Venetian Empires Analysis

By the time Venetian Commander Pietro Mocenigo reached Greece, the Ottoman Turks had greatly expanded in the eastern Mediterranean and were threatening Venetian interests in the region. This was a true clash of opposites; the Venetians were a Christian, seafaring people and the Ottomans, conversely, were Muslims who preferred to travel and fight by land. The only thing these two empires seemed to have in common was their penchant for trading, a similarity that became one of the prime ingredients that led them to war. The Venetians (and no doubt the Ottomans) used religion as a justification for conquest of territory and capture of goods and people for material gain. To lead a civilization into war requires strong instigating factors, and although land and wealth are fantastic secular motivators, it is often religion that triumphs as the supreme cover-up for war. This clash between the Venetians and the Ottomans was no different, and before addressing the true reasons …show more content…
It was continuation of using the age-old rhetoric of conquering land and acquiring wealth under the divine mission of god. The evidence of this line of thinking is overly apparent in Cippico’s book, which is a firsthand experience of the many battles and expeditions he was a part of. The fact of the matter is that these were two competing empires in the late 15th century, and their primary goal was to maintain their respective power in their spheres of influence while also working to keep the other at bay. This sixteen-year war, one of seven wars between the Venetians and the Ottomans, is an extension of what had been a centuries long divide between occidental and oriental powers, and thus one must not get lost in the proverbial falsification of religion as the driving force of war but rather the secular pursuit of land and wealth as the prime