The reasons behind the failure to withstand the Turkish expansionism.

The most significant reasons that led to the Turkish occupation were the political instability in Genoa and the lack of financial support. The increasing negligence of the Genoese was coupled by the Turkish claims of 1534 and 1552 stated by the Sultan himself that considered Chios as part of his dominions. Being isolated from their home country, the Mahonesi of Chios suffered the disadvantages of being adversely treated by Genoa’s enemies that considered them Genoese, without enjoying any privileges deriving from the Genoese citizenship. After the fall of Chios, the only remaining Christian and Western European outpost in the Levant was Crete under Venetian rule that followed the same fate a century later after the siege that lasted between 1648 and 1669. No other Western European nation or State would return to the Levant till 1878 when the British annexed the island of Cyprus by the Turks.