Battle of Vienna: Prelude

Ottomans, Poles, Austrians, Germans, Catholics, Muslims, sieges, cavalry charges, heroics, awesome quotes, coffeehouses, secret messengers, strangulation and subterranean battles ALL IN ONE STORY.

I'm just saying.

After eight months of researching I finally have enough material to write a new post. Crazy, you think? or perhaps lazy... No. Dedication. Dedication towards my passion of history makes me thorough. I have travelled far and wide, endured hardships that are unimaginable, and danced with death itself all to bring to you an unspoiled and rich story that will send you on an emotional roller coaster and heal your troubled soul. I ask you to stand with me this day and count yourself among the blest to be educated once again at the feet of my blog. Just stare at the shiny colored box for a few minutes and come away a better person.

By the way, it's so good it'll be a trilogy.

In 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and finally brought an end to the Roman Empire. Wuh huh? Yes, the Romans. Christian Romans too. But they were Orthodox, unfortunately for them, not Catholic or those stubborn followers of Luther and Calvin, so nobody in Western Europe really cared at that point.

Taking Constantinople was more of a blow logistically for Western Europe than sentimentally. Control of Constantinople means control of the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean militarily and commercially. Within a hundred years the Ottomans the largest empire in the world, the strongest navy, a sizable treasury and were continuing to add to it all year by year. Europe, feeling threatened, tried to balance out the Ottoman threat that the Byzantine Empire was successfully keeping at bay for centuries, no thanks to the west.

"Oh. Maybe we should've helped the Byzantines. I mean, they are Orthodox... that could possibly have been important–maybe. or something... a little at least...Crap this is going to bite us in the arse isn't it? I sense foreshadowing..."

The Ottomans steadily grew, taking Serbia, Bulgaria, the Holy Land, Egypt, Mecca, Medina, Rhodes, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Crimea, Mesopotamia, Hungary, all the way down to Ethiopia, up to the Caspian Sea, and were knocking on the doors of Vienna in 1529. The Ottomans laid siege in late September. It rained and snowed. Everybody complained and so they retreated–losing many soldiers in the process.

Fast forward to 1682. A lot of stuff went down in between: white folk Livin' in America, the KJV, Michelangelo paints stuff, Spanish take over Latin America, 30 Years' War, the Tudors, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, the Portuguese are trading with the Japanese, the Ottomans are still on top and Kara Mustafa Pasha became Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

Grand Vizier you ask? Oh you know...

This guy is the villain of our story and pretty much universally recognized as such. Greedy too. His Sultan, Mehmed IV is itching for a chance to get control of Central Europe through Vienna. In the winter of 1682, the Turks mobilized for a full scale attack. In August they declared war on the Holy Roman Empire. They spent years preparing for this: freeing up the treasury, training soldiers, building highways, etc.

They should have waited until the spring of 1683 to declare war. They could not risk getting to Vienna as fall was approaching. Rain, snow, complaining... so they just declared war and waited.

The Europeans were not waisting any time. In March of 1683 the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, and King Jan III Sobieski (yes that's him) of the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania made pact stating if Poland were attacked in Kraców, Leopold would aid Sobieski, and likewise if Vienna were sieged, Poland would support the Holy Roman Empire. That same day, Mehmed IV sent another declaration, part of which states: "Primarily we order You to await Us in Your residence city of Vienna so that We can decapitate You... (...) We will exterminate You and all Your followers... (...) Children and grown-ups will be exposed to the most atrocious tortures before put to an end in the most ignominious way imaginable..." ...huh...

On April 1, 1683, Kara Mustafa and his force of 110,000 left Thrace for Vienna.

I'll cover that in the next post.