Ottoman Response to the Discovery of America and the New Route to India

Abstract

The Portuguese and the Spanish carried over the medieval crusading spirit of the Reconquista in their discoveries of the new route to India and the New World respectively. The Portuguese aimed at taking Mecca with the hope of exchanging it for Jerusalem. They also established links with the king of Ethiopia, identifying him as the Prester John. And finally they tightened the economic stranglehold of the Mamluk empire. The response to this initiative came, however, from the Ottoman State, which first incorporated the Mamluk territories in the Middle East within its empire, then challenged the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean and the Spanish in the Mediterranean. The Ottomans, at the peak of their power in the sixteenth century, possessed the required naval strength and the types of ships needed for journeys of exploration. Having prepared the map of the New World, based on a map of Columbus, with America clearly marked as their administrative province, Vilayet Antilia, they were set to pursue their enemies across the Atlantic. The Sa'dian regime of Morocco, however, prevented their access to the Atlantic. Revolts on the European, Persian, and South Arabian fronts of the empire further weakened the Ottomans. Since in the age of the East India companies the crusading motivation of the Spanish and the Portuguese had been much diluted, the counter-crusading desire of the Ottomans also no longer needed to extend itself to encompass America.