Why did Europe win this naval battle 500 years ago? The Ottoman Empire lost 40,000 elite soldiers in two hours.

In the Battle of Lebanto in 1572, the Ottoman Empire was obviously superior in military strength. Why was it defeated by the Christian Coalition forces? The first is the firepower advantage-the Christian Coalition forces have 2 12 warships (including 6 large sailboats with a displacement of 600 to 1000 tons), and the entire fleet has 18 15 naval guns. In addition, about 20,000 soldiers belonging to the fleet are equipped with improved matchlock guns. In contrast, although the Turkish fleet has 278 ships, it is only equipped with 750 guns, and its ammunition reserves are still insufficient. Because the Ottoman army trusted and relied on their archers more than firearms (using Turkish compound bows). The second point is that the Ottoman army is also at a "disadvantage" in the fleet composition-the total strength of the Christian Coalition forces is less than 70,000, including 40,000 crew members and paddlers, and there are 28,500 officers and men (mostly elite infantry from Spain, Germany and Venice, which are famous in Europe). Moreover, the rowers of the Christian Coalition forces are mainly freemen. They not only have high morale, but also generally carry weapons and can fight when necessary, which greatly enhances the actual strength of the Christian Coalition forces. On the other hand, the Ottoman fleet has 50,000 sailors and paddlers and 34,000 soldiers (3 1 0,000), but almost half of these 37,000 paddlers are slaves. Many of these people are captured and kidnapped Christians. They hated the Ottomans very much and hoped that the Christian Coalition forces would win in order to save themselves. It is also from this perspective that the failure of the Ottoman fleet actually laid the groundwork before the war. Sure enough, as soon as the battle started, the Christian Coalition forces disrupted the deployment of the Turkish fleet with strong firepower-in the era of manpower/sail warships, fleet formation had a great influence on the success or failure of maritime confrontation. As the warships of the two sides approached each other and fell into a dock war, the powerful fighting capacity of the Spanish infantry began to play a role. At the same time, the liberated Christian slaves (paddlers) on the Ottoman warships also turned back and took up arms to join the battle. Their help often left the Turks between Scylla and Charybdis, outnumbered (each Ottoman warship had an average of 130 rowers) and was soon wiped out. After two hours of fierce fighting, the left wing of the Ottoman fleet and the China army were defeated. Although the sporadic fighting that followed continued until that night, the Christian Coalition forces had won the battle. In this campaign, the Christian Coalition forces captured and sank the Ottoman warship 187, annihilated (captured) about 40,000 enemy troops, rescued tens of thousands of Christian slaves and sacrificed 7,500 people. However, it should be noted that the Battle of Lebanto was not as important as advocated by western historians (such as "stopping the territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire" and "making the Ottoman Empire enter a turning point of decline"). In fact, about six months after the end of this naval battle, the Ottoman Empire quickly rebuilt a fleet of 250 warships (including more than 50 newly built/kloc-0, including 8 giant ships with the largest tonnage in the Mediterranean at that time). Moreover, the thriving national situation in the Ottoman Empire has not been interrupted. In the same year of the Battle of Leibanto, the Turks captured Cyprus, a strategic place in the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, in the past year, the Ottoman Empire forced Venice to sign a humiliating "peace treaty" with it-the latter not only formally ceded Cyprus, but also paid the Ottoman Empire 300,000 dukat gold coins (about 1 ton of gold, equivalent to $53 million now, accounting for about 20% of Venice's annual income in its heyday). ? 1574 to 1576, the Ottoman fleet moved westward, regained control of Tunisia and Morocco on the southern coast of the Mediterranean, and confronted Spain across the strait of Gibraltar. It is worth noting that 1590 (after the Battle of Leibanto 18), marked by the Istanbul Peace Treaty, the territory of the Ottoman Empire reached its peak. Then the Ottoman Empire really began to decline.