Naval bases and shipyards in Anatolia in the XIth-XIVth centuries

The sea bases and shipyards scattered along the Anatolian shores, depending on the thematic organization of Byzantium, had an active role in the beginning of the XIth century with the resurgence of the empire's maritime activities. The developments that took place in this century had made them idle. The first maritime experiences of the Turks, who settled Anatolia in the second half of the century, lasted a short time due to the Crusades. Meanwhile Italian City States emerged as effective naval forces in the Mediterranean and gradually increased their influence in "Romania". After the end of the twelfth century, the predominantly commercial enterprises of the Anatolian Seljuks in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean were followed by the intensive sea expeditions of the Turkish Principalities in the Aegean and Marmara Seas. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, all the ports on the Anatolian shores fell into the hands of these principalities and became active Turkish naval bases. Westerners, who had received many privileges from the Byzantine Empire for these ports, were disturbed by this situation and by the Turkish presence in the seas. As a result, Turks and Westerners confronted each other many times in the Black Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean during the fourteenth century. The Crusaders navies tried to seize these ports and destroyed them. Turkish maritime activities, which continued under difficult conditions, gained a new momentum with the Ottoman Empire, which established the union in Anatolia. The major naval bases operating under Byzantine (and the states formed by its disintegration) and Turkish domination were Sinop and Trabzon in the Black Sea, Izmit, Karamürsel, Aydıncık and Lapseki in Marmara, Edremit, İzmir, Ayasuluğ and Balat in the Aegean Sea, Meğri, Antalya, Alâiye and Gorikos in the Mediterranean. In this period, which occurred the developments of the four century in ship types and sizes, navigational aids and warfare weapons, along with shipbuilding technology, the places where the most intensive shipbuilding activities were carried out in Anatolia were shipyards in Trabzon, Sinop, Izmit, Izmir, Ayasuluğ and Alâiye.