Great Turkish War

Great Turkish War
Part of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the Russo-Ottoman wars and the Polish–Ottoman wars
From top left: The Battle of Vienna, the Siege of Buda, the Azov campaigns, the Battle of Zenta
Date 14 July 1683 – 26 January 1699 (15 years, 6 months, 1 week and 5 days) Location Central Europe Eastern Europe Balkans Result Holy League victory Territorial changes The Habsburg monarchy wins lands in Hungary, the Principality of Transylvania and the Balkans Poland–Lithuania captures Podolia Russia captures the port of Azov Venice captures Morea and inner Dalmatia.
Belligerents
Holy League: Holy Roman Empire Poland–Lithuania Tsardom of Russia Republic of Venice Spanish Empire	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Leopold I Charles of Lorraine Eugene of Savoy Louis of Baden Rüdiger Starhemberg John III Sobieski Jan Jabłonowski Kazimierz Potocki Peter I Vasily Golitsyn Boris Sheremetev Francesco Morosini Bajo Pivljanin † Wilhelm Königsmarck Girolamo Corner	Mehmed IV Suleiman II Ahmed II Mustafa II Mustafa Pasha  Kara Ibrahim Pasha Süleyman Pasha  Köprülü Pasha † Mehmed Pasha † Hüseyin Pasha Morto Hüseyin Pasha
Strength
88,100[1] 27,000[2] 200,000[3]	150,000[4]
Casualties and losses
135,000 killed or wounded[5]	175,000 killed or wounded[5]
384,000 military deaths[5]

The Great Turkish War (German: Großer Türkenkrieg) or The Last Crusade,^[6] also called in Ottoman sources The Disaster Years^[7] (Turkish: Felaket Seneleri), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, Venice, Russia, and the Kingdom of Hungary. Intensive fighting began in 1683 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The war was a resounding defeat for the Ottoman Empire, which for the first time lost substantial territory, in Hungary and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as in part of the western Balkans. The war was significant also for being the first instance of Russia joining an alliance with Western Europe. Historians have labeled the war as the Fourteenth Crusade launched against the Turks by the papacy.^[8]

The French did not join the Holy League, as France had agreed to reviving an informal Franco-Ottoman alliance in 1673, in exchange for Louis XIV being recognized as a protector of Catholics in the Ottoman domains.

Initially, Louis XIV took advantage of the start of the war to extend France's eastern borders in the War of the Reunions, taking Luxembourg and Strasbourg in the Truce of Ratisbon. However, as the Holy League made gains against the Ottoman Empire, capturing Belgrade by 1688, the French began to worry that their Habsburg rivals would grow too powerful and eventually turn on France. Therefore, the French besieged Philippsburg on 27 September 1688, breaking the truce and triggering the separate Nine Years' War against the Grand Alliance, which included the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, and after the Glorious Revolution England as well. The war drew Imperial recources to the west and relieved the Turks.

As a result, the advance made by the Holy League stalled, allowing the Ottomans to retake Belgrade in 1690. The war then fell into a stalemate, and peace was concluded in 1699 which began following the Battle of Zenta in 1697 when an Ottoman attempt to retake their lost possessions in Hungary was crushed by the Holy League.

The war largely overlapped with the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), which took up the vast majority of the Habsburgs' attention while it was active. In 1695, for instance, the Holy Roman Empire states had 280,000 troops in the field, with England, the Dutch Republic, and Spain contributing another 156,000 specifically to the conflict against France. Of those 280,000, only 74,000, or about one quarter, were positioned against the Turks; the rest were fighting France.^[9] Overall, from 1683 to 1699, the Imperial States had on average 88,100 men fighting the Turks, while from 1688 to 1697, they had on average 127,410 fighting the French.^[10]