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Phillip Williams

Mare Nostrum? Reform, Recruitment and the Business of Crusade in the Fleets of the Seventeenth Century Mediterranean

[pp. 77-102] | PDF |

Abstract & keywords

The seventeenth century Mediterranean was dominated by the business of crusade. Fleets proved disastrously expensive, and few states could sustain the cost of war. Galleys may have been much more effective than the old paradigm holds, and fortresses often proved disastrously ineffective. Fleets operated under the paradox that they were both a projection of the ruler’s pact with the Almighty and a business opportunity. The Mediterranean was not abandoned in the Seicento, although the fighting revealed the paradox that in order to campaign against the enemy it was necessary to trade with him.
Business of war, crusade, galleys, gazi, seventeenth century Mediterranean

Nel corso del XVII secolo, il Mediterraneo fu dominato dal business della crociata. Le flotte si rivelarono enormemente dispendiose e pochi stati potevano sostenere il costo della guerra. Le galere risultarono ben pił efficaci di quanto dicano i luoghi comuni storiografici, mentre le fortezze sovente si dimostrarono del tutto inutili. Paradossalmente, le flotte erano al contempo la proiezione del patto stretto dai governanti con l’Onnipotente e un’occasione per fare affari. Il Mediterraneo non fu affatto abbandonato nel Seicento, sebbene dal conflitto emerga il paradosso che, per poter combattere il nemico, era necessario commerciare con esso.
Business della guerra, crociata, galee, gazi, Mediterraneo seicentesco
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