War between the Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire
To what extent the defeat of the Ottoman armies at the doors of coming in 1683 was due to a bad leadership?
From the sixteenth century from 1529 to 1683 Vienna was going to be the primary location of the challenge between two cultures, the Ottoman Empire in front of the Roman Empire directed by Emperor Carlos V;Islam against Christianity; . In 1529 Sultan Solimán I the Magnificent with his Ottoman troops carried out his first military operation against Vienna. Soon in 1683 the Ottoman Empire again set its goal in the city of Vienna as the first significant bastion to settle and resided again in a position to prosper in its European conquests. For this reason, the trial will be carried out based on the following question. To what extent the defeat of the Ottoman armies at the doors of Vienna in 1683 was due to a bad leadership? For this, two main sources were chosen from where true and reliable information will be obtained that will be used to carry out in this historical research .
As the first source is to the 3Viajes website, it is a travel blog that pursues a very clear goal since its inception: inspire to travel through its publications. Coral blog during its first 7 years, is currently edited by one of its founders, Manuel Aguilar.
The articles published in 3viajes are created from the experiences of their editors, collaborators and guest authors, and always express points of view and personal opinions. They are also open to collaborations or guest articles whenever they tell personal experiences that can be useful for readers, and that does not carry n links to commercial websites (not justified).
The second source is an editorial called Rei Military History whose initial scope is a collection dedicated to military historiography, its foundation was carried out after years of carrying out an informative work regarding military history through various websites and digital publications . The people who form HRM editions are moved by a passion for this discipline that crystallizes in the choice of titles and a competitive price. Regarding the first aspect, books whose themes have been little or nothing treated in our language but that arouse a particular interest are published mainly. Regarding the second, they offer very worked and rigorous texts with a correct extension, illustrated with all the necessary maps to follow the narration, and with the photos and images that allow a better follow -up of the text.
His intention is triple: on the one hand it covers some theme lagoons in historiography in our language, on the other promotion Hispanic-speaking authors of this discipline, who have always been at a clear disadvantage before Anglo or Franco-speaking writers in the choice of titles of great publishers. Finally, and this is the most ambitious objective, it is to help with its contribution to create a cast of historians to consolidate military history as a cultural manifestation, in its various aspects either academic, informative, multidisciplinary, among others and with the capacity tocompete on equal terms with other pages of equal content.
From the sixteenth century -and for more than two hundred years -two powerful empires would collide in Centroeuropa for the control of the Danube: the Austrian empire of the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empire. Vienna turned out to be one of the main pulse scenarios between these two titans, and suffered twice the siege of the Turkish army. Your urban center would be marked forever.
The Vienna site, in 1529, was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire to capture the city of Vienna, and thereby advance in the conquest of Western Europe. The march was led by Sultan Solimán I the Magnific.Despite having a force between 120.000 to 300.000 Men, and the march to the Austrian capital was very difficult for the forces of Suliman I, due to the hard climatology that accompanied them from the beginning of the campaign, on May 10, 1529, until its arrival at the Vienna Walls, By the end of September.
The square had few defenders, no more than 10.000, but in view of what was coming the soldiers of the Habsburg, under the expert orders of Niklas Graf Salm, 70, reinforced the walls and raised new bastions and ramps wherever it was necessary. After a month of site and without being able to dynamit the walls or enter the city after numerous assaults, Suliman I had to make the determination to retire, since the site was very long and the hard winter that was coming did not go toBe very bearable for weakened and demoralized troops. Anyway, the withdrawal was painful due to an advanced and especially hard winter, and the difficulties that Ottomans found in all the way back to Constantinople.
This and successive military campaigns showed that Vienna was located at the distance limit that could handle the logistics capacity of the Ottoman Empire. Anyway, the first site in Vienna was not entirely disastrous, since Suliman and strengthened his control of southern Hungary and violated so much damage to the rest of the Austrian lands through which King Fernando I could not counteract the Muslim boldnessWith a counterattack.
At the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was again in a position to advance in its European conquests, and again fixed its gaze in the city of Vienna as the first important bastion to possess. The capture of the city of Vienna had long since it was a strategic objective for the Ottoman Empire, due to its privileged geopolitical situation: Vienna managed the commercial routes of Central Europe and dominated navigation through the Danube.
More than 100 years ago (1529) that the first Turkish siege to Vienna had failed, so this time the Ottoman Empire prepared conscientiously for the new assault. These preparations included the recruitment of an army of 138.000 men as well as the repair and construction of new roads and bridges to mobilize it from the Balkans to Austria, and the creation of new logistics centers with which to supply the army of cannons and gunpowder during the new campaign.
In the political sphere, the Ottoman Empire had been helping the Hungarian factions that wanted to free themselves from the yoke of the Habsburgs militarily, as well as the Protestant sectors that were threatened by the militant Catholicism of Rome and Austria. In 1681, these Hungarian forces, led by Imre Tököly, were significantly reinforced by Constantinople, which recognized Imre as king of "the high Hungary" (included the east of Slovakia and parts of the northeastern Hungary), which had been taken away years agoTo Austria. This Ottoman support included the promise of delivering "the kingdom of Vienna" to the Hungarian if they helped them in their conquest.
During the following year, Imre Tököly’s troops dedicated themselves to the Austrian troops on the border, and several incursions of these in Hungary served as an excuse to Constantinople to make up their entire army, under the command of the great vizier kara mustafa pasha. The declaration of war that followed left no doubt about the future of Vienna in case it fell into Turkish hands: Mehmed IV, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, wrote this letter to Leopold I, Austrian emperor: “First, we order him to wait for us in hisResidence of the city of Vienna where we will proceed to its decapitation. We will exterminate VD. And to his followers … children and adults, all will be exposed to the most atrocious torture before ending them in the most ignominious imaginable way … "
July 7, 1683, 40.000 Tátaros soldiers under the orders of the great vizier Pasha reached 40 km from Vienna. They folded the defenders in number, and got Leopoldo I and 80.000 Vienneses flee from Vienna and take refuge in Linz. At that time Vienna was not for Habsburg what was Constantinople for the last Byzantine emperor in 1453. The fall of Vienna would not have meant the end of the empire, and that is why Leopoldo I decided to retire with the court to Passau during the course of the contest. Although Kara Mustafa had managed to assemble an army of 200.000 men, his lines of communication were so stretched that although he had taken Vienna, it would not have been possible to advance more towards the interior of Austria.
The bulk of the Turkish army arrived in Vienna finally on July 14, 1683, where 11 were waiting for him.000 soldiers and 5.000 Austrian civilians who did not want to capitulate. The Viennese had demolished the houses that surrounded the exterior of the city walls opening a great plain that would leave the Turks exposed in their attacks. Kara Mustafa Pasha overcame that obstacle by ordering her forces to digs trenches and trenches in that space around the city.
The 300 Ottoman cannons were outdated and did not excessively punish Vienna’s walls, so the Ottomans changed plans and dedicated themselves to excavating tunnels under them with the aim of dynamiting them and gradually weakening their structure. At this point, the Turks basically had two options to conquer the city: take it to the assault or besiege for months. The first option was an almost certain success, since they exceeded the defenders in number of 20 to 1. They decided the second option to minimize the casualties and take the city intact, at the cost of giving more time to Leopold I to react to the progress of events.
On September 6, the Polish army crossed the Danube for Talln, 30 km northwest of Vienna, and joined the imperial forces and the rest of additional troops from Saxony, Bavaria, Baden, Franconia and Sosabia that had come toPope Innocent Xi’s call to coaligate against the Ottoman Empire.
The Central European Multinational Army was organized under the undisputed command of the Polish Juan III Sobieski and its heavy cavalry, strongly motivated because it was for them to defend Christianity. Kara Mustafa Pasha failed to cohes with so much her own army, also plurinational, since internal dissensions emerged immediately and the Khan of Crimea, which felt aggravated on several occasions and did not employ her 30.000 riders thoroughly in the contest, as well as the Balakian and Moldavos allies, who fought against their will as oppressed by Constantinople.
The Ottomans had already begun the mass assault on Vienna when the Polish infantry attacked them on the right flank, but far from deviating from their target, the Turkish relief forces continued to enter the city. After 12 hours of fighting, the heavy cavalry of Sobieski, about 20.000 riders who had been observing the battle from the top of the Kahlenberg hill (the other name so the battle is known), he pounced to the morning load on the bulk of the Ottoman army camping in front of the walls.
The attack was led by Sobieski himself, at the head of 3.000 Poles Hussar Lancers. This load broke the Turkish lines, which were already exhausted in themselves after fighting without barracks for hours. In addition, the remains of the Vienna defender garnish threw themselves into the assault with their companions Poles. In less than 3 hours, the Christian forces had won the battle and saved Vienna of the capture, while the remains of the Ottoman Army fled south and this. After the end of the battle, Juan III Sobieski is said to paraphrased Julio César saying: "Veni, Vidi, Deus Vicit" – "I arrived, I saw, and God conquered".
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