Tunis Eyalet in the context of Conquest of Tunis (1574)


Tunis Eyalet in the context of Conquest of Tunis (1574)

⭐ Core Definition: Tunis Eyalet

Ottoman Tunisia — also known as the Eyalet of Tunis or the Regency of Tunis — was a semi-autonomous territory of the Ottoman Empire, that existed from the 16th to the 19th century, located roughly in present-day Tunisia (and parts of what is now eastern Algeria.)

The Ottoman presence in the Maghreb began with the conquest of Algiers in 1516 by the Ottoman Turkish corsair, Beylerbey Aruj Barbarossa (Oruç Reis). In 1534, the Ottoman Navy under the command of Kapudan Pasha Hayreddin Barbarossa, Aruj's younger brother, captured Tunis from the Hafsid dynasty. Less than a year later, in 1535, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V sent a multinational invasion force to wrest control of Tunis, overwhelming the Ottoman garrison. Following the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574, the Ottomans maintained control of Tunis for over three centuries. Ottoman rule came to an end following the French conquest of Tunisia in 1881.

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Tunis Eyalet in the context of Battle of Navarino

The Battle of Navarino was a naval battle fought on 20 October (O.S. 8 October) 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829), in Navarino Bay (modern Pylos), on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea. Allied forces from Britain, France, and Russia decisively defeated Ottoman and Egyptian forces which were trying to suppress the Greeks, thereby making Greek independence much more likely. An Ottoman armada which, in addition to Imperial warships, included squadrons from the eyalets of Egypt and Regency of Algiers and Tunis, was destroyed by an Allied force of British, French and Russian warships. It was the last major naval battle in history to be fought entirely with sailing ships, although most ships fought at anchor. The Allies' victory was achieved through superior firepower and gunnery.

The context of the three Great Powers' intervention in the Greek conflict was the Russian Empire's long-running expansion at the expense of the decaying Ottoman Empire. Russia's ambitions in the region were seen as a major geostrategic threat by the other European powers, which feared the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of Russian hegemony in the Eastern Mediterranean. The precipitating factor was support of elements in Orthodox Russia for Greek coreligionists, despite the opposition of Tsar Alexander in 1821 following the Greek rebellion against their Ottoman overlords. Similarly, despite official British interest in maintaining the Ottoman Empire, British public opinion strongly supported the Greeks. Fearing unilateral Russian action, Britain and France bound Russia, by treaty, to a joint intervention which aimed to secure Greek autonomy, whilst still preserving Ottoman territorial integrity as a check on Russia.

View the full Wikipedia page for Battle of Navarino
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