Cossacks european wars battles
Thanks to this swift reaction, the allies gathered a huge army above the Danube that included nearly 21,000 Polish soldiers with 28 cannons 18,500 Habsburg troops and 70 cannons commanded by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine and almost 29,000 soldiers and 50 cannons from allied German princedoms, including Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia and Franconia, commanded by the Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg III and Prince Georg Friedrich of Waldeck. Strategically, this was the correct decision, but less so politically, since Poland’s eastern and southern frontiers remained under threat from Tatars and Hungarians. After Leopold’s plea for help, however, the army was sent to Krakow from where it headed towards the Danube. Polish King Jan III Sobieski initially planned to fight the Turks in Podilia and concentrated his forces in Lviv. Luckily, the two countries had signed a joint anti-Ottoman action treaty a year earlier.
Emperor Leopold I with his court and numerous refugees that outnumbered his army fled the capital and turned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for help. By mid-July, it had completely blockaded the city. In spring 1683, the Ottoman Army gathered in Edirne, marched to Serbia, crossed it and got close to Vienna. The Ottomans used their help to Hungarians in the 1681-1682 revolt led by Prince Imre Tekeli (recognized as the king of the Upper Hungary by the Turks) in the protestant provinces that were disappointed with economic and church policies of catholic Austria as an excuse to once again invade the territory of the Habsburgs. In the second half of the 17th century, Istanbul eagerly helped Ukrainian Cossacks in their wars against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Hungary in their struggle for independence from Austria. The Ottoman Empire played skillfully on the ambition-driven squabbles of European monarchs. Meanwhile, potential allies were torn apart by disputes and disagreements: France and Austria struggled for leadership in Western Europe and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth competed for leadership in Eastern Europe (the conflicts in the 17th century largely concerned Ukraine). THE OTTOMANS MAKE THE FIRST MOVE… AND LOSEĪ slew of failed European Crusades that were supposed to end Turkish aggression in the 15-17th centuries made it clear that none of the countries under the Ottoman threat could resist it on its own.
This lasted until the late 17th century when the conflict escalated to the point of life or death. However, it lacked the unity and agreement to join its efforts in the struggle against the Porte. Christian Europe proclaimed that the advance of Islam was the biggest threat and God’s punishment. The Ottoman seizure of Constantinople in 1453 was followed by the fall of a slew of European capitals and the defeat of many powerful armies.
By that time, the Ottoman Empire’s expansion in Europe had already lasted for several centuries but the Sultan’s army had never been as close to the heartland of the united Christian empire and the legacy of the Roman Caesars – the Holy Roman Empire. The Vienna victory over the Ottomans on September 12, 1683, was a landmark event in the history of the continent for a number of reasons.