Atlantic-built ships outgunned Ottoman vessels because they were designed for ocean weather.

Evidence

In 1569, the Sultan’s government considered a plan to dig a canal from the Don to the Volga river, through which Ottoman fleets could sail from the Black Sea into the Caspian. It proved unworkable. Naval expeditions were sent from Ottoman ports on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to help their distressed co-religionists in India and Sumatra, but were no match for the ocean­ going vessels of the maritime powers, built to face the Atlantic, and therefore able to carry a heavier complement of arms and men. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 680

Categorization

• XREF: Material-infrastructure explanation of why the region lost the capacity to repel Europe — dovetails with the representation cluster’s interest in structural, not cultural, causes of subordination.