In the mid-eighteenth century, most of the Mediterranean coastline and its hinterlands were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, a vast Islamic power regarded by Christian Europe with awe and fear. By the end of the First World War, however, this great civilisation had been completely subjugated, and its territories occupied by European powers. Sea of Troubles is the definitive account of the European conquest of the Levant and North Africa over three centuries. Ian Rutledge reveals the intense imperial rivalry between six European powers - Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary and Russia - who all jostled for control of the trade, lands and wealth of the Islamic Mediterranean. The competition between these states made their conquest a far more difficult and extended task than they encountered elsewhere in the world. Yet, as new contenders entered the contest, and as rivalries intensified in the early twentieth century, events would spiral out of control as the continent headed towards the First World War.

Ian Rutledge is an economist and historian. He earned his PhD in Economic History from the University of Cambridge and has taught at the Universities of London and Sheffield. An authority on the economic and political history of the Middle East and North Africa, his other publications include Enemy on the Euphrates: The Battle for Iraq, 1914-1921 (also by Saqi Books) and Addicted to Oil: America's Relentless Drive for Energy Security.