The Ottomans, not England, were the expansionist imperial power in the 1500s-1600s

Evidence

In the seventeenth century Ottoman power was still great. Commercial and diplomatic exchanges with the Porte were coupled with regular military clashes involving mostly Dutch and Ottoman ships in the Mediterranean, but also in the Atlantic. There is no evidence that seventeenth-century Europeans dreamed of dominating the Muslim East. If they did they would have had to be satisfied with a dream. Dutch emissaries in Constantinople plotted to obtain commercial privileges by the grace of the sultan, not to influence the course of his government. Economically the Ottomans could still easily match the West. Militarily, they continued to be an ever increasing threat. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 181 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The jacket blurb of Said’s Orientalism (2003 edition) announces that the author “traces the origins of ‘orientalism’ to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East.” To any historian of the modern Islamic world, this is a puzzling pronouncement, since students of Dutch, British, and French colonialism in such regions as the Malay Archipelago, India, and North Africa would know that these European powers could not widely control, much less effectively or systematically colonize, these vast domains until the middle, if not the later parts, of the nineteenth century. It would be hard to say that modern colonialism became effective (which is to say, performative) earlier than two centuries ago, and thus the unqualified use of “centuries” in the blurb must be traced back to the body of the book where it receives ample clarification. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 53 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Ottoman Empire pushed into Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; Seventeenth-century Europeans did not yet dream of dominating the Muslim East — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 181; European powers could not effectively colonize vast domains until the mid-nineteenth century — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 53

Broader Connections

• The Ottoman Empire pushed into Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries #corroborates (0.95)
• Seventeenth-century Europeans did not yet dream of dominating the Muslim East #corroborates (0.85) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 181
• European powers could not effectively colonize vast domains until the mid-nineteenth century #expands (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 53