Showing results by author "Roger Crowley" in All Categories

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.

Empires of the Sea tells the story of the 50-year world war between Islam and Christianity for the Mediterranean: one of the fiercest and most influential contests in European history. It traces events from the appearance on the world stage of Suleiman the Magnificent through "the years of devastation" when it seemed possible that Islam might master the whole sea, to the final brief flourishing of a united Christendom in 1571.

In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.

10. September 1521: Sultan Suleiman der Prächtige, Herrscher über das mächtige Osmanische Reich, entsendet eine Invasionsflotte zur Insel Rhodos. Dies sollte die Eröffnungsschlacht einer 60 Jahre andauernden kriegerischen Auseinandersetzung zwischen den rivalisierenden Reichen der christlichen Mittelmeermächte und den Osmanen um die Vorherrschaft im Mittelmeerraum sein.

Die bewegende Chronik eines der bedeutendsten Ereignisse der Weltgeschichte - die Eroberung Konstantinopels durch die Türken 1453...