| Battle Of Vienna |
Article Index for Battle Of |
Website Links For Battle |
Information AboutBattle Of Vienna |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BATTLE OF VIENNA | |
| 1683 | |
| battles involving the ottoman empire | |
| battles involving poland | |
| history of austria | |
| history of germany | |
| sieges involving the ottoman empire | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
The Battle of Vienna ( in 1529) took place in the night between 11 September 1683 and 12 September 1683 , finishing about at 5 p.m., and was the first large-scale battle of the Habsburg-Ottoman Wars , yet with the most far-reaching consequences. The battle pitted a 30,000-man Polish relief army under Jan III Sobieski King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , who was made Commander in Chief, and Habsburg army of about 40,000 troops and their allies, led by Charles V, Duke Of Lorraine , against the Ottoman army, commanded by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha , which numbered approximately 138,000 men, although a large number of them played no part in the battle. The siege itself began in 14 July 1683 , and the decisive battle took place on 12 September , when the Muslim armies were defeated at the Gates of Vienna. The battle marked the turning point in the 300-year struggle between the forces of the Central European kingdoms, and the Ottoman Empire . Over the sixteen years following the battle, the Habsburgs of Austria , and their allies gradually occupied and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania , which had been largely cleared by the Turkish forces. PRELUDE To capture the city of On the political front, the Ottoman Empire had been providing military assistance to the Hungarians and to non-Catholic minorities, in Habsburg-occupied portions of Hungary . There, in years preceding the siege, widespread unrest had become open rebellion, upon Leopold I 's insistent pursuit of Counter-Reformation principles, and his burning desire of crushing Protestantism . In 1681, Protestants and other anti-Habsburg forces, led by Imre Thököly , were reinforced with a significant force from the Ottomans, who recognized Imre as King of "Upper Hungary" (eastern Slovakia and parts of northeastern present-day Hungary, which he had earlier taken by force of arms, from the Habsburgs). This support went so far as explicitly promising the "Kingdom of Vienna" to the Hungarians, if it fell into Ottoman hands. Yet, before the siege, a state of peace had existed for twenty years between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire, as a result of the 1682 , and war was declared on August 6 1682 . However, the forward march of Ottoman Army elements did not begin until April 1 1683 from Edirne , in Thracian Anatolia. This strategic mistake provided ample time (almost 15 months) for Habsburg forces to prepare their defense, and to set up alliances with other Central European rulers. PRE-SIEGE MOVEMENTS .]] SIEGE The Viennese had demolished many of the houses around the city walls and cleared the debris, leaving an empty plain that would expose the Turks to defensive fire if they tried to rush the city. Kara Mustafa Pasha solved that problem, by ordering his forces to dig long lines of trenches directly toward the city, to help protect them from the defenders as they advanced steadily toward the city. One goal of this digging was to decrease the stability of the walls around Vienna. Additionally, the Ottoman siege cut virtually every means of food-supply into Vienna, and the population began to starve. (For example, the Viennese cavalry had to start killing their own horses for food. After the later retreat of the Turkish army, the Polish army reported many horse thefts.) Sobieski, the King of Poland, began planning a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683 (warned ahead of time by the Turkish declaration of war a year earlier), when the hard-pressed Turks launched an all-out offensive against Austria. The Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs had clashed repeatedly for more than 150 years, and Kara Mustafa Pasha planned an expedition to put an end to this situation. Starting in March, the Turkish Army moved toward the city, and finally invested it on July 14 . The previous winter, the Habsburgs and Poland had concluded a treaty in which Leopold would support Sobieski if the Turks attacked Kraków ; in return, the Polish Army would come to the relief of Vienna, if and when it came under attack. > The Polish king honored his obligations to the letter; going so far as to leave his own nation virtually un-defended. He covered this with a stern warning to Imre Thököly , the leader of Hungary (then an Ottoman satellite), whom he threatened with destruction if he tried to take advantage of the situation. The battle began with the Turkish forces tunneling trenches towards the city walls, as Kara Mustafa Pasha managed to take part of the walls of Vienna by exploding mines under them. He entrusted defence of the rear to the Khan of Crimea and his cavalry force, which numbered about 30,000. One Ottoman historian writes that due to their previous confrontations and his subsequent humiliation in previous War Councils, Murat Giray Khan of Crimea did not make dispositions to defend the rear against Sobieski. According to this account, after learning of the arrival of the Poles, the Khan instead withdrew his forces. This left vital bridges undefended and allowed passage of the combined Habsburg-Polish army, which arrived to relieve the siege. Critics of this account say that it was Kara Mustafa Pasha, and not the Crimean Khan, who was held responsible for the failure of the siege. On 25 December 1683 , Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade by order of the commander of the Janissaries . BATTLE At 4 in the morning, on September 12 , the Austrian army on the left, and the German forces in the center moved forward, in an attack (which was aimed at preventing another long siege) against the Turks. Mustafa Pasha launched a counter-attack, with most of his force. Then the Polish infantry launched a massive assault upon the right flank. After 12 hours of fighting, Sobieski's Polish force held the high ground on the right. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, four cavalry groups, one of them Austrian-German, and the other three composed of Polish Hussars , totaling 20,000 men in all and led by the Polish king, charged down the hills. In the confusion, they made straight for the Ottoman camps, while the Vienna garrison sallied out of its defenses, and joined in the assault. In less than three hours, the Polish forces won the battle, as the Turkish army beat a hasty retreat to the south and east. The Turks lost about 15,000 men in the fighting, compared to approximately 4,000 for the Habsburg-Polish forces. AFTERMATH .]] army returning with loot after defeating the Ottoman Empire forces sieging Vienna, by Józef Brandt ]] SIGNIFICANCE Although no one realized it at the time, the battle shaped the outcome of the entire war as well. The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years, before giving up. The Ottomans lost control of Hungary and Transylvania in the process, which was finalized by the Treaty Of Karlowitz . In honor of Sobieski, the Austrians had erected a church atop a hill of Kahlenberg , north of Vienna. Also, the train route from Vienna to Warsaw is named in Sobieski's honor. The Battle of Vienna is seen by many historians as marking the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The Battle also marked the historic end of Turkish expansion into southwestern Europe. Culinary Legend s related to the Battle of Vienna
SEE ALSO REFERENCES |