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Battle of
Lepanto
The news of the
fall of Famagusta and the fate of its commander at length roused
the League of European Powers to action. The fleets of Spain and
Venice, with squadrons from Genoa and the Papal states,
concentrated at Messina under the supreme command of Don John of
Austria. In October 1571 the whole force, numbering over three
hundred ships, proceeded to the gulf of Lepanto, where the
Turkish fleet of equal strength awaited them. The battle of
Lepanto was fought on 7 October, and after enormous losses on
both sides the greater part of the Ottoman fleet was taken or
destroyed.
Lepanto is a
fitting close to a chapter in history. It was the last great
battle to be fought in ships propelled by oars. It was the last
dying flicker of the crusades. But it achieved no permanent
results. No longer could the Pope rally the forces of
Christendom to a holy war. No longer was the trade with the East
centred in the Levant. The objects of the crusades were dead,
and with them died the interest of Europe in the affairs of
Cyprus for a long time. No serious attempt was made from Europe
to regain possession of the island, and Cyprus remained for more
than three centuries a province of the Ottoman Empire.
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