Ottomans raid and attack Newfoundland and Virginia 17th century

Byzantion · Dec 1, 2015

Their ships had been sightened at the coasts of these English colonies roughly in that timeframe. They had raided far in the North of Europe and Island , would it be posssible to carry out a raid on North American soil, even launch a Invasion ? How would the settlers/British Empire respond ? How would the Native Americans respond ? What type of ships did the Ottomans used ?

Orsino · Dec 1, 2015

Interesting idea, although an invasion would surely be an unlikely prospect given the distances involved?

Kevin Renner · Dec 1, 2015

In a word, what's in it for the Ottomans. Newfoundland and Virginia seem a long way to go for not much profit. IMO West Indies are a better bet if they are going to go to the trouble. Plus if they make this a practice then after a while they are going to attract pirates, freebooters, privateers and other assorted vermin (state sanctioned or otherwise). Consdider, the Ottomans need to pass through several natural choke points to get home. First of course is Gibraltar, second is Sicily-Malta-Tunisia. The third is the Agean. The Ottomans gather the harvest and get robbed on the way home

Anaxagoras · Dec 1, 2015

Why would they bother doing that?

RGB · Dec 2, 2015

I think the idea is that it's not the Ottomans themselves but perhaps Algerians or Moroccans (i.e. Barbary Corsairs) that do it, like they did with very distant places like Iceland.

Well, you're in some luck: Henry Mainwaring was a captain who did operate out of Mamora/Mehdiya in Morocco for a while, and did raid Newfoundland's shipping (English and Portuguese). It's not out of the question that another European-born Barbary captain might repeat the same at some later date, especially once there's more to plunder in that direction.

As to how people would respond: the same way the Irish or Icelanders did. They had very little shipping of their own until the 18th c. and couldn't mount reprisals.

Prism · Dec 2, 2015

RGB said:
I think the idea is that it's not the Ottomans themselves but perhaps Algerians or Moroccans (i.e. Barbary Corsairs) that do it, like they did with very distant places like Iceland.

Well, you're in some luck: Henry Mainwaring was a captain who did operate out of Mamora/Mehdiya in Morocco for a while, and did raid Newfoundland's shipping (English and Portuguese). It's not out of the question that another European-born Barbary captain might repeat the same at some later date, especially once there's more to plunder in that direction.

As to how people would respond: the same way the Irish or Icelanders did. They had very little shipping of their own until the 18th c. and couldn't mount reprisals.

Yeah, the Barbary Corsairs would be more likely to attack Newfoundland and Virginia than the Ottomans. Provided that there was enough plunder,booty and slaves of course.

zoomar · Dec 2, 2015

I don't know much about internal Ottoman politics in the 17th century, but what on earth would be the reason for a Mediterranean/Near Eastern eastern power to raid the northeastern coast of North America. Was there once an interest among the Ottomans to exert power that far from home?

gochisox · Dec 2, 2015

There vassal pirate groups could do it but why, anything that was worth raiding would be shiped back to Europe and could be raided closer to the coast, I know that the pirates occasionaly went to the Atlantic, and with the habit of taking the boats they could easily travel to North America, I just dont think they would want to.