It takes a nation to protect the nation
For the siege of Vienna in 1529 see Siege of Vienna
For the battle of Vienna in
1945 see Vienna
|Battle of Vienna|
|Part of the Great Turkish War and the Ottoman-Habsburg wars|
Battle of Vienna on September 11, 1683
Khanate of Crimea
Principality of Transylvania
Principality of Wallachia
Principality of Moldavia
|John III Sobieski
|Kara Mustafa Pasha|
|c. 84,450 troops
||c. 90,000 troops
|Casualties and losses|
|at least 10,000 dead,
at least 5,000 wounded,
about 5,000+ prisoners taken,
all cannons lost
The Battle of Vienna (German: Schlacht am Kahlenberg, language" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language"">P...:
Bitwa pod Wiedniem or Odsiecz Wiedeńska, Turkish: İkinci
Viyana Kuşatması), Ukrainian: Віденська
відсіч (Viděns'ka Vidsič) took place on September
11, 1683 after Vienna
had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire
for two months. The battle broke the advance of the Ottoman Empire
into Europe, and marked the political hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty
in Central Europe.
The siege itself began on 14 July 1683, by the Ottoman Empire army of approximately 90,000 men. The sieging force was composed by 60
ortas of Jannisaries (12,000
men paper strength) with an observation army of c.70,000 men watching
the countryside. The decisive battle took place on 11
September, after the united relief army of 84,450 men had arrived,
pitted against the Ottoman army.
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 gradually
occupied and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which
had been largely cleared of the Turkish forces.
Strength of Holy League forces:
|Troops||Infantry||Cavalry and Dragoons||Cannons||Total|
|Poland||16,300||20,550||28 + 150 men||37,000|
|Swabia and Franconia||7,000||2,500||12||9,500|
The capture of the city of Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire, due to its inter-locking control over Danubean (Black Sea-to-Western Europe) southern Europe, and
the overland (Eastern Mediterranean-to-Germany) trade routes. During
the years preceding the second siege (the of Vienna" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Vienna"">first
one was in 1529), under the auspices
of grand viziers from the influential Köprülü
family, the Ottoman Empire undertook extensive logistical
preparations this time, including the repair and establishment of roads
and bridges leading into Austria and logistical centers, as well as the
forwarding of ammunition, cannon and other resources from all over the
Empire to these logistical centers and into the Balkans.
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
the years preceding the siege, widespread unrest had become open
rebellion upon Leopold
I's pursuit of Counter-Reformation
principles and his desire to crush Protestantism.
In 1681, Protestants and other anti-Habsburg Kuruc
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 Peace of Vasvár.
In 1681 and 1682, clashes between the forces of Imre Thököly and the Habsburgs' military frontier (which was then northern Hungary) forces intensified, and the incursions of Habsburg forces into Central Hungary
provided the crucial argument of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha in
convincing the Sultan, Mehmet
IV and his Divan, to allow the
movement of the Ottoman Army. Mehmet IV authorized Kara Mustafa Pasha to
operate as far as Győr (Turkish: Yanıkkale,
and Komarom (Turkish: Komaron,
castles, both in northwestern Hungary, and to besiege them. The Ottoman
Army was mobilized on January 21, 1682,
and war was declared on August 6, 1682.
The logistics of the time meant that it would have been risky or impossible to launch an invasion in August or September 1682 (a three month campaign would have got the Turks to Vienna just as winter set
in). However this 15 month gap between mobilization and the launch of a
full-scale invasion allowed ample time for the Habsburg forces to
prepare their defense and set up alliances with other Central European
rulers, and undoubtedly contributed to the failure of the campaign. It
proved most decisive that the Habsburgs and Poland concluded a treaty
during this winter in which Roman Emperor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I,_Holy_R...
would support Poland" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_of_Poland"">...
if the Turks attacked Kraków; in return,
the Polish Army would
come to the relief of Vienna, if attacked.
On March 31, 1683 another declaration, sent by Kara Mustafa on behalf of Mehmet IV, arrived at the Imperial Court in Vienna. On the next day the forward
march of Ottoman army
elements began from Edirne in Thracia. The troops
reached Belgrade by early May,
then moved toward the city of Vienna. About 40,000 Crimean Tatar
forces arrived 40km east of Vienna on 7 July, twice as many as the
Austrian forces in that area. After initial fights, Leopold retreated to
with 80,000 inhabitants of Vienna.
The King of Poland prepared a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683, honoring his obligations to the treaty. He went so far as to leave his
own nation virtually undefended when departing from Kraków on 15 August.
Sobieski covered this with a stern warning to Imre Thököly,
the leader of Hungary, whom he
threatened with destruction if he tried to take advantage of the
situation — which Thököly did.