First Ottoman–Venetian War | |||||||||
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Part of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Republic of Venice Papal States Skanderbeg 1463-1468(until his death) Principality of Zeta Maniots Greek rebels |
Ottoman Empire | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Alvise Loredan Giacomo Loredan Sigismondo Malatesta Vettore Cappello Antonio da Canal Pietro Mocenigo Skanderbeg Ivan Crnojević |
Sultan Mehmed II Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey Mahmud Pasha Angelović |
The First Ottoman–Venetian War was fought between the Republic of Venice and her allies and the Ottoman Empire from 1463 to 1479. Fought shortly after the capture of Constantinople and the remnants of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottomans, it resulted in the loss of several Venetian holdings in Albania and Greece, most importantly the island of Negroponte (Euboea), which had been a Venetian protectorate for centuries. The war also saw the rapid expansion of the Ottoman navy, which became able to challenge the Venetians and the Knights Hospitaller for supremacy in the Aegean Sea. In the closing years of the war however, the Republic managed to recoup its losses by the de facto acquisition of the Crusader Kingdom of Cyprus.
Following the Fourth Crusade (1203–1204), the lands of the Byzantine Empire were divided among several western Catholic ("Latin") Crusader states, ushering in the period known in Greek as Latinokratia. Despite the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty in the later 13th century, many of these "Latin" states survived until the rise of a new power, the Ottoman Empire. Chief among these was the Republic of Venice, which had founded an extensive maritime empire, controlling numerous coastal possessions and islands in the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas. In its first conflict with the Ottomans, Venice had already lost the city of Thessalonica in 1430, following a long siege, but the resulting peace treaty left the other Venetian possessions intact.