Abstract

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Muslim and European powers perceived the importance of oceanic trade routes differently. During this earliest phase of European colonial expansion, Muslim powers, particularly the Osmanlis who claimed to be the champion of Islam, did not consider the loss of oceanic trade routes to Europeans a serious threat to Muslim interests. However, this gradually led not only to the loss of trade which was once dominated by Mus1im merchants, but might have contributed to the total disappearance of Muslim powers from their supremacy of world politics later in history.