In opening the magnificent picture of modern history, we will find one point, that is, in the great navigation era and colonial expansion of modern history, the Ottoman Empire was absent. Is it that they don't have the financial resources, or do they lack the associated navigation technology?
First of all, if the Ottoman Empire wanted to go to the New World America, it was absolutely possible, for example, the North African Barbary pirates who were associated with the Ottoman Empire and once fought as the Ottoman Navy, once sailed to North America, and launched raids on the North American coast and even Central America, until the end of the 18th century, North African pirates could also travel far into the ocean to raid the coast of the United States and plunder American merchant ships. A 1517 map of the Ottoman world also clearly shows that the Ottoman Empire was already well aware of the existence of the South and North American continents.
A map of Pierre-Reis was only rediscovered in 1929
It is said that this map was drawn by the Ottomans after Columbus's return to Europe in 1510, based on the information provided by a Spanish ship captured by a Spanish ship and a Spanish sailor who followed Columbus to the Americas, in the name of some place names, the Ottomans followed the previous Spanish name of Columbus, which shows that the Ottoman Empire at that time had a strong enough intelligence network and learning ability to support them to collect the latest intelligence from the Age of Discovery, so why did they not try to open up their American colonies?
First of all, we must understand that the main purpose of the Western Europeans in opening up new shipping routes was to circumvent the monopoly of the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians on the traditional oriental trade routes, and to find new and cheaper sources of high-value commodities such as spices and silks, so that the Portuguese, on the one hand, touched the Indian Ocean through Egypt and the Red Sea, and on the other hand, went south along the Atlantic coast and reached the Indian Ocean region; while the Spaniards gambled that the earth was round, and the Spaniards eventually funded Columbus to accidentally discover the New World of america. The Portuguese then discovered Brazil in the Americas on an unexpected voyage. But for the Ottoman Empire, with the Portuguese activities in the Indian Ocean, the traditional interests of the Venetian and Mamluk sultanates as middlemen in Eurasia were greatly damaged, and the deterioration of economic conditions led to the collapse of the Mamluk sultanate, which directly ruled Egypt and was able to extend its tentacles to the Red Sea and even the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea. That is, the East, where European countries wasted all their might, the Ottoman Empire could also be touched by geographical shortcuts. The distant World of america is still to a large extent an unknown world, and Europeans themselves are exploring, and the dividends of developing the local area have not yet been fully excavated.
After understanding this, it is not difficult to understand why the Ottomans did not explore the new world when they knew the road to the New World of america, and if a huge vault is at your disposal, then do you still have the motivation to explore the new world in all directions? Because it was not easy for the Ottoman Empire to maintain a military presence in the Indian Ocean region, to protect the large and small sultanates from Portuguese and Dutch raids, and to profit from the Indian Ocean trade, and the more difficult it would be to implement this policy in the future, it would be difficult to preserve the existing results, so why go to the New World? Moreover, in the 16th century, Europe and the Ottoman Empire did not have much confidence in how much real income they could receive from the New World, and the high rate of return from the Americas to Europe gradually became apparent over time, so from the perspective of assessing risk, the Ottoman Empire did not need to invest in an expedition whose income and cost were difficult to estimate.
If the New World was to be explored, the Ottomans had two paths: one was to go from the Mediterranean to Egypt, from Egypt through the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, and the other was to break through the Strait of Gibraltar and go to North and South America. But if the first route was to be taken to the Americas, it meant crossing the Pacific Ocean and then reaching the Americas, or bypassing the southern Indian Ocean and going to the Americas; here the Ottomans would encounter Portuguese castles and naval strongholds, and the Dutch would later replace the Portuguese as a more powerful presence, organize more powerful fleets in the local area, build stronger strongholds like Batavia, and create greater difficulties for the Ottoman fleet's plan to go south; in the effort to the west, although the Ottomans also tried, Specifically, the successive occupation of Libya, Algeria and even Tunisia, the last attempt to break through the Spanish-controlled Strait of Gibraltar, but ultimately failed, which made the Ottoman Empire lose the possibility of further western conquest, if the Ottomans want to further westward, then whether out of the Strait of Gibraltar or the Indian Ocean, they will have to fight with the Spanish - Britain, as well as the Portuguese or Dutch naval fleets, and after the 17th century, The combat effectiveness and shipbuilding technology of the Ottoman fleet will lag further and further behind the Western European powers, and the further back it goes, the more the Ottoman fleet will lose more and more against the Western navy. Moreover, in the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire in the north of the Tsarist Russia, the Northwest Austrian Empire, and the Safavid Persians in the east, and later the Evshar Dynasty were all distracting the Attention and Wealth of the Ottoman Empire from the border, which would further limit the possibility and motivation of the Ottoman Empire to explore the Americas.
Russo-Turkish War
Therefore, even if the Ottoman Empire itself did not lack the wealth, navigation technology and manpower to explore the New World, the risk of investment and the geographical blockade made the Ottoman New World exploration plan fruitless. Compared with the technology itself, whether an activity can be profitable is the core driving force that supports it.