Siege of Mehadiye
| Siege of Mehadiye | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ottoman Empire |
 Habsburg monarchy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Under 15,000–20,000 | Thousands | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 3,000 killed | High | ||||||
  Location within Europe  Siege of Mehadiye (Romania) | |||||||
The siege of Mehadiye[a] was a military siege undertaken by the Ottoman Empire against the city of Mehadiye, which had been under Habsburg occupation for a few months. The siege was part of the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718), and resulted in an Ottoman victory.[2]
Background
[edit]From June to September 1715, the Ottoman Empire, led by Grand Vizier Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha, easily reclaimed the Peloponnese, which they had ceded to the Republic of Venice with the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Thus, the Venetian Kingdom of the Morea was no more and had been absorbed into Ottoman territory. Having formed an alliance with Venice in April 1716 and as the guarantor of the Karlowitz treaty, Austria demanded the full withdrawal of Ottoman troops from the region, as well as financial compensation to Venice for the continued violation of the stipulations of the Karlowitz treaty. Confident that they could defeat the Habsburgs and possibly reconquer Hungary due to successive victories in the Pruth River Campaign and the war with Venice, the Ottomans responded to Austria's ultimatum by waging war on 15 May 1716.[3]
Prelude
[edit]Although the war with the Habsburgs began favourably for the Ottomans at Karlowitz, they had suffered two important defeats before the siege of Mehadiye; first at Petrovaradin and then at Temeşvar.[4] Seeking to capitalise on the situation, the Habsburgs launched a campaign into Wallachia and Moldavia, both under Ottoman suzerainty.[5]
The Habsburgs gained ground mostly thanks to boyars who collaborated with them. They progressed until Iași and captured the city very briefly in January 1717 following fierce resistance from the Ottoman garrison. However, a joint Ottoman–Tatar attack was launched on the city shortly after Ottoman vassal Prince of Moldavia Mihai Racoviță asked for assistance from the Nogai Tatars in Yedisan. After this disastrous battle, the Habsburgs withdrew completely from Moldavia, resulting in an Ottoman victory on the Moldavian front of the war.[6]
Thus, the attention of the Habsburgs was moved back to the Banat. Apart from the troops stationed on the Danube and in Transylvania, there were 100 thousand Habsburg soldiers in the Banat.[5] By July 1717, Grand Vizier Hacı Halil Pasha had crossed the Morava flowing through Hasan Paşa Palankası with 30,000 soldiers. He sent a portion of his soldiers to the Banat via Adakale, where they laid siege to Mehadiye which had been under Habsburg occupation for a few months.[7]
Siege
[edit]The Habsburg garrison of Mehadiye consisted of thousands of soldiers, whereas the Ottomans numbered tens of thousands – most likely under 15,000–20,000 since Grand Vizier Hacı Halil Pasha had divided his original force of 30,000. After intense fighting, and with the garrison of the city reduced to 750 people, they negotiated a surrender on 28 July 1717 and were allowed to leave unscathed. Ottoman casualties amounted to 3,000 men.[2]
Aftermath
[edit]Although the Ottomans emerged victorious from the siege, they were to suffer a major blow shortly after at the hands of Eugene of Savoy at the siege of Belgrade. The Ottomans would not capture the city until 1739 during its siege.[8]
With their victory at Belgrad, the focus of the Habsburgs soon shifted to Bosnia, where they sent over 50,000 troops to open a new front. However, this proved to be an even greater disaster than the Moldavian campaign a few months prior. Due to Maximilian Petrasch's failure to capture İzvornik during its siege and Sigbert Heister's unsuccessful attempt to take Novi Grad, Habsburg presence was eradicated from Bosnia as it was from Moldavia.[9]
Notes
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Zinkeisen 2011, p. 384.
- ^ a b Zinkeisen 2011, pp. 383–384.
- ^ Shaw, Stanford J.; Shaw, Ezel K. (1976). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 232. ISBN 9780521291637.
- ^ Ágoston, Gábor (2021). The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 506–508. ISBN 9780691159324.
- ^ a b Zinkeisen 2011, p. 378.
- ^ Zinkeisen 2011, pp. 378–379.
- ^ Zinkeisen 2011, p. 383.
- ^ Karagöz, Hakan (2018). Amedoski, Dragana (ed.). Belgrade: 1521-1867. Belgrade: Institute of History. p. 147. ISBN 978-86-7743-132-7.
- ^ Iorga, Nicolae (2024) [1908]. Afyoncu, Erhan (ed.). Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Tarihi 1300–1912 [History of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1912] (PDF) (in Turkish). Vol. 1–5. Translated by Epçeli, Nilüfer. Istanbul: Yeditepe Yayınevi. p. 1437. ISBN 9786258260717.
References
[edit]- Zinkeisen, Johann W. [in German] (2011) [1857]. Afyoncu, Erhan (ed.). Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Tarihi [History of the Ottoman Empire] (PDF) (in Turkish). Vol. 5. Translated by Epçeli, Nilüfer. Istanbul: Yeditepe Yayınevi. ISBN 9786054052691.