In January 1499, Kemal Reis set sail from Constantinople with a force of 10 galleys and 4 other types of ships, and in July 1499 met with the huge Ottoman fleet and took over its command in order to wage a large-scale war against the Republic of Venice.

The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II gifted 10 of the captured Venetian galleys to Kemal Reis, who stationed his fleet at the island of Cefalonia between October and December.

In September, Kemal Reis assaulted Voiussa and in October he appeared at Cape Santa Maria on the Island of Lefkada, before ending the campaign and returning to Constantinople in November.

Doge Agostino Barbarigo asked the Pope and the Catholic Monarchs for help, and on 24 December a Spanish–Venetian army commanded by Gonzalo de Córdoba took Cephalonia, temporarily stopping the Ottoman offensive on eastern Venetian territories.

The Ottoman incursions in Dalmatia escalated to the point where Venice was forced to sign a treaty with Vladislaus II of Hungary and Pope Alexander VI by which they pledged 140,000 ducats a year for the Kingdom of Hungary to actively defend its southern Croatian territories, which aided the defence of Venetian Dalmatia, signed after long negotiations on 13 May 1501.

[1] In 1503, Turkish cavalry raids reached Venetian territory in Northern Italy, and Venice was forced to recognize the Ottoman gains, ending the war.