![]() It’s interesting how selective memories can be in order to suit particular political leanings. And today there are those warning that if Turkey is allowed to join the European Economic Union that the Battle of Vienna would have been fought in vain. Ironically, after being mortal enemies for hundreds of years Turkey and Austria were allies during World War I. The book then follows relations between Austria and Turkey in subsequent years. ![]() The siege lasted a couple months and the Ottomans had managed to breach the defenses and were probably one day away from storming into the central city when relief armies of allied Christian forces arrived. The Ottomans had conquered much of southeastern Europe up to and including Hungary, and since it bordered Austria, it was next in line. A major part of the book is spent telling the story of the second siege of Vienna in 1683 (the first siege was in 1529). The author reviews the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. Thus, two hundred years later in 1683, when Sultan Mehmed IV sent his armies to conquer Vienna he was setting out to take away the capitol city of the Habsburgs who claimed the title of Holy Roman Empire (a title often regarded as a triple oxymoron). I didn’t realize before I read this book that the Ottoman Sultans considered themselves to be the true successors to the title of Roman Emperor because they had conquered the Byzantines and seized Constantinople. But there was another less tangible motivation, the claim of heir to the legacy of the Roman Empire. It was touted on both sides as being a clash of the Godly versus the infidel. This book recounts the collision of empires by describing the many pitched battles that raged for centuries between the Habsburgs and Ottomans and their numerous vassal states on both sides. ![]() The Enemy at the Gate provides a timely and masterful account of this most complex and epic of conflicts. Andrew Wheatcroft's extraordinary book shows that this belief is a grievous during the 400 year struggle for domination, the West took the offensive just as often as the East.Īs modern Turkey seeks to re-orient its relationship with Europe, a new generation of politicians is exploiting the residual fears and tensions between East and West to hamper this change. The Western fears of the East were vivid and powerful and, in their new eyes, the Turks always appeared the sole aggressors. Both sides remained resolute, sustained by hatred of their age-old enemy, certain that their victory would be won by the grace of God.Įastern invaders had always threatened the Huns, Mongols, Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and many others. The Turks had set their sights on taking Vienna, the city they had long called 'The Golden Apple' since their first siege of the city in 1529. Within the city walls the choice of resistance over surrender to the largest army ever assembled by the Turks created an all-or-nothing every last survivor would be enslaved or ruthlessly slaughtered. But Suleiman would fail to take the city.In 1683, two empires - the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna - came face to face in the culmination of a 250-year power the Great Siege of Vienna. It was the furthest the Islamic armies had ever penetrated Europe's heartland. That help came in the form of German Landsknechts, Spanish Musketeers, and Italian Mercenaries. For the time being, however, the Ottomans and their Hungarian allies were going head-to-head with Austrian Archduke Ferdinand I, pushing the Austrians all the way back to Vienna in less than a year.īut Europe's Christian powers were not going to let Austria fall without a fight and so sent help to the besieged city. The Habsburgs, who controlled half of Hungary and all of Austria at this time, weren't having any of it and Hungary was split for a century after. Hungary lost its king and fell into a disastrous civil war which the Ottomans intervened in. He had just brought down the Hungarians, the longtime first line of defense for European Christendom. The Sultan had a reason to be cocky going into the Siege of Vienna. When you drop sick taunts, you must then drop sick beats.
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