The war, the pre-eminent episode of sultan Selim II 's reign, began with the Ottoman invasion of the Venetian-held island of Cyprus.
The capital Nicosia and several other towns fell quickly to the considerably superior Ottoman army, leaving only Famagusta in Venetian hands. Christian reinforcements were delayed, and Famagusta eventually fell in August after an month-long siege. Two months later, at the Battle of Lepanto , the united Christian fleet destroyed the Ottoman fleet, but was unable to take advantage of this victory. The Ottomans quickly rebuilt their naval forces and Venice was forced to negotiate a separate peace, ceding Cyprus to the Ottomans and paying a tribute of , ducats.
The large and wealthy island of Cyprus had been under Venetian rule since Together with Crete , it was one of the major overseas possessions of the republic, with the indigenous Greek population reaching an estimated , in the midth century. After concluding a prolonged war in Hungary with the Habsburgs in , the Ottomans were free to turn their attention to Cyprus.
Nasi harboured resentment towards Venice and hoped for his own nomination as King of Cyprus after its conquestβhe already had a crown and a royal banner made to that effect. Despite the existing peace treaty with Venice, renewed as recently as , [ 14 ] [ 19 ] and the opposition of a peace party around Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha , the war party at the Ottoman court prevailed. On the Venetian side, Ottoman intentions had been clear and an attack against Cyprus had been anticipated for some time.
A war scare had broken out in β, when the Ottomans eventually sailed for Malta , and unease mounted again in late and early , as the scale of the Ottoman naval build-up became apparent. Their garrisons were increased, and attempts were made to make the isolated holdings of Crete and Cyprus more self-sufficient by the construction of foundries and gunpowder mills.
