Feature History - Great Turkish War

this video is brought to you by curiositystream get 26 off an annual subscription using the link curiositystream.com feature history or you can wait until the end to hear more hello and welcome to feature history featuring the polish ottoman russo crimean holy league war we'll just call it the great turkish war this often overlooked war in the often overlooked 17th century contained a plethora of large-scale battles confusing politics and most importantly would be the apex of the ottoman empire the ottomans which i'm sure need no introduction ruled over a vast empire for six centuries but when the empire dissolved in the early 20th century it had actually been the culmination of a long decline that started at the end of the great turkish war in the famed battle of vienna a centre of austria the holy roman empire and of christendom was threatened by one of the largest caliphates to have ever existed but the story of the great turkish war goes much deeper than the smoke of field guns war cries of janissaries and thunder of the polish cavalry in 1683. instead it was the climax of centuries of border tension and ottoman intervention in europe to understand why the ottomans found themselves toe-to-toe with an entire holy league of nations we're going to have to compress those centuries of politics into a few minutes the turkish ottomans first formed as an empire in 1299 but it wasn't until the fall of constantinople in 1453 that the empire had locked itself on a path into europe and against christendom the empire expanded across the balkans the black sea and made significant gains into central europe by the time of the 17th century the century that marked the height of ottoman hegemony inside of europe now you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs and you can't make territorial gains like that without making a few enemies the polish lithuanian commonwealth often found itself at odds with the empire the commonwealth had come about with the union of lebanon in 1569 as the result of two centuries of personal union between polish and lithuanian monarchy in its time it was one of the largest powers of europe the commonwealth waged many wars of expansion but as time continued it saw more and more diminishing returns in 1572 it also saw the end of a dynasty which gave the commonwealth's power to the slacter nobility who continued to elect weak monarchs and this gave way to decentralized government great for nobles bit [ __ ] for stability king vladislav iv vasa would draw up plans for a grand campaign against ottoman incursion in europe in 1632 however after 10 years of planning the schlachter would shoot the concept down this was a great upset to cossacks within the commonwealth these mostly self-governing mostly militaristic communities relied on these wars to make a living and as they began to lose their properties to the nobility they staged an uprising within ukraine in 1647 after suffering heavy losses they would gain a victory over the commonwealth in 1657 establishing an independent cossack state the zaparosian host however in 1666 on the end of one of the many russo-polish wars the two powers divided the ukraine between each other causing the host to begin a military campaign against both sides the zaparojian host would find an ally and oddly enough the crimean incarnate an ottoman vassal crimean tatars would fight alongside the ukrainian cossacks but as the war went into the commonwealth's favor the zaparojian host would surrender itself as a vassal to ottoman sultan mehmed iv in the ensuing polish ottoman war general john sobieski would rise to prominence seeing him elected as king in 1674. the war did not go well for the commonwealth seeing them forced to cede territory in ukraine in 1676 in the same year cara mustafa pasha would be appointed to the rank of grand vizier under the sultan having proved himself formidable in the ukraine war he was emboldened by the empire's success and sought to target the powerful city of vienna which at the time was settled on the ottomans frontier vienna was the capital of austria one of many states within the holy roman empire the austrian habsburg dynasty had dominated hre politics since the 15th century but it was by no means a unified whole the habsburgs had an extensive history of conflict with the ottomans and had suffered many losses against them austrian ally hungary had been partitioned between royal hungary and ottoman hungary in the 16th century leaving virtually no buffer between the austrian capital of vienna and the ottoman frontier ottoman hungary saw many christians flee to habsburg safety as the empire nurtured and built on the islamic and jewish minorities in the region this saw lots of ethnic and religious tension brew in the area and even more tension on the border vienna was of course an obvious target for ottoman expansion against an enemy it had proven more powerful than a large hub of culture and trade the reward and pillage would be astronomical not to mention the message it would send to the papacy and all of europe increased tensions between the sultan and emperor leopold the first emboldened by recent war victories was the perfect grounds for the grand vizier pasha to have battle plans against vienna approved laying the stage for a grand campaign a great turkish war the ottoman army would mobilize and issue a formal declaration of war against the habsburg territory on the 6th of august 1682 however shortly after the war's declaration winter set in forcing their army to wait out conditions as vienna prepared defenses leopold would call to arms his peers within the hre and also begin forging alliances bringing the commonwealth and another longtime ottoman rival venice into the war when winter had passed in 1683 the ottoman army began its march toward vienna their forces bolstered with men from hungary and transylvania settlements in royal hungary would quickly fall to the 170 000 strong army and leopold and his royal court took this time to flee vienna leaving the city in the hands of only its defenders the ottomans would arrive at the heavily fortified vienna in july and begin laying siege the austrian garrison though heavily outnumbered was well protected and outgunned their besiegers a direct assault would be a vicious slaughter the siege would go for months in september supplies within vienna dwindled and the outlook was very grim but then the winged two sars arrived on the 12th of september a massive relief force arrived at vienna headed by john soberski consisting of 47 000 imperial german and 27 000 polish troops the christian forces now numbered 90 000 so the ottomans attrited 157 thousand the battle was pitched on a mountain just outside vienna raging from early morning into nightfall sobeyevsky would personally lead the largest cavalry charge in history of eighteen thousand against the ottoman forces three thousand of which were elite polish lancers winged hussars tired and demoralized ottoman lines broke and the army descended into retreat as the vienna garrison joined the battle sobareski would comment on the victory with venomous vietnamese deus vicious we came we saw god conquered the battle would turn the tide in not only the war but all the centuries of european rivalry with the caliphate the pope would declare the alliance as a holy league and soboesky was hailed as a savior of vienna and western civilization [Music] sobeyevsky attempted to push the advantage with a coordinated counter-attack into the ottomans hegemony in hungary but it would fail to come to fruition the ottomans would do their best to avoid major battles and instead harass the christian army in the years after the siege habsburg forces claimed the city of belgrade and took majority of the pannonian plane slowly over extending themselves in the ukraine ottoman allied tartars and cossacks were also able to defend from attacks made against them by polish and russian forces the russians having joined the holy league in the wake of vienna marking the first time they had ever allied with western europeans venice 2 played its part recruiting mercenaries and holy knights in his campaign of coastal raids against ottoman held islands and shores in greece in 1686 the holy league now primarily under habsburg leadership would lay siege to the city of buddha an important cultural and commercial center in ottoman hungary the city would be captured and the jewish and muslim settlers were slaughtered citizens to the ottomans heathens to the holy league despite the habsburg's almost uncontested advance their forces would be recalled on the outbreak of the nine years war with france in 1686. the war against the ottomans laid dormant with only minor skirmishes and battles on the eastern front the caliphate could take this time to reorganize and recapture belgrade in 1690. the new ottoman offensive saw consecutive victories in hungary across 1695 to 1696. the nine years war would only last nine years though and in 1697 the habsburgs offered a response to the ottoman advance the ottoman army attempted to cross the taissa river when they were met with a surprise attack from the imperial army despite the habsburgs being outnumbered they had caught the ottomans in such a compromising position they were able to kill tens of thousands of men losing only a few hundred themselves and the remainder were routed from the field the battle of zenta would be one of the most decisive victories against the ottomans in all of history and would force the new sultan mustafa ii into signing the treaty of cudawitz in january 1699. the treaty saw the now virtually defenseless territories in hungary the balkans and transylvania turned over to the habsburg monarchy as well as other concessions to venice russia and the commonwealth in the conclusion of the great turkish war it would be one of the largest losses of territory for the ottoman empire and see its doctrine of european expansion abolished christian control of central and eastern europe was cemented and so was the long long very long decline of the ottoman empire the demographics of these regions were also deeply affected by this century-long struggle between the powers of the west and east the diversity of the ukraine the balkans and many other places owe credit to the ottoman and christian struggle and so too do many of the tensions and conflicts they suffer goes to show that all our history no matter how old and no matter how overlooked affects not only the next couple hundred years but the very present day and it should be stressed the great turkish war is only one of many wars between ottomans and europeans and that is also only one part of the religious struggle between east and west if you're interested in getting more of an overview of the holy wars you should check out holy war on curiosity stream holy war is a multi-episode series covering a millennia of conflict between the two largest religions and curiosity stream itself has thousands of more documentaries and originals you can check out the streaming service covers history science nature technology society and beyond and when you nab yourself a subscription to curiosity stream you also get one to nebula which is a website for educational channels like myself where we host our video libraries ad free as well as exclusive content so head over to curiositystream.com feature history and nab yourself 26 off an annual plan to the service well welcome to the end of the video i suppose i ought to thank the patrons and uh what else well next up we're going to be doing a featurette video because i want to go up to the mountains for a week yes that's the reason and fingers crossed in august we'll be doing a feature fittings video again besides that how are you you doing all right that's cool man sick awesome

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Views: 222,946

Rating: 4.9328728 out of 5

Keywords: Feature History, History, Education, Entertainment, Academic, Presentation, Great Turkish War, Battle of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Ottoman Empire, Ottomans, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland, Winged Hussars, Hussars, John Sobieski, War, 17th Century, Polish-Ottoman War, Habsburg-Ottoman War, Habsburgs, Holy Roman Empire, Pike and Shot, Battle of Zenta, Siege of Vienna, Leopold I, Mehmed IV, Mustafa II, Cossacks, Tartars, Crimea, Central Europe, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Venice, Politics

Id: -kUvtuRXdLE

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 14 2020