Conquest of Tunis (1535) 1535
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1535 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Tunisia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Ottoman–Spanish War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Empire of Charles V, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Portugal, Knights Hospitaller, Ottoman Empire, Papal States, Republic of Genoa | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.8000, 10.1667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Conquest of Tunis (called Jornada de Túnez in Spanish sources) in 1535 occurred when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his allies captured the city of Tunis from the control of the Ottoman Empire. The Catholic fleet, which included admirals Andrea Doria and Bazán the Elder, captured the fleet of grand Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had turned Tunis into his naval base for future invasions of Italy and Spain. Although Barbarossa managed to escape, the victory ensured Ottoman forces in North Africa remained limited to the usual actions of the Barbary corsairs. Tunis remained under Spanish control until its Ottoman recapture in 1569.
The conquest was one of the largest amphibious operations of the 16th century; historian Henry Kamen described it as "the most imposing ever mounted by Christian powers in the long history of the western Mediterranean". It was an unprecedented logistic achievement due to its proportions, complexity and relative quickness. It involved multiple types of ships, siege techniques and the intervention of the recently created tercios. Due to this and other successes, Charles founded officially the Spanish Marine Infantry, which remains the oldest still in existence.
With the advance of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars, the conquest of Tunis would be obscured in historiography by other battles, including failures like the Algiers expedition and victories like the battle…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Conquest of Tunis (1535) (revision 1379046826), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Tunis (Mercenary War) 238 BC · 0 km
- Battle of the Bagradas River (255 BC) 255 BC · 0 km
- Conquest of Tunis (1574) 1574 · 1 km
- Siege of Tunis (1694) 1694 · 2 km
- Siege of Tunis (1705) 1705 · 2 km
- Battle of Ad Decimum 533 · 6 km
Other battles of the Ottoman–Spanish War
- Battle of Formentera 1529
- Siege of Coron (1533–1534) 1534
- Siege of Castelnuovo 1539
- Battle of Alborán 1540
- Capture of Mahdia (1550) 1550
- Siege of Oran (1556) 1556
- Battle of Djerba 1560
- Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir 1563
- Battle of Lepanto 1571
- Conquest of Tunis (1574) 1574
All 11 battles of the Ottoman–Spanish War →
Browse more: battles in Tunisia · Africa · Early modern battles