip II found it appropriate, he began making efforts at the Sublime Porte, Ottoman Palace in the same year. A draft text emerged on March 18, 1577.

In this way, an unofficial ceasefire environment was established between the parties. The parties did not allow their navies to attack each other's lands, and Philip II did not send the troops he had withdrawn from the Spanish Netherlands against the Ottomans. As a result of the negotiations provided by this environment, the Spanish ambassadors Giovanni Margliani and Bruti, who delivered the letter of the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha to Philip II, ensured that the draft ceasefire agreement was signed on 18 March 1578 (7 February 1578 according to some sources).

The agreement was written to include the states clustered around the two powers' Sphere of influence at either end of the Mediterranean. Within this framework; the Kingdom of France, which was allied with the Ottomans, and the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, the Republic of Venice and the Sultanate of Morocco (all of them which were seen as Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire, tributary states by the Ottoman dynasty), were included in the armistice on the Ottoman Empire side of influence, while the Papal States, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Knights Hospitaller, Knights Hospitaller of Malta, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Lucca, the Duchy of Savoy, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Ferrara, the Duchy of Mantua, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Urbino and the Principality of Piombino were included in the armistice on the Spanish Empire side of influence. The Portuguese Empire and Spanish ' (Spanish America and Spanish East Indies, East Indies) were included in the armistice only in the context of the Atlantic Ocean (Aethiopian Sea) and the Mediterranean war zone, while in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific were excluded of the truce. Although Ottomans and Iberian Union, Iberians initially agreed not to harm their colonial interests in Persia (Portuguese Kingdom of Hormuz and Ottoman Iraq, Ottoman Mesopotamia) as a condition of the truce in Mediterranean.

Following this first agreement, which foresaw a ceasefire between the parties for a period of three years (1577–1580), a one-year ceasefire agreement was signed between March 21, 1580, and January 1581, and then a three-year ceasefire agreement was signed on February 4, 1581. The 1581 agreement was renewed in 1584, 1587 and 1591. In between the total war of 1515-1575 and the peace treaty of 1782 succeeded some Ottoman-Spanish conflicts of minor impact (except for the Long Turkish War, Bohemian Revolt and the Great Turkish War, although Spain was a minor party), like the Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna, 3rd Duke of Osuna corsair war during 1620s, the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718) or the Spanish–Algerian War (1775–1785), among others. The next time that Spanish-Ottoman hostilities would resume will be in 1594 due to the support of Philip II to the Holy League (1594), without reaching the magnitude of yesteryear.

Proxy Wars after Peace

Although the signed armistice was renewed several times, it could not be converted into a formal peace treaty and the state of war between the two parties continued (specially in Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Philippines and Portuguese India against Aceh Sultanate, an Ottoman expeditions to Aceh, Ottoman vassal in modern Indonesia) until the signing of a definitive Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce (the so-called ) of 1782. Despite it, both empires diplomatically were conspiring against the other and preparing for a possible renewal of the total war. For example, Selim II in 1574 accepted solicitations of help against Spain from a Franco-Dutch embassy, represented by the Huguenot François de Noailles in the name of Charles IX of France and William the Silent, William of Orange, so he developed an espionage network among Calvinists to put them in contact with the rebellious Moriscos of Spain and the Corsairs of Algiers, which also led to a tacit pirate alliance between Ottoman Barbary corsairs and the Sea Beggars, Dutch Sea Beggars (already allied with Elizabethan Sea Dogs, English ''Sea Dogs'' and French corsairs) against Spanish Navy supported by ''Dunkirkers'' and ''Stratioti'' Privateer, privateers (linking Mediterranean Sea and North Sea corsair warfare). Also, Murad III increased the Turkey–United Kingdom relations since the start of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), responding positively to the proposals of Elizabeth I of England to develop a Islam and Protestantism, Islamic-Protestant coalition with the Dutch Empire, French Huguenots, Moriscos and Saadi Sultanate, Saadi Morocco against Philip II of Spain (perceived as the most powerful king of the Christendom, and so on the most important defender of "''Catholic Idolatry, Idolatrism"''), which would lead to the Anglo-Turkish piracy against Iberian Union, Council of Italy, Spanish Italy, Catholic League (French), Republic of Venice, Venice, Papal States and Habsburg Croatia.

On the other hand, Habsburg Spain (assisted by Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg Austrians, Venetian republic, the Holy See and Poland-Lithuania) developed a network of spionage among Eastern Christians of the Ottoman Balkans and Caucasus, with the main goal to convert anti-Ottoman Eastern Orthodox dissidence into Eastern Catholics in secret (as the Eastern Orthodox Church was loyal to the Sultan of Sultans and preferred the Dhimmi autonomy from Millet system than the Uniates, ''Uniatism'' with the Papal supremacy), or at least into vassals of Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or HRE,https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/416/423 and then prepare future revolts against Ottoman Caliphate among Albanians, Serbo-Croatians, Greeks, Cypriots, Armenians, Georgians, Maronite Lebanese people, Lebanese and Arab Christians (resallting people like Giovanni Renesi I, Giovanni Renesi II, Teodoro Crescia, Giorgio Basta, Mark Gjini, Tom Plezha, Nikollë Mekajshi, Nikollë Bardhi, Manthos Papagiannis, Petros Lantzas, Emmanuel Mormoris, Makarios Melissenos, Athanasius I of Ohrid, Dionysios Skylosophos), or at least to be informed of Ottoman military and counter Barbary corsairs through hiring exiled ''Stratioti'' Rum (endonym), Rums to serve as Privateers for Kingdom of Naples, Naples and Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily. Some Anti-Ottoman projects that resulted from this were the Anti-Ottoman revolts of 1565–1572, Albanian revolt of 1566–1571, Convention of Mat, Himara Revolt of 1596, Thessaly rebellion (1600), Convention of Dukagjin, Epirus revolt of 1611, Convention of Kuçi.

Continuation of War in Oversea

The Spanish-Ottoman truce did not involve the Oversea possessions of both Empires, and after the War of the Portuguese Succession and the consolidation of the Iberian Union, the Portuguese Empire was directly involucrated in the Global Conflict between Habsburg Spain and Ottoman Caliphate. In so, the conflict was spread to the Indian Ocean through Portuguese India and Portuguese Empire in the Indonesian Archipelago, Portuguese Indonesia, and to Pacific Ocean through Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Philippines.}

East Indies Theater

On Southeast Asia, Spanish rule had been consolidated in the Philippines archipelago, archipelago of the Philippines (named after Philip II of Spain, Philip II) and developing an sphere of influence over adjacent islands (North Borneo dispute, Borneo, Moluccas - fortress of Tidore -, forts on the Spanish Formosa, island of Formosa and annexes in the already oceanic Palau, Marianas, Caroline Islands, Carolines and Marshall Islands, Ralicratac, etc.), founding the Captaincy General of the Philippines as the center of the Spanish East Indies to protect Catholic and Iberian interests in Asia and Oceania, seeking both to develop China-Spain relations for commercial benefits, and mainly to evangelize to Catholicism not only the local pagan populations, but also those of several nearby Muslim sultanates of the Malay Archipelago, which then caused the Spanish–Moro conflict, Moro Conflict with local Muslims in the Philippines (who begged for help to the Ottoman Empire). This latter, together with the development of the Portuguese Empire in the Indonesian archipelago (like Portuguese Malacca), attracted the attention of the Ottoman Caliphate, Turkish Caliphate, which had already sent the Ottoman expeditions to Aceh, Ottoman Expedition to Aceh in the 1560s to help the Sultanate of Aceh (which formally vassalized to the Ottoman Empire) and through them nearby Muslim states in the Indo-Pacific such as Malacca Sultanate, Malacca, Johor Sultanate, Johor, Patani Kingdom, Patani, Gujarat Sultanate, Gujarat, Ahmadnagar Sultanate, Ahmednagar, Sultanate of Bijapur, Bijapur, Jolo, Sultanate of Maguindanao, Maguindanao, Sultanate of Tidore, Tidore, Sultanate of Ternate, Ternate, the Bruneian Empire, etc. that were potentially hostile to Portuguese and Spanish Empires, in addition to bringing the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, Habsburg-Ottoman Wars to the Iberian Union colonial territories in the East Indies and threatening their dominance of the spice trade.

On 1578, after a series of naval skirmishes since 1565 and increasingly hostile relations (due to the Bruneian claims over former territories in Luzon like Maynila (historical polity), Maynila and their alliance with Moro people), the Spaniards from Jolo (recently conquered to the Sultanate of Sulu) declared war over the Sultanate of Brunei, so starting the Castilian War. The Ottomans, and Muslim Lascars, sent help to Bruneians with an expeditionary force that have Turkish people, Turks, Egyptians, Berbers, Swahilis, Somalis, Arabs, Iranian peoples, Iranians, Muslim Indians, Malays (ethnic group), Malays, Indonesians and even Moriscos (Andalusi Arabic, Andalusian Arabs). The reaction from Spanish authorities to the arrival of Ottoman soldiers to support Brunei and the Moros was the recruitment of troops from New Spain (mostly Tlaxcaltecas) and Viceroyalty of Peru, Peru (mostly Quechuas), which would increase into 1630s. The Bruneian-Spanish war ended in a stalemate in which Spaniards occupied Brunei and installed Pengiran Seri Lela as Sultan of Brunei and Pengiran Seri Ratna as Bendahara, but due to an epidemy of Cholera and Dysentery, they were forced to quit and so Bendahara Sakam, Pengiran Bendahara Sakam Ibni Sultan Abdul Kahar was restored (although Bruneians wouldn't recover his status of Great power).

Red Sea-Indian Ocean Theater

The first military engagement was a Spanish militar expedition against Ottoman Egypt, in response of the Capture of Muscat (1581), through a series of raids in the Red Sea by occupying one of the castles of Yemen and Aden (previously destroyed by Hadım Suleiman Pasha on an Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1560), Ottoman–Portuguese conflict in 1538) located on an strategic island 160 miles far away from the Aden Castle, and then reinforced the island while began to build ships by founding a shipyard, with the main objective of obstructing Maritime Silk Road, trade route from India to the port of Jeddah (blocking Egyptian commerce in the way), and seek potential allies by taking advantage of Yemeni–Ottoman conflicts. Consequently, the Governor of Yemen Eyalet, Ottoman Yemen, Hasan Pasha (commissioned in 1580 by the Grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Koca Sinan Pasha, to continue his Anti-Iberian military policy) reacted through a great raid against the Spaniards in October 1586, in which the Ottomans captured 4 Spanish Galleys with lots of goods as spoils that were sent to the Sublime Porte as a tribute.} Simultaneously, started a new Ottoman-Portuguese conflicts (1580-1589), Ottoman-Portuguese conflict in East Africa as a consequence of the arrest of a Spanish spy in 1583 by Hassan Pasha, which used it as an excuse to make pressure to the Murad III, Sultan Murad III for an increase in the defenses on the Arabian coastal plain to protect the Muslim Indian Ocean trade, and so on were sent two Galiot, galleots from Suez to Mokha (Yemen), which then were delivered to the Ottoman corsair Mir Ali Beg to raid the Portuguese colonies in the Swahili coast, with the main goals to block Iberians from crossing the Gulf of Aden through the creation of a new naval base for the Ottoman Navy in the Horn of Africa to make raids against Spaniards and Portuguese, and also to contact the local Muslim population (mostly Somali people, Somali and Swahili people that were hostile to Portuguese) for a future Vassalization of them (specially the Ajuran Sultanate) to conquer the Horn of Africa and expel Christians from there (Iberians and Ethiopians).

The perfect excuse for a Turkish intervention was the appearance of an envoy from Ajuran Sultanate vassals (allies of Arabs and Swahilis merchants) to the Ottoman corsair Mir Ali Bey who invited him to intervene in the region and to develop a Somali people, Somali-Turkish people, Turkish joint expedition against the Portuguese Mozambique. After the Ottomans arrived at Mogadishu (Somalia) in 1586, the local population recognised submission to the Sultan of Sultans and with enthusiasm helped the Turks by contributing with resources and mans to the Ottoman expedition, and the same support was given by a lot of coastal territories (like Barawa, Pate Island, Pemba Island, Kilwa Kisiwani) until stablishing at Lamu (Kenya), while the Portuguese leaded by Ruy Lopes Salgado withdraw and hide themselves on Malindi, while a ship from Portuguese India commanded by Roque de Brito Falcão was captured and plundered by the corsairs. The Turks returned with 24 ships, a treasure of 150000 gold Portuguese cruzado, cruzados (Portuguese currency), and 60 Portuguese captives. Despite the lack of preparation from the Portuguese Navy (worried by the increased contact between Somali sailors and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Privateer, corsairs) that caused those initial defeats, the response was the sent of a big fleet of 26 vessels commanded by Rui Gonçalves da Câmara III, Ruy Gonçalves da Câmara with the serious goal to block the Red Sea, although the Portuguese failed in catch the Turkish Corsairs and due to economical problems, they quit to Portuguese Oman and their results discouraged the King Philip I of Portugal from further aggressive strategies, who then pleaded prudence to the List of governors of Portuguese India, Viceroy of Goa, D. Duarte de Menezes, 14th Viceroy of India, Duarte de Menezes, advising him to be less bellicose with the Ottomans in what he considered was a minor theater of war for the Iberian Empire.

However, Duarte de Menezes wasn't sattisfied with the status quo, so he ordered in January 1587 another big fleet to expel the Ottomans and restore Portuguese suzerainty, this time composed of 2 galleons, 3 galleys, 13 light-galleys, and 650 soldiers under the command of Martim Afonso de Melo, who then subjected Faza and Mombasa, and then arrived at Malindi (still loyal to the Portuguese) to restore the Colonial pacts in the Zanzibar Channel and improve the diplomatic relations of Portuguese with the locals. Then he returned to Goa via Socotra and Ormus after not being capable to capture Mir Ali Beg. After that, started to collapse the Ottoman project to seize the Portuguese Sphere of influence on modern Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania, being the Turks defeated like 4 times during 1586 in their attempts failing to conquer Pate Island, Pate, Mombasa and other cities, while didn't help that Mir Ali Beg started to extract a heavy tribute to cities still in his control like Mogadishu or attempted to sack the cities loyal to Portuguese like Malindi (being bombarded by the Portuguese captain of the east-African coast Mateus Mendes de Vasconcelos), which now made him alienate his former allies in a critical moment that a network of spies and informants within the Red Sea was developed by the Portuguese to anticipate the Ottoman movements. Finally, the governor of Portuguese India, Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, sent in 1589 an Portuguese India Armadas, armada of 2 galleons, 5 galleys, 6 half-galleys, and 6 light-galleys with 900 Portuguese soldiers, commanded by his brother Tomé de Sousa Coutinho, which would be joined by the troops of Mateus de Vasconcelos at Malindi (adding half-galley and two light-galleys) on February, and then they would have a definitive clash with Mir Ali Beg in March 5–7 of 1589 at the Battle of Mombasa (1589), crushing (with help of the canibalistic Zimba Tribe) his small fort by the shoreline, sacking 3 Turkish galleys with 30 guns, and capturing Mir Ali Beg, while evacuating Mombasa inhabitants from the cannibalistic tribe incursion. Later, the Portuguese managed to re-take most of the lost cities in Southeast Africa, South East Africa and began punishing their leaders, although Mogadishu seized its independence and the Ottomans remained as major economic partners of Ajuran Sultanate.

See also

* Barbary Coast
* Barbary corsairs
* Spanish-Moroccan Wars
* Moroccan–Portuguese conflicts
* Anglo-Moroccan alliance
* Anglo-Turkish piracy
* Protestantism and Islam
* Turco-Calvinism
* Franco-Ottoman alliance
* Habsburg–Persian alliance
* Ottoman–Habsburg wars
* Holy League
* Iberian Union
* Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations
* Portuguese–Safavid wars
* Morisco
* Mudéjar
* Marrano
* Sephardic Jews
* Jewish pirates

References

{{Reflist

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