Russo-Austrian Turkish War (1787–1792)
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| date | 1787-1792 |
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| place | Eastern Europe , Caucasus , Aegean |
| output | Victory of Russia |
| consequences | Armistice of Giurgiu (1790 with Austria), Armistice of Galatz (1791 with Russia) |
| Peace treaty |
Peace of Sistowa (1791 with Austria), Peace of Jassy (1792 with Russia) |
| Parties to the conflict | |
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| Commander | |
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The cause of the Second Russo-Austrian Turkish War of 1787–1792 was the annexation of Crimea by Catherine II. After the Russian Empress had provoked the outbreak of hostilities with the Ottoman Empire , she succeeded in relieving a large part of the burden of war on her ally, Emperor Joseph II. of the Holy Roman Empire . Its overly defensive warfare led to heavy losses. Later the armies of the allied imperial courts operated more successfully. But Katharina's war goal of smashing the Ottoman Empire proved to be unrealistic. Austria was forced by Prussia to withdraw from the war and to return its conquests.
The Russo-Austrian Turkish War was linked to the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) .
prehistory
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 , a formally independent khanate of the Crimean Tatars was established. Sultan Abdülhamid I (1774–1789) only had religious privileges in his capacity as caliph (head of the Muslims).
Joseph II's trip to Russia (1780)
Shortly before Joseph II inherited the states of the House of Austria, he traveled to Russia in 1780. In her conversations with him, Catherine II indicated that she wanted to renew the Byzantine Empire and install her one-year-old grandson Constantine as emperor in Constantinople . The guest trying to suggest that he could at Rome and the Papal States hold harmless.
Alliance with Catherine II (1781)
Although Joseph believed the empress's plans for chimeras and distrusted her intentions, he forged a secret defensive alliance with her in 1781. This in the vain hope of being able to acquire Bavaria with Russia's support . The fact that he was taken with Katharina's daughter-in-law Maria Fjodorovna ( Sophia Dorothea von Württemberg ), who had let him lay the foundation stone for a temple of friendship at her summer residence in Pavlovsk near Saint Petersburg , may also play a role .
Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio (1782)
the Crimea in Bakhchysarai ,
which Catherine II and Joseph II.
On 4th / 5th. Visited May 1787.
In 1782 the Emperor commissioned Mozart to compose the Abduction from the Seraglio. The topic is the slavery practiced in Turkey , more precisely the sale of Christian women as sex slaves in the seraglio of Turkish dignitaries. The figures of the cruel harem guard Osmin and the human emotions capable Bassas ( Paschas ) Selim convey a differentiated picture of the Turks, who were still regarded as allies by Joseph's mother Maria Theresa .
War Targets (1782)
Shortly after the premiere of the Singspiel in the Burgtheater , Catherine II used the alleged breach of contract by the Turks as an excuse to propose to the emperor a joint attack on the Ottoman Empire, promising him part of the conquests. She now presented the “ Greek Project ” in writing. There was also the creation of an independent " Daciens ". Catherine kept to herself that she had satellite state hereditary property of her former lover Potemkin had determined (Potemkin).
Joseph did not want a war in the east that would have allowed Austria's archenemy Prussia to stab his back. In order not to snub Katharina, however, he went into the division plan. He proposed resigning France as Turkey's main ally with Egypt . He also registered his own territorial claims: Chotyn (Ukraine), Wallachia west of the Olt, a strip of land on both sides of the Danube from Nikopol ( Bulgaria ) upstream, with Widin (Bulgaria), Orsowa ( Romania ) and Belgrade , as well as the area west of a line from Belgrade to the Adriatic Sea , including the Drin Gulf ( Albania ). He would have liked to swap the Peloponnese , Crete , Cyprus and other islands with Venice for Terraferma , Istria and Dalmatia .
Annexation of the Crimea (1783)
The emperor mobilized over 100,000 Croatians and 100,000 men of his regular troops. Another 180,000 men remained in Bohemia , Moravia , Austria and Galicia . From April to August he inspected the entire 1500 km long border between his states and Turkey. This demonstration of military readiness made it possible for Potyomkin to annex the Crimea. Family disputes between the khans served as a pretext. The Russian-backed Khan ceded the peninsula to Catherine. Immediately afterwards, Potjomkin began building the Sevastopol port for the Russian Black Sea Fleet . Under international pressure, Abdülhamid I had to recognize the annexation of Crimea in January 1784.
Catherine's trip to Crimea (1787)
In May / June 1787, Katharina provoked the Sultan again by going personally to the Crimea and the other conquered areas on the Black Sea with great pomp. In Kodak on the Dnieper (Ukrainian Dnipro) Joseph II joined the tour company. Once again the Empress urged a common war against Turkey. The timing seemed propitious, as no disruption was expected from Prussia after the death of Frederick II .
Course of war
Declaration of War by Turkey (1787)
The Ottoman Empire received moral support from Prussia and Great Britain and military support from France. A warring party urged a preemptive strike against the sultan's initial resistance . War was declared on Russia in mid-August 1787. Alexander Suvorov defeated the Turks who landed at the mouth of the Dnieper on October 12 at the Battle of Kinburn . The Russian Black Sea Fleet, however, was put out of action by a storm.
The alliance with Katharina obliged Joseph to assist. He should have taken care of the Austrian Netherlands , where the clergy and estates were storming against his reforms. The emperor decided to form a cordon from the Adriatic to the Dniester (Dniestr in Polish) and to cover this with six army corps, leaving the initiative to the enemy. In this context, Joseph asked Kaunitz with what right a sovereign, for the sake of insignificant conquests, could abandon his subjects, who paid him for their protection. Only a preventive strike against Belgrade was planned, but this initially failed.
Donaufront and Otschakow (1788)
After delaying declaring war on Turkey until February 1788, Joseph first inspected the western part of the cordon. The Imperial forces marched on the long southern front with around 245,000 men, who operated in five groups.
In April the Slavonian corps captured Šabac . The Kaiser personally assumed command of the main army, Field Marshal Lacy was at his side as a military advisor. He moved his headquarters from Petrovaradin (Peterwardein) to Zemun (Semlin). This placed it opposite Belgrade, the siege of which, however, proved to be unexpectedly time-consuming.
To the right of the main imperial army, the Croatian Corps under Field Marshal Lieutenant De Vins had to invade Bosnia , while the Slavonian Corps under FML Mitrowsky der Una operated and besieged Novi . In February Drežnik Castle was taken by General Daniel von Peharnik-Hotkovich . The siege of Dubitza , begun by Feldzeugmeister Karl von Liechtenstein on April 21, 1788, was lifted on the 26th, and the prince had to return across the Una.
To the left of the main army, the Banat Corps marched under FML Graf von Wartensleben to get hold of the section of the Danube near Orschowa . Further to the east, the Transylvanian Corps under FML von Fabris was to invade Wallachia , while the Prince of Saxe-Coburg, with the Galician Corps, had the task of covering the borders of Galicia and Bukovina . Coburg was supposed to establish contact with the Russian army deployed in Moldova under Marshal Rumyantsev-Sadunaiski . Jassy was taken on April 19, the Moldovan prince Ypsilantis was captured and the siege of the fortress Chotin began in May .
The Russians occupied the Vltava in June and defeated the Turkish fleet in the Liman of the Dnieper . But the military situation changed in the same month when Gustav III. of Sweden at the urging of Great Britain and Prussia declared war on Russia . The Swedes threatened Kronstadt , which secured access to Saint Petersburg, but had to withdraw for the time being due to unrest in their own country.
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The campaign quickly turned into a catastrophe for the emperor , and he also contracted tuberculosis . On the other hand, he came up against the main Turkish army. In August, this advanced over a Carpathian pass north of Hercules Bath ( Pasul Poarta Orientală ) into the Banat. Instead of falling on her flank, as Lacy advised, Joseph contented himself with rushing to the aid of the Banat Corps, which had withdrawn behind the pass mentioned above. Another enemy division now entered the Banat along the Danube. A third threatened to stab Joseph in the back via Transylvania. Therefore he ordered the nightly retreat from Karánsebes on September 17th . In the course of this, a dispute over brandy and a false alarm triggered shootings among the troops and the entourage to flee . The army flooded back to Lugoj in disorder . The sick ruler was separated from his officers, even from his groom, and for a while had to get by all by himself.
Only after he had concluded a three-month armistice with the Turks in November 1788 did Joseph II return to Vienna in December 1788. In the meantime, the Turks had initially withdrawn towards Serbia . The Bukovinian corps under Saxe-Coburg , supported by the Russians, had conquered the Chotin fortress , the Croatian under Laudon Dubica and Novi (both Bosnia ). But the campaign had cost almost as much money as the entire Seven Years War . In addition to the fallen, 80,000 men died of disease or fell into Turkish slavery.
On December 17, after a long siege, Potjomkin succeeded in taking Ochakov at the mouth of the Dnieper , and the division under General Suvorov stood out.
Campaign 1789
From then on, Joseph II, who had a little more than a year to live, never left Vienna. It was the year of the French Revolution . Not only in the Austrian Netherlands, where the Brabant Revolution broke out in October , but also elsewhere, opposition to his reforms was a problem for the dying .
The Turkish war was generally more successful now. After Field Marshal Rumyantsev was recalled, Potjomkin directed the new operations of the Russian Southern Army in Moldova. The 1st Corps of Prince Repnin was concentrated on the left bank of the Prut at Kozmeszti and on the right bank at Mohila. The 2nd Corps under General Kretschetnikow covered at Kischenew while the 3rd Corps under Suvorov marched at Berlad. In contrast, between the Dniester and the Prut, an Ottoman army of 20,000 men gathered at the end of June 1789. The imperial Galician corps of the Prince of Coburg crossed the Trotus sector , advanced to Wallachia in early June and united with the Russians. In the Moldau, Saxe-Coburg and Suworow won the Battle of Focşani on July 31 . An imperial corps under FML Clerfait defeated the Turks on August 17, 1789 in two victorious battles at Mehadia and Zczupanek and drove them out of the Banat .
Field Marshal Loudon , who had conquered Gradiska, received supreme command of the main army in front of Belgrade from the emperor in place of the sick Field Marshal Hadik . In early September, the allies under the command of Suvorov concentrated around 25,000 men and 103 artillery pieces against around 60,000 Turks under Hasan Pascha and Kemenkesh Mustafa on the Râmnic (Russian: Rimnik ) on the Râmnic (Russian: Rimnik ) on September 22nd in the Battle of the Rymnik . The main Austrian army under Field Marshal Laudon was able to victoriously conclude the siege of Belgrade on October 8, 1789 .
On October 13th Potjomkin forced the Akkerman fortress to surrender, on the 14th Bender surrendered with a Turkish garrison of 16,000 men. Potjomkin took his headquarters in Jassy , Suvorov's troops took winter quarters in Bârlad . The new commander in Transylvania, FML Prince von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen , fought back counterattacks by the Pasha von Rustschuk and defeated a Turkish corps at Porcseny and Weideny on October 7th and 8th. In Wallachia, the troops of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg occupied Bucharest on November 10th and Craiova on November 13th .
Campaign 1790
In the spring of 1790 the K. uk Croatian Army Corps, under the command of Feldzeugmeister Joseph Nikolaus Baron de Vins von Karlovac, set off for the occupied territories of Turkish Croatia . With this campaign, De Vins wanted to stop the Turkish incursions into the border area, to free the parts of Croatia conquered by the Turks, the Cetin Castle, as well as Furjan , Bužim , Ostrožac , Tržac and some other bases. By July, his corps had succeeded in retaking some castles and fortresses, including the important Cetin Castle , which was captured with around 4,000 men by General von Wallisch, Colonel Pejačević and Lieutenant Colonel Gyulay on July 20.
Peace of Värälä (1790)
In order to force Austria to withdraw from the war, Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia concluded an offensive alliance with the Sultan on January 31, 1790. After Joseph II died on February 19, his brother and successor Leopold II allied with Friedrich Wilhelm on July 27 ( Reichenbach Convention ). In June the Swedes defeated the Russian fleet. Saint Petersburg was threatened again. The fact that Denmark declared war on Sweden saved Russia's capital. On August 14th, Gustav III. and Catherine II the Peace of Värälä (Finland), which did not lead to any territorial changes.
On July 19, 1790, the Russian fleet under Admiral Ushakov defeated a superior Turkish landing fleet in the sea battle at Kerch and on September 8 and 9, 1790, a Turkish squadron in the sea battle at Tendra (northwestern Black Sea).
The land troops under Suvorov victoriously ended the siege of Ismail ( Ismajil ) on December 22nd, but massacred numerous Turks and Tatars while taking the city.
Peace of Swishtow (1791)
On August 4th Leopold II concluded the separate peace of Swishtov (older name Sistowa) in Bulgaria with Turkey . He gave up all conquered territories and kept only Orsowa on the north bank of the Danube. As in the First Russo-Austrian Turkish War of 1736–1739 , Vienna's withdrawal from the war was seen as treason in Saint Petersburg. As a result, Russian historiography downplays Austria's share in military successes.
The Russians then continued their offensive on their own. Prince Potemkin was in the advance on Nikolayev on malaria ill (and died of it on 16 October 1791), his successor as commander was Prince Nikolai Repnin , who succeeded on 10 July 1791 the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Măcin beat . This defeat, the simultaneous Russian conquest of Anapa and the defeat of the Turkish fleet on August 11, 1791 in the sea battle at Cape Kaliakra against Admiral Ushakov, forced the Ottomans to sign the Armistice of Galatz .
The Sultan Selim III came to the government . (1789–1807) showed readiness for peace. Catherine II did the same, only Potjomkin opposed. After the latter died in October, nothing stood in the way of an end to the hostilities.
Peace of Jassy (1792)
In the Peace of Jassy (Romanian Iași ) in Moldova on January 9, 1792, the Ottoman Empire received "Dacia" back, but recognized the loss of the Crimea and the northern shore of the Black Sea as far as the Dniester. The Kuban River remained the Caucasian border of Russia .
Effects on the Ottoman Empire
The withdrawal of troops and warships to Europe in 1791 led to the overthrow of the Mamluks , an ally of the Turks - Emir Ismail Bey in Egypt. His successors Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey established a regime that was independent of Constantinople.
The establishment of permanent embassies in London and Vienna (1794), Paris (1795) and Berlin (1796) brought the Ottoman Empire closer to the European state system.
Since the war had shown the backwardness of the military constitution, Selim III. through an army reform. New units were equipped and trained according to the European model. To finance this new order , taxes had to be increased. Plus, traditional units like the Janissaries felt set back. Both led to a state crisis in 1807/08.
literature
Ordered chronologically in ascending order.
- Detailed history of the war between Russia, Austria and Turkey and the resulting northern war. 6 volumes. Joseph Georg Oehler, Vienna 1791–1792.
- Salomo Gottlob Unger: History of the Austrian-Russian and Turkish war, in the years from 1787 to 1792. with Wilhelm Gottlob Sommer, Leipzig 1792.
- Edith Kotasek: Field Marshal Count Lacy. A life for Austria's army. Berger, Horn 1956, pp. 168-185.
- Matthew S. Anderson: The Great Powers and the Russian Annexation of the Crimea, 1783-4. In: The Slavonic and East European Review. Vol. 37, No. 88, 1958, pp. 17-41, JSTOR 4205010 .
- Eduard Winter : Basic lines of the Austrian policy towards Russia at the end of the 18th century. In: Journal for Slavic Studies. Vol. 4, 1959, pp. 94-110, doi : 10.1524 / slaw.1959.4.1.94 .
- Isabel de Madariaga: The Secret Austro-Russian Treaty of 1781. In: The Slavonic and East European Review. Vol. 38, No. 90, 1959, pp. 114-145, JSTOR 4205123 .
- Alan W. Fisher: The Russian Annexation of the Crimea 1772-1783. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1970, ISBN 0-521-07681-1 .
- Stanford J. Shaw : Between Old and New. The Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim III, 1789–1807 (= Harvard Middle Eastern Studies. 15). Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1971, ISBN 0-674-06830-0 , chap. 1, 3-5.
- Karl A. Roider, Jr .: Kaunitz, Joseph II and the Turkish War. In: The Slavonic and East European Review. Vol. 54, No. 4, 1976, pp. 538-556, JSTOR 4207332 .
- Isabel de Madariaga: Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1981, ISBN 0-297-77394-1 , chap. 25th
- Karl A. Roider, Jr .: Austria's Eastern Question, 1700-1790. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1982, ISBN 0-691-05355-3 .
- Paul P. Bernard: Austria's Last Turkish War. Some further thoughts. In: Austrian History Yearbook. Vol. 19, No. 1, 1983, pp. 15-31, doi : 10.1017 / S0067237800000965 .
- Ali Ihsan Bagis: Britain and the Struggle for the Integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Sir Robert Ainslie's Embassy to Istanbul 1776–1794. Isis, Istanbul 1984.
- Erich Donnert : Joseph II. And Katharina II. A contribution to Austria's Russia and Orient policy from 1780 to 1790. In: Austria in the Europe of the Enlightenment. Continuity and caesura in Europe at the time of Maria Theresa and Joseph II. Volume 1. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7001-0712-9 , pp. 575-592.
- Derek Beales : Joseph II. 2 volumes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1987-2009, ISBN 0-521-24240-1 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-521-32488-5 (Vol. 2), Vol. 1, pp. 431-438 (1780 ); Volume 2, pp. 113-127 (1781), 376-388 (1782/83), 507-512 and 555-563 (1787), 568-577 (1788), 589-592 and 606-609 (1789), 644-646.
- Hugh Ragsdale: Evaluating the Traditions of Russian Aggression: Catherine II and the Greek Project. In: The Slavonic and East European Review. Vol. 66, No. 1, 1988, pp. 91-117, JSTOR 4209687 .
- Timothy CW Blanning : Joseph II. Longman, London et al. 1994, ISBN 0-582-05273-4 , pp. 176-180.
- Michael Hochedlinger: "Herzensfreundschaft" - community of convenience - mortgage: the Russian-Austrian alliance from 1781 until the second partition of Poland. In: Claus Scharf (Ed.): Katharina II., Russia and Europe. Contributions to international research (= publications by the Institute for European History, Mainz. Supplement. 45). von Zabern, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2009-4 , pp. 183-226.
- Michael Hochedlinger: Crisis and Recovery. Austrian great power politics between the Turkish war and the “Second Diplomatic Revolution” 1787–1791 (= historical research. 65). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-428-10023-9 .
- Simon Sebag Montefiore : Prince of Princes. The Life of Potemkin. St. Martin's Press, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-312-27815-2 , chap. 26 f.
- Michael Hochedlinger: Austria's Wars of Emergency. War, State and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy 1683–1797. Longman, London et al. 2003, ISBN 0-582-29084-8 , pp. 382-386.
- Matthew Z. Mayer: The Price for Austria's Security. In: The International History Review. Vol. 26, No. 2, 2004, pp. 257-299, JSTOR 40109472 , ( Part I - Joseph II, the Russian Alliance, and the Ottoman War, 1787-1799. ); No. 3, 2004, pp. 473-514, JSTOR 40110517 , ( Part II - Leopold II, the Prussian Threat, and the Peace of Sistova, 1790-1791. ).
- Christoph K. Neumann : The Ottoman Empire in its existential crisis (1768-1826). In: Klaus Kreiser , Christoph K. Neumann: Little History of Turkey (= Federal Center for Political Education. Series of publications. 529). Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-89331-654-X , pp. 283-313.
- Claudia Reichl-Ham: Joseph II's war with the Turks and its processing in a museum. In: Viribus Unitis. Annual report 2004 of the Army History Museum. Pp. 51-80.
References and comments
- ↑ Derek Beales: Joseph II. Volume 1, Cambridge 1987, pp. 431-438.
- ↑ Derek Beales: Joseph II. Volume 2, Cambridge 2009, pp. 104-132.
- ↑ Consisting of the south of Bessarabia , Wallachia and Moldavia to the Olt .
- ↑ Alfred Ritter von Arneth (ed.): Joseph II and Katharina von Russland. Your correspondence. Braumüller, Vienna 1869, pp. 143–157 , ( Tsarskoje Selo , September 10, 1782). In a similar way, Katharina secured the Polish royal throne in 1764 for her former bed-mate Stanislaus Poniatowski .
- ↑ Alfred Ritter von Arneth (ed.): Joseph II and Katharina von Russland. Your correspondence. Braumüller, Vienna 1869, pp. 169–175 , (Vienna, November 13, 1782).
- ^ Alfred Ritter von Arneth, Jules Flammermont (ed.): Correspondance secrète du Comte de Mercy-Argenteau avec l'Empereur Joseph II et le Prince de Kaunitz. Volume 1. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1889, pp. 153 f. , (Vienna, January 12, 1783).
- ↑ Derek Beales: Joseph II. Volume 2, Cambridge 2009, pp. 376–388.
- ↑ " Potjomkin villages " supposedly served as accessories .
- ↑ Derek Beales: Joseph II. Volume 2, Cambridge 2009, pp. 507-512.
- ↑ France's foreign minister Vergennes had previously been ambassador to Constantinople.
- ^ The corps were in Croatia, Slavonia, Syrmia (main army), the Banat, Transylvania and Bukovina.
- ↑ Adolf Beer (Ed.): Joseph II., Leopold II. And Kaunitz. Your correspondence. Braumüller, Vienna 1873, pp. 305-310 .
- ↑ The Russian ships were subordinate to the American Jones and the French Nassau-Siegen .
- ^ Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2, Cambridge 2009, p. 587.
- ↑ Alfred Ritter von Arneth (ed.): Joseph II. And Leopold von Toscana, their correspondence from 1781 to 1790. Volume 2: 1786–1790. Braumüller, Vienna 1872, pp. 198-200, (Lugoj, September 26, 1788), here: p. 200 ; Oskar Criste: Wars under Emperor Josef II. Seidel & Sohn, Vienna 1904, pp. 301–306 , (endangerment of the emperor not mentioned).
- ↑ Adolf Beer, Joseph Ritter von Fiedler (ed.): Joseph II. And Count Ludwig Cobenzl. Your correspondence. Volume 2: 1785-1790 (= Fontes rerum Austriacarum. Dept. 2: Diplomataria et acta. 54, ZDB -ID 575797-6 ). Gerold, Vienna 1901, pp. 307–309, (Vienna, November 28, 1788), here: p. 308 . For the whole chapter cf. Oskar Criste: Wars under Emperor Josef II. Seidel & Sohn, Vienna 1904, pp. 159–176 ; Derek Beales: Joseph II. Volume 2, Cambridge 2009, pp. 568-577.
- ^ Carl von Martens: Campaign 1790. In: General history of the Turkish wars in Europe from 1356 to 1812. 1829, accessed on February 13, 2020 .
- ↑ Christoph K. Neumann: The Ottoman Empire in its existential crisis (1768-1826). In: Klaus Kreiser, Christoph K. Neumann: Small history of Turkey. Bonn 2005, pp. 283-313, here: pp. 285-295.