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International and Domestic Maritime Trade in the Ottoman Empire during the 18th Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Daniel Panzac
Affiliation:
Centre National De La Recherche Scientidique Aix-En-Provence, France

Abstract

A glance at a map shows what an important role the sea played in the vast empire of the Ottomans in the 18th century, linking as it did the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa that made up the Old World. The Ottoman Empire dominated not only the eastern Mediterranean but also the major part of the southern shore of the western Mediterranean, the Black Sea—a “Turkish lake” until the 1780s—the Red Sea, and part of the Arab/Persian Gulf.Geography gave the sea a decisive role in the trade that took place in the Ottoman Empire both internationally and domestically.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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