ntil the 18th century, military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Western European powers, which owned territories and had interests in the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean were relentless. In the 16th century, the Genoese were taken away from Chios and the Knights of St John from Rhodes. Part of the inhabitants of these islands asked to follow their sovereigns, and thus many people of Rhodes moved to Malta with the knights. By the 18th century, Venice was the Empire's only real competition in the southern Balkans. Euboea, Venetian dominions in the Peloponnese, Cyclades and Crete gradually fell into Ottoman hands. Whenever control changed, part of the population chose to move. The Cretans, towards the end of the century chose to leave for the Ionian islands which were under Venetian rule, while others chose Venice. Those who left from Nafplio and Monemvasia in the 16th century, settled in regions designated by the Republic of Venice in Istria and Dalmatia. Immigrants from the southern Balkans went as far as Minorca, Corsica and many other areas of Western Europe. The great proportion of the population however stayed on.