The siege of Corfu took place on 8 July – 21 August 1716, when the Ottoman Empire besieged the city of Corfu, on the namesake island, then held by the Republic of Venice. The siege was part of the Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War, and, coming in the aftermath of the lightning conquest of the Morea by the Ottoman forces in the previous year, was a major success for Venice, representing its last major military success and allowing it to preserve its rule over the Ionian Islands.
Background
Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the second siege of Vienna in 1683, the Holy League of Linz gathered most European states (except for France, England and the Netherlands) in a common front against the Ottomans. In the resulting Great Turkish War (1684–1699) the Ottoman Empire suffered a number of defeats such as the battles of Mohács and Zenta, and in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), was forced to cede the bulk of Hungary to the Habsburg monarchy, Podolia to Poland-Lithuania, while Azov was taken by the Russian Empire. Further south, the Republic of Venice had launched its own attack on the Ottoman Empire in the same year the Great Turkish War broke out, seeking revenge for successive conquests of its overseas empire by the Turks, most recently (1669) the loss of Crete. During the conflict, Venetian troops seized the island of Lefkada (Santa Maura) and the Morea peninsula, although they failed to retake Crete and expand their possessions in the Aegean Sea.
After the Great Turkish War concluded the Ottomans were from the outset determined to reverse these losses, beginning a reform of their navy, while Venice found itself increasingly isolated diplomatically from the other European powers: the Holy League had fractured after its victory, and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) and the Great Northern War (1700–1721) preoccupied the attention of most European states. The Ottomans took advantage of the favourable international situation and secured their northern flank by defeating Russia. After the end of the Russo-Turkish war, the emboldened Ottoman leadership turned its focus on Venice, declaring war on 9 December 1714.
The opening move of the conflict was the invasion of the Venetian province in the Morea by the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha. Aided by Venetian military unpreparedness, the reluctance of its fleet to confront the more powerful Ottoman navy, and the reluctance of the local Greek population to assist the Venetians, the Ottomans quickly captured the entire peninsula in July–September 1715. At the same time, the Ottoman fleet, under the Kapudan Pasha Canım Hoca Mehmed Pasha, seized the Venetian-held islands of Tinos and Aigina: their Venetian governors surrendered without offering any resistance.
The Ottomans immediately shifted their attention towards the western coasts of the Greek mainland, threatening the Venetian Ionian Islands and the Republic's possessions in Dalmatia. The approach of the Ottoman fleet under the Kapudan Pasha forced the Venetian Captain General of the Sea, , to stay at Lefkada (Santa Maura) to protect the vulnerable island, located close to the mainland. However, this meant the loss of the southernmost of the Ionian Islands, Kythira (Cerigo): left without hopes of relief, it surrendered to the Kapudan Pasha in September. Shortly after, the Ottomans forced the capitulation of the last remaining Venetian island strongholds off Crete, Souda and Spinalonga. Dolfin tried to react by leading a foray into the Aegean, but unable to encounter the Ottoman fleet, he returned into the Ionian Sea. Disheartened, he abandoned Lefkada after destroying its fortifications and withdrew to Corfu. Lefkada was almost immediately captured by the Ottomans.