How the Habsburgs Stopped the Ottoman Advance into Europe
In this article I will go through some of the overlooked factors that contributed to Habsburgs stopping the Ottoman onslaught in 16-17th centuries.
The Battle of Vienna in 1683 is widely known. Following a two months long siege, the Christian relief army consisting of Imperial and Polish troops decisively defeated the Ottoman army. The image of Polish winged hussars charging down the Kahlenberg hill made its way into popular culture. This crushing defeat of the Ottomans also marked the end of their expansion into Europe. In the Great Turkish War that followed, the Habsburgs were able to reclaim the territory of the historic Kingdom of Hungary by 1699.
But the true historic context of this battle is much less known. Most of the time it’s just lazily placed in a wider story of the millennium-long clash of civilizations between Christendom and Islam, often mentioned next to battles such as Tours and Lepanto. However the story of the Battle of Vienna belongs to a very specific context of Habsburg-Ottoman wars in Central Europe. This conflict started in 1526 when the Ottomans defeated the army of Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács and pushed their land borders right next to the Habsburgs. From 1526 to 1683 the Ottomans attempted several large invasions into Habsburg lands, and the Habsburgs attempted campaigns deep into Ottoman territory as well. But most of this war was characterized by constant frontier warfare and raiding on the territory of what was once medieval Kingdom of Hungary.
In this article I will describe some of the interesting and overlooked aspects of this war, which have contributed to the Habsburg success of stopping the Ottoman advance.