The Christian Corsairs in the Mediterranean Before the Conquest of Rhodes (1499-1520)

Abstract

The piracy should not be evaluated only as a plundering activity. It should be considered as a political, economic and social activity which includes different interest groups. The Christian corsairs who were active between 1499 and 1520 and mentioned in the Diaries of Marino Sanuto should be approached in the same framework. Among these corsairs, the ones who were subject to Rhodes additionally assumed a religious identity in accordance with the faith of the Knights of Saint John of Jeruselam. The Rhodian corsairs, damaged the ships and commodities of the Ottomans and Maghrebians who were the representatives of Islam, the archrival of the religion of which they were members and they legitimated these activities under the name of holy war. As for the southern Italy, it experienced a security weakness due to the instability which was brought about by the struggle of influence between France and Spain. This situation expanded the sphere of influence of the corsairs in the surrounding areas. The Rhodian corsairs were supported by both Spain and France thanks to the activities which they carried out at the expense of the Ottomans. This support accelerated the flux of the corsairs between the eastern and western parts of the Mediterranean. The numerous corsairs from the origins of France, Spain, Genoa, Basque, and Catalonia carried out a great deal of plundering activities in both the Eastern and the Western Mediterranean (particularly around Syracuse and Messina) and they captured multitudinuous valuable commodities. Among the ships which were targeted by them, there were also the ones which belonged to the Venetian Republic. This situation reveals that politics and religion were not the sole sources of motivation of the piracy. Because, the piracy was realized also with an economic concern and subsisted as a natural extension of commerce throughout history. The saleability and marketability of the plundered commodities for the people in certain regions transformed the piracy into the very self of a commercial activity. The Venetian Republic became a target of both the Muslim and the Christian corsairs because of its dominance over numerous Aegean islands, the wide commercial network which it established between the ports of these islands and the commercial activities which it carried out in the Western Mediterranean and the Maghreb.