The Portugese-Ottoman war is really underrated

For how important the conflict was, it is barely, if ever talked about by the online history community. For context, previous Portugese activity in the Indian ocean not only weakened the Mamluks so much that the Ottomans were able to conquer Egypt (Portugese-Mamluk war 1505-1517), but also sealed the final nail in the coffin for the Venetian Republic and their relevance.

The war itself secured the Portugese position as the dominant power in the Indian ocean, putting the overseas spice trade firmly in European hands. And while the war wasn't too big of a deal for the Ottomans, they held up pretty well and even reached their peak after losing it , it was most definitely a huge deal for Europe.

Now that I've explained the historical importance of it, I will now also go into the hype moments and aura of the war. The First (1538) and Second (1546) sieges of Diu were insane, the second one is way more impressive to me because for God's sake... 400 defenders holding their own against 10-20 thousand Ottoman-Gujarati attackers. The Ethiopian expedition feels like something out of a movie, singlehandedly reviving a severely weakened Christian kingdom in Africa. I can go on, it's a really cool and interesting conflict and the events I mentioned aren't even all the cool ones. Definitely do look into it if you haven't yet.

And of top of that... it's the 16th century, it's plate armour and guns!! It's awesome!!!

Placeholder

Placeholder