The Cretan War (Greek: t eµ) or War of Candia (Italian: Guerra di Candia), as the Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War is better known, was a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta, the Papal States and France) against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States, fought over the island of Crete, Venice's largest and richest overseas possession. The war lasted from 1645 to 1669 and was fought in Crete and in numerous naval engagements and raids around the Aegean Sea, with Dalmatia providing a secondary theater of operations.