The Mediterranean is unique among the seas of Europe. Its position as the meeting-place of three continents, which it at once joins and separates, has not only given it a commanding strategic and economic importance but made of it a world somewhat apart. Some of its distinctive features are of all time, others appear only at certain critical periods. Both must be kept in mind if we are to understand how the region influenced and was in turn influenced by the Turkish and European wars between 1683 and 1718. Although its climate, roughly the same throughout, produces the harmony of sea and sky and landscape which delighted Homer, it also results in a certain leanness of agricultural resources which has forced people to look to the sea for a livelihood. But these physical similarities are contradicted by an exceptional diversity of culture and political style. In the course of its long history as a centre of civilization States of many kinds have grown up along its shores, with complex and often conflicting interests. Overshadowing all at this time was the great divide between the eastern Mediterranean, dominated politically by the Ottoman empire, and the western Mediterranean, a primary theatre of war in the struggle against Louis XIV, in which the leading role was played by the rising sea power of a non-Mediterranean nation.

By far the greater part of the sea was a watery desert, traversed only by an occasional long-distance convoy and by isolated vessels making all the running they could in fear of corsairs. Since astronomical navigation had not yet been generally adopted here and its seamen still liked to hug the coasts—relying on compass and plane chart, or simple cross-bearings on landmarks—there was a tremendous contrast between the empty expanses of open sea and the coastal lanes, which swarmed with traffic.