The Crusades were the bridge between medieval and modern history, between feudalism and colonialism. In many ways, the little explored later Crusades were the most significant of them all, for they made the crisis truly global. "The Last Crusaders" is about the period's last great conflict between East and West, and the titanic contest between Habsburg-led Christendom and the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.It focuses not on the more famous Crusades from 1095 and 1291 but on a later series of clashes between various Christian and Muslim forces in and around the Mediterranean, beginning with Portugal's capture of the city of Ceuta in 1415 and ending with the battles at Lepanto in 1571 and Alccer Quibir in 1578. From the great naval campaigns and the ferocious struggle to dominate the North African shore, the conflict spread out along trade routes, consuming nations and cultures, destroying dynasties, and spawning the first colonial empires in South America and the Indian Ocean. The author presents not only the exploits of both Christians and Muslims on the battlefield but also their shifting alliances and internal struggles. He also explores how military technologies and the expansion of trade and exploration helped shape the conflicts. This book provides a vibrant and well-organized account of this tumultuous, lesser-known period of history.

Originally published: London : Little, Brown, 2009.

Birth of new powers. The crusader prince of Portugal : Henry the Navigator, 1415-60 ; The Navigator's nephew L King Alfonso the African, 1455-81, and King John II, 1481-95 ; The Great Eagle : Mehmet the Conqueror of Constantinople, 1450-80 ; Reconquista : the Crusade of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile against Muslim Granada, 1480-1510 ; Barbarossa : the emergence of the Muslim corsairs, 1480-1510 ; The just and the grim : the transformation of the Ottoman Empire under Sultans Bayezid II and Selim I, 1480-1520 -- Struggle. King Manuel, Hammer of Morocco, Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest of the Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India, 1499-1515 ; Sharifs, sheikhs, Sufis, sultans, and smugglers : the Moroccan struggle against the Portuguese Crusade, 1515-50 ; The rivals : the division of Christendom between Charles V and Francis I ; The Ottoman Golden Age : Suleyman the Magnificent and the Five victories : Belgrade, Rhodes, Mohacs, Tabriz, and Baghdad, 1520-36 ; Corsair kingdoms : the Barbarossa brothers, Uruj and Khizr, and Condottiere Andrea Doria, 1512-34 ; Emperors and sultans : conquests, crusades, and family killings -- Destruction. Skull Islands : the Battle of Djerba and the Siege of Malta, 1560-70 ; A beard for an arm : the conquest of Cyprus and the Holy League's victory at Lepanto, 1570-4 ; The last Crusade : the Battle of the Three Kings -- Key characters -- Comparative timelines -- Family trees for the rules of Morocco, Spain, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire.