ABSTRACT
The window was opened by the establishment of a stable Medici regime committed to the sea and closed by the symbolic turn from the sea represented by Grand Duke Ferdinando II’s plan to sell his fleet in 1632. New found stability at home, massive investment in maritime infrastructure and warships, and alliance with Spain and the Papacy, gave Medici Tuscany both the means and the motive to undertake ambitious religious and naval ventures abroad. The Ottoman invasion of the Mamluk sultanate had brought Egypt and the entire mainland coast of the Eastern Mediterranean into the Ottoman Empire. For Medici Tuscany, this had distinct disadvantages that mirrored some of the benefits that the empire provided to Egypt. The Medici’s experiment with a militant interventionist policy in the Eastern Mediterranean dissipated. It did so not only in the face of Tuscany’s own changing internal dynamics, but also, and probably more importantly, because of the Ottoman Empire’s stabilization after its turn-of-the-century crisis.
