The Ottoman–Habsburg wars were fought from the 16th to the 18th centuries between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy, which was at times supported by the Kingdom of Hungary, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Holy Roman Empire, and Habsburg Spain. The wars were dominated by land campaigns in Hungary, including Transylvania (today in Romania) and Vojvodina (today in Serbia), Croatia, and central Serbia.
By the 16th century, the Ottomans had become a serious threat to European powers, with Ottoman ships sweeping away Venetian possessions in the Aegean and Ionian seas and Ottoman-supported Barbary pirates seizing Spanish colonies in the Maghreb. The Protestant Reformation, French–Habsburg rivalry and the numerous civil conflicts of the Holy Roman Empire distracted Christians from their conflict with the Ottomans. Meanwhile, the Ottomans had to contend with the Safavid Empire and also to a lesser extent the Mamluk Sultanate, which was defeated by the Ottomans under Selim I and later fully incorporated into the empire.
Initially, the Ottoman conquests in Europe made significant gains with a decisive victory at Mohács, and reducing around one third of central Hungary to the status of an Ottoman tributary.See Cross and Crescent Later, the Peace of Westphalia and the War of the Spanish Succession, in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively, left the Austrian Empire as the sole firm possession of the House of Habsburg. After the siege of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburgs assembled a large coalition of European powers known as the Holy League to fight the Ottomans and regain control over Hungary. The Great Turkish War ended with the decisive Holy League victory at Zenta. The wars ended after Austria's participation in the war of 1787–1791, which Austria fought allied with Russia. Intermittent tension between Austria and the Ottoman Empire continued throughout the nineteenth century, but they never fought each other in a war and ultimately found themselves allied in World War I, after which both empires were dissolved.
Historians have focused on the second siege of Vienna of 1683, depicting it as a decisive Austrian victory that saved Western civilization and marked the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Recent historians have taken a broader perspective, noting that the Habsburgs at the same time resisted internal separatist movements and were fighting Prussia and France for control of central Europe. The key advance made by the Europeans was an effective combined arms doctrine involving the cooperation of infantry, artillery and cavalry. Nevertheless, the Ottomans were able to maintain military parity with the Habsburgs until the middle of the eighteenth century. Historian Gunther E. Rothenberg has emphasized the non-combat dimension of the conflict, in which the Habsburgs built up military communities that protected their borders and produced a steady flow of well-trained, motivated soldiers.For the historiography see Charles Messenger, ed., Reader's Guide to Military History (2001) 24–26 June.
Origins
While the Habsburgs were occasionally the Kings of Hungary and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (almost always of the Holy Roman Empire after the 15th century), the wars between the Hungarians and the Ottomans included other dynasties as well. Naturally, the Ottoman Wars in Europe attracted support from the West, where the advancing and powerful Islamic state was seen as a threat to Christendom in Europe. The Crusades of Nicopolis (1396) and of Varna (1443–44) marked the most determined attempts by Europe to halt the Turkic advance into Central Europe and the Balkans.Colin Imber, The Crusade of Varna, 1443–45 (2013).
For a while the Ottomans were too busy trying to put down Balkan rebels such as Vlad Dracula and Skanderbeg. However, the defeat of these and other rebellious vassal states opened up central Europe to Ottoman invasion. The Kingdom of Hungary now bordered the Ottoman Empire and its vassals.
The Ottoman conquest of Bosnia in 1463 brought their frontier closer to the Habsburg lands under Frederick III, setting the stage for more intense incursions. The Ottomans raided Carniola in 1469 and launched almost annual raids into Styria after 1471. Carinthia saw five Turkish incursions into its territory between 1473 and 1483, with much plundering and killing at the hands of Ottoman cavalry. These raids led to the Carinthian Peasant Revolt of 1478, as peasants, left unprotected by the nobility, tried to defend themselves and formed a peasants' league to organize their own defense. The raids also prompted the construction of defensive structures like fortified churches and castles (tabor). In 1491, Ottoman raids in the Habsburg territories of Styria and Carniola ended after a significant Ottoman defeat by the Kingdom of Croatia at the Battle of Vrpile.
After King Louis II of Hungary was killed at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, his widow Queen Mary of Austria fled to her brother the Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand I. Ferdinand's claim to the throne of Hungary was further strengthened by his marriage to Anne, the sister of King Louis II and the only family member claimant to the throne of the shattered kingdom. Consequently, Ferdinand I was elected King of Bohemia, and at the Diet of Pozsony he and his wife were elected king and queen of Hungary. However another assembly of the nobility elected John Zápolya, who as the voivode of Transylvania had gained popularity among the magnates (and who had closer ties to the Ottoman Sultan), setting the stage for a conflict between the Hapsburgs and the Ottoman Empire.Béla K. Király, and Gunther Erich Rothenberg, War and Society in East Central Europe: The fall of medieval kingdom of Hungary: Mohacs 1526–Buda 1541 (1989).
List of Habsburg-Ottoman conflicts Austro-Ottoman conflictsSpanish-Ottoman Mediterranean conflictsNameDateResultNameDateResultBattle of Mohács1526Ottoman victoryAlgiers expedition (1516)1516Ottoman victoryHabsburg–Ottoman war (1529–1533)1529–1533Ottoman victoryConquest of Tunis (1535)1535Spanish victoryHabsburg–Ottoman war (1534–1537)1534–1537Ottoman victoryApulia expedition (1537)1537Ottoman victoryHabsburg–Ottoman war (1540–1547)1540–1547Ottoman victoryBattle of Preveza (1538)1538Ottoman victoryHabsburg–Ottoman war (1551–1562)1551–1562Ottoman victoryAlgiers expedition (1541)1541Ottoman victoryHabsburg–Ottoman war (1565–1568)1565–1568Ottoman victorySiege of Nice (1543)1543Christian victoryLong Turkish War1593–1606InconclusiveExpedition to Mostaganem (1558)1558Ottoman victoryAustro-Turkish War (1663–1664)1663–1664Ottoman victoryBattle of Djerba (1560)1560Ottoman victoryGreat Turkish War1683–1699Habsburg victorySiege of Oran (1563)1563Spanish victoryAustro-Turkish War (1716–1718)1716–1718Habsburg victoryGreat Siege of Malta (1565)1565Christian victoryAustro-Turkish War (1737–1739)1737–1739Ottoman victoryBattle of Lepanto (1571)1571Christian victoryAustro-Turkish War (1788–1791)1788–1791InconclusiveConquest of Tunis (1574)1574Ottoman victory
Habsburg advance
The Austrian lands were in miserable economic and financial conditions, thus Ferdinand desperately introduced the so-called Turkish Tax (Türkensteuer). Despite this, he was not able to collect enough money to pay the expenses of the defense costs of the Austrian lands. His annual revenues only allowed him to hire 5,000 mercenaries for two months, thus Ferdinand asked help from his brother Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and started to borrow money from rich bankers like the Fugger family.
Ferdinand I attacked Hungary, a state severely weakened by civil conflict, in 1527, in an attempt to drive out John Zápolya and enforce his authority there. John was unable to prevent Ferdinand's campaigning, which led to the capture of Buda and several other key settlements along the Danube. Despite this, the Ottoman sultan was slow to react and only came to the aid of his vassal when he launched an army of about 120,000 men on 10 May 1529.S. Turnbull, The Ottoman Empire 1326–1699, 50 The Austrian branch of Habsburg monarchs needed the economic power of Hungary for the Ottoman wars. During the Ottoman wars the territory of former Kingdom of Hungary shrunk by around 70%; despite these territorial and demographic losses, the smaller, heavily war-torn Royal Hungary remained economically more important than Austria or Kingdom of Bohemia at the end of the 16th century, as it was Ferdinand's largest source of revenue.István Kenyeres: The Financial Administrative Reforms and Revenues of Ferdinand I in Hungary, English summary at p. 92 Link 1: Link 2:
Technological advantage of the Western Christian forces
The earliest type of Turkish hand cannons are called as "Şakaloz", the word came from the Hungarian hand cannon "Szakállas puska" in the 15th century.
Although Ottoman Janissaries adopted firearms in battles since the beginning of the 16th century, the Ottoman usage of the handheld firearms spread much more slowly than in the Western Christian armies. Wheellock firearms were unfamiliar for Ottoman soldiers until the siege of Székesfehérvár in 1543, despite the fact they had been used for decades by Christian armies in Kingdom of Hungary and in Western Europe. According to a report from 1594, the Ottoman soldiers had not adopted the pistol yet.
In 1602, the grand vizier reported from Hungarian front about the firepower superiority of the Christian forces: "in a field or during a siege we are in distressed position, because the greater part of the enemy forces are infantry armed with muskets, while the majority of our forces are horsemen, and we have very few specialists skilled in the musket"According to Alvise Foscarini's (Venetian ambassador in Constantinople) report in 1637, "few Janissaries even knew how to use an arquebus"
Siege of Vienna
Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent easily wrested from Ferdinand most of the gains he had achieved in the previous two years – to the disappointment of Ferdinand I, only the fortress of Pozsony resisted. Considering the size of Suleiman's army and the devastation wrought upon Hungary in the previous few years it is not surprising that the will to resist one of the world's most powerful states was lacking in many of the recently garrisoned Habsburg settlements.James Reston, Defenders of the faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the battle for Europe, 1520–1536 (2009).
The Sultan arrived at Vienna on 27 September 1529. Ferdinand's army was some 16,000 strong – he was outnumbered roughly 7 to 1 and the walls of Vienna were an invitation to Ottoman cannon (6 ft thick along some parts). However, the heavy cannons on which the Ottomans relied to breach the walls were all abandoned on the way to Vienna, after they got stuck in mud due to heavy rainfall.Spencer C. Tucker, Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict, p. 169Henry Elliot Maiden, Salus Vienna Tua: The great siege of 1683, Chapter 2 "and the absence of his heavy artillery, stuck deep in the soil of Hungarian roads, saved the capital of Austrian dominions..." Ferdinand defended Vienna with great vigour. By 12 October, after much mining and counter-mining an Ottoman war council was called and on 14 October the Ottomans abandoned the siege. The retreat of the Ottoman army was hampered by the resistance of Pozsony, which attempted to attack Ottoman forces. Early snowfall made matters worse, and it would be another three years before Suleiman could campaign in Hungary.
Little War
After the defeat at Vienna, the Ottoman Sultan had to turn his attention to other parts of his domain. Taking advantage of this absence, Archduke Ferdinand launched an offensive in 1530, recapturing Esztergom and other forts. An assault on Buda was only thwarted by the presence of Ottoman Turkish soldiers.