Question 1
Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages and explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the significance of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) for the ascendancy
of the Ottoman Empire.
Passage A Adapted from A Stiles, 'Access to A Level History: The Ottoman Empire: 1450-1700', pp100-102, Hodder Arnold H&S, 1989. Item removed due to third party copyright restrictions.
Adapted from: A. Stiles, The Ottoman Empire, published in 1989.
Passage B
The League’s victory, as one might expect, did not translate into total Christian domination of the Mediterranean. If anything, the Battle of Lepanto confirmed the status quo in the Mediterranean. The Ottomans had reached the limit of their power. The cultural shape of the lands around the Mediterranean was confirmed with a largely Islamic east and south staring across the waters at a Christian north and west. The Ottoman Empire was left with the task of defending its ever diminishing borders. Even if the Ottomans had won it was unlikely that they would have established dominance over Western Europe. True, they would have dominated the Mediterranean in the short-term and it is likely that they would have been able to conquer Southern Italy and even take Rome. But the history of Byzantium suggests that this would have been the limit of their conquests. The Ottomans had failed to take Vienna in both the 1520s and 1680s partly because the supply lines into Central Europe were too long. In any case it is clear by the 1570s the dynamic that had driven the earlier Ottoman conquests had largely exhausted itself. They remained in control of Cyprus, but that was the extent of Selim’s conquests and although they were able to snatch Crete from the Venetians that was the last of their European conquests.
Adapted from: G. Melleuish, ‘The Significance of Lepanto’, Quadrant Online, published in 2008.
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Answer
