Venetian-Austrian Turkish War

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The siege of Belgrade in 1717. Anonymous copper engraving , Vienna, Austrian National Library

The Venetian-Austrian Turkish War (also 6th Austrian Turkish War , 1st Turkish War of Charles VI. Or 8th Venetian Turkish War ) lasted from 1714 to 1718. It represented an attempt by the Ottoman Empire to revise the terms of the Peace of Karlowitz (1699) , and initially began as a conflict with the Republic of Venice . It was not until 1716 that Austria entered the war on the side of Venice. The imperial troops were under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy .

prehistory

The end of the Great Turkish War in 1699 with the peace of Karlowitz , which was catastrophic for the Ottoman Empire , marked a turning point in the history of this great power. Now it steadily lost its military-technological connection and increasingly fell on the defensive. Grand Vizier Amcazade Hüseyin Pascha therefore anticipated a military reform in 1699, the success of which, however, remained limited. He also stimulated the economy through tax exemptions and had new border fortifications built. After his death in 1702, however, an unsteady policy of revanchism again followed under the new Sultan Ahmed III.

In 1699 the Ottoman Empire had to renounce all territories north of the Danube (with the exception of the Banat ) in favor of Austria and recognize the rule of Venice over the Peloponnese ( Morea ). In the following years, their weakness did not allow the Ottomans to retake these areas. At that time there was only a limited war against the Russian tsarist empire , which the Ottomans won with the Peace of the Prut in 1711 . Encouraged by this success, the ambitious Grand Vizier Silahdar Ali Pasha planned the revision of the Karlowitz Peace. First the Ottomans turned against the Republic of Venice, which was believed to be weak. Austria was not expected to intervene, as this was still very much weakened by the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), which had just ended .

The occasion for the new armed conflict were allegations made by the Sublime Porte against the Venetians. These were accused of supporting Serbian rebels in Montenegro. There were also disputes between Venetian and Turkish traders. Under these pretexts, the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Republic of Venice on December 9, 1714.

Military history

The war up to Austria's entry

Johann Gottfried Auerbach : Portrait of Emperor Karl VI. in the robe of the Order of the Golden Fleece

Although the Turkish armaments were soon recognized in Venice, it was believed that they were directed against Austria - an impression that was specifically promoted by the Ottoman side. The land forces and navy of Venice were ill-prepared for armed forces. But it wasn't until the following summer of 1715 that operations began. On June 27, 1715, a 40,000 strong Ottoman army under Silahdar Ali Pasha personally invaded the Peloponnese , while a fleet of 80 ships landed under the Kapudan Pasha Canim Hoca Mehmed Pasha on the island of Cerigo . On the side of the Venetians, there were only 10,000 men and 19 ships under the Provveditore Geronimo Delfino . They essentially only defended their permanent positions on the peninsula, so that the Ottomans were able to take the entire Peloponnese by December 1715.

The Ottomans also succeeded in taking their last possessions on Crete from the Venetians and conquering the island of Tinos .

In the Balkans, with the help of the Pasha of Bosnia, the Ottomans took action against the Venetian possessions in Dalmatia, which they had to cede in the last war. So they besieged the city of Sinj from August 8th to 15th without success (→ Siege of Sinj ).

Austria's entry into the conflict

Citing the Holy League of 1684 , Venice now urged the Habsburgs to intervene in the war. Emperor Charles VI. , whose army and finances had not yet recovered from the War of the Spanish Succession , hesitated. Only when Pope Clement XI. Provided funds and a guarantee of France, the arch enemy of the Habsburgs , for whose possessions arrived in Italy, Charles renewed the alliance with Venice on April 13, 1716. The Ottoman Empire then declared war on Austria.

Course of the war in 1716

The Battle of Peterwardein 1716

Jacob van Schuppen : Prince Eugene of Savoy, oil on canvas, 1718.

In July 1716 a strong Turkish force, whose strength is estimated at 200,000 men, marched towards the fortress Peterwardein on the Danube. An Ottoman army always went into the field with a large train: servants, craftsmen, traders and even ladies of the harem were brought along. The fighting force of this army was probably about 100,000 strong. Prinz Eugen, since 1703 President of the Court War Council , were about 70,000 fighters available. At the beginning of August, both armies met in the area near Peterwardein: Eugen's army stood between the swamps on the banks of the Danube and the fortress, the Turks had built entrenchments on the nearby hills and were therefore in a better position. Eugen's generals advised to behave defensively: Either one should concentrate on defending the fortress or wait in the entrenchments on the banks of the Danube. However, this proposal contradicted the offensive attitude of the prince, and so he ordered the attack on the Ottoman positions for August 5th.

At the beginning of the battle the center of the imperial troops was in distress; the order of battle threatened to collapse. However, by means of a personally led cavalry maneuver, Prince Eugene succeeded in rolling up the Turkish front from the left flank: The light Ottoman riders were literally ridden down by the imperial cuirassiers . After five hours of fighting, the battle was over. It had killed around 30,000 Turks and 5,000 imperialists, including the Grand Vizier, and brought the troops of Charles VI. rich booty: the entire Turkish tent city, five horse tails , 156 flags, artillery, ammunition, horses, buffalo, camels, 12,000 sacks of rice, 2,500 barrels of flour, 1,000 wagons of oats, 500 wagons of coffee, 500 wagons of biscuits, ... In honor of this victory the Pope let all the bells of Rome ring and sent the prince a consecrated hat and sword, while the Reichstag granted the emperor additional Turkish taxes .

Then Prince Eugene wanted to strategically exploit his victory. His river flotilla, however, was not sufficient for a siege of the Belgrade fortress between the Danube and the Sava , which the Ottomans had recaptured in 1690. So he decided to attack the Temesvár fortress , the center of the Banat. The siege, which began in August, ended in October with the surrender of the crew, who were granted free retreat. With the surrender of Temesvár, 164 years of Turkish sovereignty over the Banat, the last region of the old Kingdom of Hungary , which was still held by the Ottomans, ended.

Operations in the Mediterranean 1716

After the fall of the Peloponnese and the last Venetian outposts on Crete, operations were concentrated in the Ionian Sea . From July 5, 1716, the Ottomans gathered a force and a fleet under Kapudan Pascha Janum Cogia near Butrint . On July 8, 1716 there was a first sea battle off Corfu between 27 Venetian ships under Admiral Andrea Corner and a stronger Ottoman fleet (→ Battle of Corfu ). The fight ended in a draw, with 360 dead on the Venetian side. This cleared the way for about 20,000 infantry and 2000 horsemen to land at Gouvia and Ypsos. The scheduled siege of Corfu began on July 25th . The Venetians succeeded again on August 14th in smuggling around 1200 men into the fortress. With these the commandant Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg was able to assert himself against all Turkish attacks. The Ottoman troops finally withdrew from the island at the end of August, with heavy losses.

After 10 days, the Venetian troops under the command of Schulenburg counterattacked and took Butrint.

Course of the war in 1717

The Battle of Belgrade 1717

The Belgrade mortar

The next destination was Belgrade. The fortress was located between the bends of the Sava and Danube rivers and could only be attacked directly from the south. Thanks to this strategically favorable location, it held a key position in the Balkans for both the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. Prince Eugene, who was badly wounded during the siege of the city in 1688 , pushed the construction of a powerful Danube flotilla with the support of the emperor: Its task was to stand up to the battle-tested Turkish Danube forces and to secure supplies for the imperial army. The crews for the hastily deployed fleet were quickly recruited from the Habsburg Netherlands .

Eugen left Vienna on May 13th, 1717 and arrived on May 21st with his troops in Futog on the Danube. Before all the troops were fully assembled, he marched on June 9, 1717 with around 70,000 men on Belgrade. He wanted to begin the siege as soon as possible so that the city could be taken before a Turkish army arrived. The first problem was the approach: Since the fortress could only be reached from the south, either the Sava or the Danube had to be crossed. The direct route was across the narrow Sava, but it was within range of the fortress guns. On the advice of one of his generals, however, they chose to cross further east across the Danube. Since the Ottomans hadn't expected this, the translation from June 15th to June 16th succeeded without significant resistance. Artillery positions and trenches were quickly built, as well as entrenchments in the rear of the army, the later so-called eugenic lines, as Eugen had been told that a 150,000-strong Ottoman army was approaching. On July 28th the relief army arrived, which in turn dug entrenchments. The besiegers themselves were besieged, and Eugen's original plan to bleed the relief army to death in front of the eugenic lines and then take the city failed because the Ottoman forces did not launch an attack. Instead, his troops were now caught between the fortress and the Ottoman army. Many of his soldiers died as a result of raids, fire attacks, cannonades from two sides and malaria from the nearby Danube and Saveau valleys.

The situation was dangerous because the Ottomans had enough time to slowly rub off the Christian troops. The rescue came on August 14th when Belgrade was suddenly shaken by a huge explosion: a mortar hit the powder magazine of the fortress and around 3,000 Turkish defenders died in one fell swoop. The following day, Eugene ordered a surprise attack on the Turkish relief army for the night of August 16. The infantry should attack in the center, the cavalry on the flanks. Except for the crew of the trenches in front of the fortress, everyone should take part in the attack.

Since a night attack was a novelty at the time, the surprise succeeded. When it was getting light after hours of nightly fighting, the Ottomans used a gap in the center of the imperial for a counterattack. Eugene sent his reserves into the gap and put himself at the head of the cavalry. The Turkish counterattack was repulsed and the Turkish entrenchments were stormed, whereupon the Turkish order of the battle fell into disarray and the retreat began. At 10 a.m. the battle was won. The occupation of Belgrade capitulated on August 18, 1717 and withdrew from the city in safe conduct. The Turkish casualties amounted to around 20,000 men, as well as once again large stocks of ammunition, cannons and food. In contrast, the imperial losses were only 5,400.

The highest ranking Austrian dead before Belgrade were the Lieutenant Field Marshal Prince Joseph Anton von Lobkowitz and Count Johann Georg von der Hauben , as well as Sergeant General Baron Damian Casimir von Dalberg .

The folk song of Prinz Eugen, the noble knight , which has been handed down to this day , tells the story of this battle.

Operations in the Mediterranean 1717/18

South of the Peloponnese there was a first encounter between the Venetian fleet (26 ships of the line) and the Turkish naval forces (37 ships of the line) at the beginning of summer in the battle of Lemnos (June 12-16, 1717), which ended in a draw. On July 19, the fleets clashed again off Cape Matapan ( Battle of Cape Matapan (1717) ) with 33 Venetian ships and 44 Turkish ships. After nine hours this battle also ended in a draw. The Venetian troops in the Ionian Sea also went on the offensive. The Venetian Field Marshal Graf Schulenburg landed troops on the coast of Epirus near Prevesa and Vonitsa .

In the following year fighting continued unabated in this theater of war. From July 20-22, 1718, the naval forces of both sides met in another naval battle ( Battle of Cape Matapan ), which again ended without a decision. Actions by the land forces were similar. Count Schulenburg undertook another operation with the aim of taking the fortress Dulcigno (Ulcinj). While the siege was still going on, the news of the conclusion of the peace treaty arrived. The fighting continued, however, so that Schulenburg had his troops embarked again on August 12, 1718 with heavy losses.

The Peace of Passarowitz

After the numerous defeats of this war, the Ottoman Empire was ready for peace, as was the emperor, as a new conflict with Spain over Sardinia threatened. In the Peace Treaty of Passarowitz , which came about on July 21, 1718 through British and Dutch mediation, the Austrian conquests were confirmed: Austria received the Banat, western Wallachia , northern Serbia with Belgrade and parts of northern Bosnia . Venice, on the other hand, finally lost Morea to the Turks and left the circle of the great European powers .

With the Peace of Passarowitz, the danger of Ottoman expansion into Europe was finally averted. Austria had the territorial conquests fought for by Prince Eugene confirmed and reached its greatest extent in south-eastern Europe. In the Russo-Austrian Turkish War (1736–1739) , the areas south of the Danube were lost again, but the areas north of it remained Habsburg territory until 1918. The year 1718 is often referred to as the year in which the House of Austria finally rose to become a great power. This thesis is controversial among historians, as the Austrian lands were militarily and politically strengthened, but the state finances were still close to bankruptcy.

literature

  • Walter Hummelberger: The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene . In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (ed.): Our army. 300 years of Austrian soldiers in war and peace. Vienna-Munich-Zurich 1963.
  • Ernst Trost: Prince Eugene of Savoy. 2nd edition, Vienna, Munich 1985.
  • Richard Schmitt, Peter Strasser: Red-white-red fateful days. Decisive battles for Austria. St. Pölten, Vienna, Linz 2004.
  • Renate Barsch-Ritter: Austria on all seas. History of the K. (below) K. Navy 1382 to 1918. Graz, Vienna, Cologne 2000.
  • Hans-Joachim Böttcher : The Turkish Wars in the Mirror of Saxon Biographies . Gabriele Schäfer Verlag, Herne 2019, ISBN 978-3-944487-63-2 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Ernst Werner / Walter Markov: History of the Turks - From the beginnings to the present , Berlin 1979, p. 163–166
  2. ^ Pauli Klebe: Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg defends Corfu against the Turks , in: Military history contributions , 5th year (1991), p. 56
  3. ^ Bernhard von Poten (ed.): Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences. Volume 9, Leipzig 1880, p. 204
  4. ^ A b Walter Hummelberger, The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene . In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (Ed.), Our Heer. 300 years of Austrian soldiers in war and peace . Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1963, p. 102
  5. ↑ Ernst Trost: Prince Eugene of Savoy. Vienna and Munich 1985, p. 243.
  6. ↑ Ernst Trost: Prince Eugene of Savoy. Vienna and Munich 1985, p. 245
  7. ^ Pauli Klebe: Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg defends Corfu against the Turks , in: Military history contributions , 5th year (1991), p. 57
  8. ↑ Helmut Pemsel: Seeherrschaft - A maritime world history from its beginnings to 1850 , Augsburg 1996, p. 278
  9. ^ Pauli Klebe: Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg defends Corfu against the Turks , in: Military history contributions , 5th year (1991), p. 58f
  10. ^ Pauli Klebe: Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg defends Corfu against the Turks , in: Military history contributions , 5th year (1991), p. 60
  11. ↑ Renate Barsch-Ritter, Austria on all seas. History of the K. (below) K. Navy 1382 to 1918 . Graz, Vienna, Cologne 2000. p. 36
  12. ↑ Ernst Trost: Prince Eugene of Savoy. Vienna and Munich 1985, p. 252
  13. ^ A b Walter Hummelberger, The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene . In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (Ed.), Our Heer. 300 years of Austrian soldiers in war and peace . Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1963, p. 103
  14. ↑ a b Ernst Trost: Prince Eugene of Savoy. Vienna and Munich 1985, p. 258
  15. ↑ Gaston Bodart: Military History War Lexicon (1618-1905) , Leipzig, 1908, p. 175 u. 901; (Digital scan)
  16. ↑ Helmut Pemsel : Seeherrschaft - A maritime world history from the beginnings to 1850 , Augsburg 1996, pp. 278-280
  17. ^ Pauli Klebe: Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg defends Corfu against the Turks , in: Military history contributions , 5th year (1991), p. 60
  18. ↑ Helmut Pemsel: Seeherrschaft - A maritime world history from the beginnings to 1850 , Augsburg 1996, p. 280
  19. ^ Pauli Klebe: Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg defends Corfu against the Turks , in: Military history contributions , 5th year (1991), p. 60
  20. ↑ Josef Matuz: The Ottoman Empire. Baseline of its history. Darmstadt 1985, p. 195
  21. ↑ See: Karl Vocelka, Shine and Downfall of the Courtly World. Representation, reform and reaction in the Habsburg multi-ethnic state . In: Herwig Wolfram (Ed.), Austrian History 1699-1815 . Vienna 2004. pp. 79–84