 The conquest of Rhodes was a major step towards Ottoman control over the eastern Mediterranean and greatly eased their maritime communications between Constantinople and Cairo and the Levantine ports.Later, in 1669, from this base Ottoman Turks captured Venetian Crete.The Knights Hospitaller initially moved to Sicily, but, in 1530, obtained the islands of Malta and Gozo and the North African port city of Tripoli in fief from Emperor Charles V.