The naval Battle of Navarino was fought on 20 October 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), in Navarino Bay (modern-day Pylos), on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea.
An Ottoman armada, which, in addition to imperial warships, included squadrons from the eyalets (provinces) of Egypt, Tunis and Algiers, was destroyed by an Allied force of British, French and Russian vessels. It is notable for being 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 central factor which precipitated the intervention of the three Great Powers in the Greek conflict were the Russian Empire's ambitions to expand in the Black Sea region at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and Russian emotional support for the fellow-Orthodox Christian Greeks, who had rebelled against their Ottoman overlords in 1821. Russia's intentions in the region were seen as a major geostrategic threat by the other European powers, which feared the disintegration of the Ottoman empire and the establishment of Russian hegemony in the Balkans and the Near East. This induced Great Britain and France to bind Russia in a joint intervention to secure Greek autonomy in a manner which preserved Ottoman territorial integrity.