Treaty of Karlowitz

The Treaty of Karlowitz, concluding the Great Turkish War of 1683–1697, in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Holy League at the Battle of Zenta,[1] was signed in Karlowitz, in the Military Frontier of the Archduchy of Austria (present-day Sremski Karlovci, Serbia), on 26 January 1699. Also known as "The Austrian treaty that saved Europe", it marks the end of Ottoman control in much of Central Europe, with their first major territorial losses, beginning the reversal of four centuries of expansion (1299–1683), and established the Habsburg monarchy as the dominant power of the region.[2]

Peace of Karlowitz
The official document of the treaty
ContextGreat Turkish War of 1683–1697
DraftedFrom 16 November 1698
Signed26 January 1699 (1699-01-26)
LocationKarlowitz, Military Frontier, Habsburg monarchy (now Sremski Karlovci, Serbia)
Signatories
Parties
Languages

Context and terms

Following a two-month congress between the Ottoman Empire on one side and the Holy League of 1684, a coalition of the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Republic of Venice and Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia,[3] a peace treaty was signed on 26 January 1699.[2]

On the basis of uti possidetis, the treaty confirmed the territorial holdings of each power.[2] The Habsburgs received from the Ottomans the Eğri Eyalet, Varat Eyalet, much of the Budin Eyalet, the northern part of the Temeşvar Eyalet and parts of the Bosnia Eyalet. That corresponded to much of Hungary, Croatia and Slavonia. The Principality of Transylvania remained nominally independent but was subject to the direct rule of Austrian governors.[2] Poland recovered Podolia, including the dismantled fortress at Kamaniçe.[2]

Venice obtained most of Dalmatia along with the Morea (the Peloponnese peninsula of southern Greece) though the Morea was restored to the Turks within 20 years by the Treaty of Passarowitz.[2] There was no agreement about the Holy Sepulchre although it was discussed in Karlowitz.[4]

The Ottomans retained Belgrade, the Banat of Temesvár (now Timișoara), as well as suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia. Negotiations with Tsardom of Russia for a further year under a truce agreed at Karlowitz culminated in the Treaty of Constantinople of 1700 in which the Sultan ceded the Azov region to Peter the Great.[2] (Russia had to return the territories eleven years later after the failed Pruth River Campaign and the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711.)

Commissions were set up to devise the new borders between the Austrians and the Turks, with some parts disputed until 1703.[2] Largely through the efforts of the Habsburg commissioner, Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, the Croatian and Bihać borders were agreed by mid-1700 and that at Temesvár by early 1701, leading to a border demarcated by physical landmarks for the first time.[2]

The acquisition of some 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) of Hungarian territories at Karlowitz and of the Banat of Temesvár 18 years later by the Treaty of Passarowitz, enlarged the Habsburg monarchy to its largest extent to that point, cementing Archduchy of Austria as a dominant regional power.[2] It was later increased further in size by the acquisition of Polish territories in 1772 and 1795, by the annexation of Dalmatia in 1815, and by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908.

The treaty was a watershed moment in the history of the Ottoman Empire, which for the first time lost substantial amounts of territory after three-and-a-half centuries of expansionism in Europe. Although the Ottoman borders in the region would wax and wane over the next 100 years, never again would there be any further acquisition of territory on a scale seen during the reigns of Mehmed the Conqueror, Selim the Grim, or Suleiman the Magnificent in the 15th-16th centuries. Indeed, after the mid-1700s the Ottoman frontier was largely delimited to the south of the Sava River and the Balkans proper, and would be further pushed south as the 19th century began.

Maps and images
  • A map of the northern Balkans in the late 1560s, showing subdivisions of Ottoman territory
    Political situation in 1568–71, before the treaty. All territories shown are Ottoman eyalets or vassals.
  • A second map, showing a larger area of the northern Balkans in 1683, before the treaty. The northwestern portion is shown as belonging to the Habsburgs, the bulk of the Balkans under the Ottomans, with the far northeastern area being Polish.
    Central Europe in 1683, before the treaty:
          Habsburg Empire
        Ottoman Empire
  • Another map of the northern Balkans, now in 1699 after the treaty. The same area is now mainly possessed by the Habsburg Empire.
    Political situation in 1699, after the treaty:
          Habsburg Empire
          Ottoman Empire
  • The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1686, before the treaty
    The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1686, before the treaty
  • The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1699, after the treaty. Note the Ottoman loss of territory at the bottom of the map.
    The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1699, after the treaty. Note the Ottoman loss of territory at the bottom of the map.
  • Kapela mira (Peace Chapel), where the Treaty of Karlowitz was negotiated
    Kapela mira (Peace Chapel), where the Treaty of Karlowitz was negotiated

See also

Notes
  1. Nolan 2008, p. 27.
  2. Ágoston, Gábor (2010). "Treaty of Karlowitz". Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. pp. 309–10. ISBN 978-0816-06259-1.
  3. Robert Bideleux, Ian Jeffries, A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, Routledge, New York, 1998, p. 86. ISBN 0-415-16111-8
  4. János Nepomuk Jozsef Mailáth (gróf) (1848). Geschichte der europäischen Staaten (Geschichte des östreichischen Kaiserstaates, Band 4) [History of the European States (History of the Austrian Empire, volume 4)]. Hamburg: F. Perthes. pp. 262–63.

References
  • Nolan, Cathal J. (2008). Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650–1715: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare. Greenwood Publishing.

Further reading
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