Romania: Military History and Notable Events

1648 - 1666 - The Deluge (All Facts)

• Series of military campaigns which coincided simultaneously within Poland-Lithuania during the namesake years, ending Poland’s “Golden Age”

• Period during which invasion, war, plague, slave raids, and mass murdered reduced the Polish population by almost half

• Period which began when the Cossacks invaded Poland on two fronts after swearing an oath of allegiance to Tsar Alexis of Russia when King John II Casimir failed to make an agreement with them

• Period in which Sweden was alarmed by the Cossack invasion of Poland, and so they descended on Poland themselves from Pomerania and Livonia

• Period in which Brandenburg-Prussia and Transylvania also descended on Poland as a result of Sweden’s actions

• Period during which John II Casimir was in continual conflict with the Sejm over money and constitutional issues

• Period during which many towns throughout Poland were destroyed

1655 - 1660 - Northern War (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts which began when Charles X Gustav of Sweden decided to invade Poland-Lithuania and took Warsaw, in a preemptive attack to protect Sweden from a Russian attack

• Series of conflicts over the Baltic Sea, which, like the Mediterranean Sea, was a vital route for seaborne trade, especially with southern Europe, and which

  • possessed prized resources for trade with Mediterranean countries including

    • iron

    • copper

    • salt-herrings (a vital source of food at the time)

    • grain (for the rest of Europe)

    • wood

    • naval supplies (that were in great demand)

  • was of such strategic and economic importance that other European countries supported Denmark-Norway to prevent Sweden from gaining complete control over the Baltic Sea, including

    • the Netherlands

    • the Holy Roman Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia

    • Russia

• Series of conflicts in which

  • Charles X Gustav of Sweden broke off his campaign against Poland to turn on Denmark-Norway in the First Dano-Swedish War

  • Denmark declared war on Sweden in the Second Dano-Swedish War

• Series of conflicts which thus included

  • The First Dano-Swedish War

  • The Second Dano-Swedish War

• Series of conflicts in which were signed

  • The Treaty of Konigsberg

  • The Treaty of Roskilde

  • The Treaty of Valiesar

• Series of conflicts which ended with

  • The Treaty of Oliva

  • The Treaty of Copenhagen

  • The Treaty of Cardis

1663 - 1664 - Austro-Turkish War / Seventh Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and his Ottoman forces, with help from Wallachians, Tartars, and disgruntled Hungarian peasants devastated the territories of Moravia and Silesia in Transylvania and Hungary

• War which began when the Habsburgs invaded Ottoman-controlled territory in Transylvania, in which the Ottomans responded by invading Transylvania and Hungary

• War during which Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and his Ottoman forces advanced from Belgrade towards Vienna

• War during which the Habsburgs succeeded in persuading their Christian allies to come to their aid, including France and Germany (the Holy Roman Empire)

• War during which Raimondo Montecuccoli held the right bank of the Raab

• War which ended with the Peace of Vasvar

1683 - Battle of Vienna / Battle of Kahlenberg (All Facts)

• Battle in which John III Sobieski and his Polish-Lithuanian forces and Charles V of Lorraine and his Holy Roman and Austrian forces defeated Kara Mustafa Pasha and his Ottoman forces in the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

• Battle in which 70K Christian forces led by John III Sobieski and Charles V (of Lorraine) routed the vast Ottoman army that had been encamped around Vienna for eight weeks prior to the namesake battle

• Battle in which there was no effective opposition the moment Kara Mustafa Pasha’s Ottoman forces marched towards Vienna and besieged it

• Battle in which the Viennese (Austrian forces) had an advantage in artillery and had a 13K-strong garrison which resisted strongly, but could not survive the Ottoman siege forever

• Battle which turned around when Kara Mustafa Pasha made fatal errors, including his having allowed his relief forces to cross the Danube River and occupy the Kahlenberg Heights (the latter namesake mountain range) where he then tried to repel the attacks with cavalry alone and did not commit his main force of Janissaries until it was too late, and the initiative had been lost

1699 - Treaty of Karlowitz (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Poland-Lithuania, the Republic of Venice (Italy), the Papacy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire; which ended the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

• Peace Treaty in which, after its signing, Central Europe was no longer controlled by the Ottoman Empire but by the Holy Roman Empire / Habsburg Dynasty

• Peace Treaty in which the Ottoman Turks ceded

  • Transylvania and Hungary to Austria

  • Morea and Dalmatia to Italy (Venice)

  • Part of Ukraine to Poland (Poland-Lithuania)