Context: The Ottoman-Venetian Wars (1570-1573)

"News, lads! Our wars are done:
The desperate tempest hath so banged the Turks
That their designment halts. A noble ship of Venice
Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufference
On the most part of their fleet

- Othello, II.I, lines 20 to 24

The Ottoman-Venetian wars allow us to date Othello precisely, to the summer of 1573, at the end of the war which saw the Ottoman Empire, an Islamic force which was commonly accepted as the strongest Empirical force of the day, run a conquest against Cyprus, a Venetian colony which, in the play, Othello is sent to defend and govern.

However, in Othello, Shakespeare twists history to paint his tragic hero as more heroic, as the Turks actually won the wars, despite the above quote, with the Venetians seceding Cyprus, and a significant amount of money, to the Turks as a peace settlement in order to facilitate further trade between the two nations.

A brief over-view of the wars

Cyprus had been under Venetian rule since 1489, but was in the centre of the Ottoman Empire by 1517, when Ottoman secured Egypt, leaving it vulnerable to attack.

Despite a peace treaty with Venice in 1567, then, the Ottomans launched a naval and land invasion of the island in 1570s, taking all of its major cities between June and August of that year; massacres of Christians (resident under Venetian rule) ensued, with women and boys being saved to be sold on as slaves.

Venice, with the support of the Pope, secured backing from Spain, Portugal, and other states which make up what we now know as Italy, in order to take on the Ottomans, but they were nevertheless unsuccessful, realising the cost of the war in both arms and lost trade by 1573, when a peace treaty was drawn up between the Ottomans and the Venetians, seceding Cyprus to the Ottoman Empire, where it remained until 1879 (when it was given the Britain in a peace negotiation following the so-called "Eastern Problems" which lead to the eventual disillusion of the Ottoman Empire).

Relevance to the play
Critics agree unanimously that, as Othello was written in the early 1600s, it is definitely set at the end of these wars.

Thus, the fact that Shakespeare presents a Venetian victory suggests even greater power from the Venetian state, with Othello arriving in Cyprus in Act II as governor, giving him a position of greater power as he is asked to keep the peace.

Although it is not specifically stipulated in the play, the suggestion is that the "warlike Moor Othello" arrives fresh from battle, and thus has helped to secure a Venetian victory, painting him as all the more the hero, thus making his tragic fall at the end of the play even more tragic.

And YAY ME for getting more military history into my Othello revision!

Hope that made sense; any questions, just ask!

- HistGrrl x