The '''Battle of Navarino''' was a naval battle fought on 20 October (O.S. 8 October) 1827, during the [[Greek War of Independence]] (1821–1829), in [[Pylos|Navarino Bay]] (modern [[Pylos]]), on the west coast of the [[Peloponnese]] peninsula, in the [[Ionian Sea]]. Allied forces from Britain, France, and Russia decisively defeated [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] and Egyptian forces which were trying to suppress the Greeks, thereby making Greek independence much more likely. An Ottoman armada which, in addition to Imperial warships, included squadrons from the ''[[eyalet]]s'' of [[Egypt Eyalet|Egypt]] and [[Tunis Eyalet|Tunis]],{{efn|The fleet of the [[Ottoman Algeria|Regency of Algiers]] did not participate at Navarino: "Most of the Algerian ships were away on convoy duty when the Battle of Navarino occurred in 1827, and so avoided the severe loss suffered on that occasion by the Tunisian contingent".<ref>{{citation|author=[[John de Courcy Ireland]]|year=1976|title=The Corsairs of North Africa|journal=The Mariner's Mirror|volume=62|issue=3|pages=271–283|doi=10.1080/00253359.1976.10658971}}, at p. 281.</ref>}} was destroyed by an Allied force of British, [[Bourbon Restoration in France|French]] and [[Russian Empire|Russian]] warships. It was the last major naval battle in history to be fought entirely with [[sailing ships]], although most ships fought at anchor. The Allies' victory was achieved through superior firepower and gunnery.
The context of the three [[Great Power]]s' intervention in the Greek conflict was the [[Russian Empire]]'s long-running expansion at the expense of the [[Sick man of Europe|decaying Ottoman Empire]]. Russia's ambitions in the region were seen as a major [[geostrategy|geostrategic]] threat by the other European powers, which feared the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of Russian hegemony in the [[Eastern Mediterranean]]. The precipitating factor was support of elements in Orthodox Russia for Greek coreligionists, despite the opposition of Tsar Alexander in 1821 following the Greek rebellion against their Ottoman overlords. Similarly, despite official British interest in maintaining the Ottoman Empire, British public opinion strongly supported the Greeks. Fearing unilateral Russian action, Britain and France bound Russia, by treaty, to a joint intervention which aimed to secure Greek autonomy, whilst still preserving Ottoman territorial integrity as a check on Russia.
