September 12: Today is the anniversary of the end of the Battle of Vienna, during the Austro-Ottoman War by which the Holy Roman Empire was almost taken by the Turks in 1683.

Five and a half centuries ago, the balance of power in Eurasia was in favor of the Turkish Ottoman Empire that took advantage of the weaknesses of European governments and began to penetrate Europe through Constantinopla (today Istanbul) in 1453.

Kara Mustafa Pasha

The Turks went from Asia to Europe by the Anatolian peninsula and crossed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to conquer Constantinople.

Leopold I of Austria: Holy Roman Emperor.

The Ottomans invaded all territories around of the Black Sea, Bulgaria and Romania; subsequently, they turned to the Balkans and began to climb to Vienna. They threatened the Holy Roman Empire and got to the streets of Vienna.

By May 1683 the Ottoman threat to Emperor Leopold I's capital Vienna was very real. The Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa Pasha – encouraged by Imre Thököly's Magyar rebellion – had invaded with between 100,000–200,000 men; within two months, they were beneath the walls of the Habsburg capital. With the 'Turks at the gates' the Emperor fled for the safe refuge of Passau on the Danube, a more distant and secure part of his dominion.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire became a state of, ethnic, religious, political and economic diversity. There was a long and admirable coexistence of Jews, Christians, Muslims and Persian followers of Zarathustra.

The Austro-Ottoman War was better known in Europe as “The Great Turkish War”, also as the “War of the Holy League”, because they had to form a defensive alliance that included Austria, Poland, Venice and Russia. So they managed to push back the Ottoman-Turks and liberate Transylvania, and almost the entire Hungarian territory which became under control of the Austrian Habsburgs.

The Battle of Vienna, Turkish: İkinci Viyana Kuşatması), took place on 11 and 12 September, 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.

Thanks to the Polish King John III Sobieski, Leopold I could continue to rule the Holy Roman Empire. On January 26, 1699 the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed, which ended the conflict and the beginning of the Turkish Ottoman decline.

Ottoman Empire (1683) 

The balance of power returned to Christian Europe.

Aftermath