Europe: A History by Norman Davies

Author:Norman Davies
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780060974688
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 1996-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Only solace of my heart and soul, my fairest, most beloved Marysienka!

Our Lord and God, Blessed of all ages, has brought unheard victory and glory to our nation. All the guns, the whole camp, untold spoils have fallen into our hands… There is enough powder and ammunition alone for a million men… The Vizir took such hurried flight that he had time to escape with only one horse… [The camp is] as extensive as the cities of Warsaw or of Lwow within their walls … I have all the tents, and cars, et mille autres galanteries fort jolies et fort riches, mais fort riches.… They abandoned their janissaries in the trenches, who were put to the sword during the night… They left behind a mass of innocent Austrian people, particularly women; but they butchered as many as they could… The Vizir had a marvellously beautiful ostrich … but this too he had killed… He had baths; he had gardens and fountains; rabbits and cats, and a parrot which kept flying about so that we could not catch it…27

When Sobieski posted the green standard of the Prophet to the Pope, he appended Charles V’s comment after Mühlberg: ‘Veni, vidi, Deus Vicit’ (I came, I saw, God conquered).

The Ottoman retreat which began that day at Vienna continued by stages for the next 200 years. In the short term it inspired the leaders of the Holy League, organized by the Pope, to press on down the Danube into lands undisputed since crusading times. By the Peace of Carlowitz (1699) Hungary was returned to Austria, Podolia to Poland, Azov to Muscovy, and the Morea to Venice. In the long term it trapped the Ottomans’ European provinces between a concerted pincer movement, with the Habsburgs holding the line of their Military Frontier on the western flank and the Russians advancing relentlessly round the Black Sea on the eastern flank. In this regard the Austro-Russian treaty signed in 1726 played a long-standing strategic role (see Appendix III, p. 1284).

The fortunes of the Ottoman wars swung back and forth. In 1739 Austria was made to disgorge all the gains, including Belgrade, achieved at the earlier Treaty of Passarowitz (1718). But three extended Russo-Turkish Wars—in 1735–9, 1768–74, and 1787–92—left the entire northern coast of the Black Sea in Russian hands. The decisive Treaty of Kücük-Kainardji (1774) gave the Tsar a protectorate over all the Sultan’s Christian subjects, and commercial rights in the Ottoman Empire previously enjoyed only by the French. It marked the onset of the ‘Eastern Question’. Much of the Balkans, however, remained under Ottoman rule. The eighteenth century was a period of slowly rising national expectations, often among people whose first instinct was to support the Ottoman authorities.

Greece was brought into the political arena partly through a growing degree of autonomy, partly through Russian intervention. A class of Greek officials grew up, together with Greek schools to educate them. The tribute of children (the devşirme) fell into abeyance after 1676. Greek society became more consciously Greek. The Venetian presence in Corfu and, from 1699, in the Morea strengthened links with the West.

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