Austria: Military History and Notable Events

1315 - Battle of Morgarten (All Facts)

• Battle in which Duke Leopold and his forces were defeated by the Three Forest Cantons of the Swiss and their forces, thus consolidating the Three Forest Cantons into the old Swiss Confederacy

• Battle in which a smaller army of Swiss foot-soldiers at Luke Zug had routed the Habsburg army which came to the valleys of Schwyz and Unterwalden to

  • subdue the peasant farmers there

  • bring central Switzerland within the domain of the Habsburg Empire

• Battle prior to which the Habsburgs had long enjoyed manorial rights in the valleys of Schwyz and Unterwalden, but hadn’t ever pressed their claim to political power there

• Battle which caused the Three Forest Cantons, which were become increasingly independent prior to the namesake, to come together and fortify the entrances to their valley

• Battle which was triggered when a dispute over grazing rights involved the men of Schwyz in attacking an abbey and taking some of its monks hostage

• Battle in which Duke Leopold of Austria devised a plan involving naval forces on Lake Lucerne to block off Unterwalden and attack Schwyz

  • However, he did not reckon with the slaughter that followed, mostly of his own men and its noble leaders in the namesake district

1386 - Battle of Sempach (All Facts)

• Battle in which Leopold III of Austria and his forces were defeated by the (Old) Swiss Confederation

• Battle in which Leopold III of Austria was killed in battle

• Battle which broke out due to Leopold III of Austria’s growing power in the Duchy of Swabia

• Battle after which a treaty was signed, (supposedly) the Treaty of Zurich by Albert, which recognized recent Swiss conquests and allowing the Swiss to keep all the land they won

• Battle after which a few years later the Habsburg dukes of Austria agreed to another 20-year truce with the Swiss Confederation

1474 - Perpetual Peace (All Facts)

• Peace treaty signed between Archduke Sigismund of Habsburg Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy (the Eight Cantons), in which the parties agreed to effectively end over a century of open hostilities between themselves, forcing Austria to renounce its claims on several Swiss-occupied territories and establishing a critical anti-Burgundian alliance

1482 - Treaty of Arras (All Facts)

• Treaty in which Burgundy and Picardy were absorbed into France

• Treaty in which Artois became the dowry of the two-year-old Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Mary and Maximillian, who had been promised in marriage to Charles VIII

1515 - First Congress of Vienna (All Facts)

• Meeting attended by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian and the Jagiellonian brothers, King Vladislaus II of Hungary and Bohemia, and King Sigismund of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania where they all forged an alliance with one another

• Meeting in which Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian married off his children Ferdinand and Mary to King Vladislaus II of Hungary and Bohemia’s children Louis and Anne

• Meeting in which the Kingdom of Hungary, given its absence of a direct heir to King Louis II, was inherited to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and the House of Habsburg

  • This partially protected them from the Ottoman Empire

• Meeting after which the hereditary territories of the Habsburgs were united amongst Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary

1529 - 1533 - First Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Ferdinand and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

• War which saw

  • The Siege of Vienna

  • The Siege of Kőszeg

1529 - Siege of Vienna (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Holy Roman Empire and Spain and their combined forces (nearly) defeated Suleiman and his Ottoman forces in the Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Battle before which the Imperial Holy Roman Diet assembled in Innsbruck and voted 120K Rhenish guilders for defense against the Ottoman forces

  • In addition, the Diet of Speyer had promised an army of 16K men and 4K cavalry, despite opposition of Philip of Hesse and other German Protestant Princes

• Battle in which the Ottoman troops were first met by a garrison of seasoned veterans, and, wave after wave Suleiman and his forces were beaten back and made no significant breach into the city walls

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces lost a month battling through heavy storms, building bridges across rivers, and leading his troops through treacherous terrain of streams and marshes

• Battle in which bad weather and disease had been the crucial factors in preventing the Ottomans from gaining control of Austria, not Christian arms or strategies

  • Battle in which Suleiman and his forces lost horses and men from hunger and disease

• Battle after which the Ottoman forces, which were encamped beneath the namesake Austrian city walls for three weeks, were ordered by Suleiman to retreat, and headed back towards Belgrade

1540 - 1547 - Third Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Ferdinand and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

1541 - Siege of Buda (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Holy Roman Emperor and Hungarian King Ferdinand in the namesake Hungarian city during the Third Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Battle after which Hungary became a (Turkish) province of the Ottoman Empire

1551 - 1562 - Fourth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

1565 - 1568 - Fifth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and his Habsburg forces

1571 - Battle of Lepanto (All Facts)

• Battle in which Don John of Austria and the Holy League defeated Ali Pasha and the Ottoman Turks

• Battle in which two great galleys, one flying the pennant of the Cross and the other the Crescent were being rowed directly at each other, gathering speed all the time as the galley-masters whipped their slaves to even greater efforts

  • Battle in which the Cross met the Crescent in which many believed will be the last great encounter between the two galley fleets

  • Battle in which the La Real and Sultana flagships struck each other so hard that they locked together

• Battle triggered by Sultan Selim II’s invasion of Cyprus

  • This brought the combined fleets of Spain, Venice, and the Papacy face-to-face with the larger Turkish fleet

  • Famagusta had fallen, and reports of unbelievable atrocities had incensed the Christians to a crusading fervor as they sailed from Messina

• Battle in which Don John of Austria

  • rode in La Real, the Spanish flagship

  • drew his sword and braced himself for the inevitable head-on crash

  • began to charge forward in the La Real after the Ottomans had moved out to attack in their crescent formation

  • led his men onto the Sultana’s foredeck and confronted Ali Pasha in person

• Battle in which Ali Pasha (the Turkish commander)

  • ordered his men on the Sultana, the Turkish flagship, to prepare to board

  • and his fleet was anchored in the gulf when the Christian fleet hove into sight

  • and the Ottoman Turks hesitated before moving out to attack in a crescent formation

  • was killed by a Spanish arquebus, his head struck off and presented to Don John of Austria

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks lost 230 galleys

• Battle in which the Holy League of Christians lost just 16 galleys

• Battle whose victory by the Christian Holy League brought great rejoicing throughout the West

1591 / 1593 - 1606 - Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Murad III, Mehmed III, and Ahmed and their Ottoman forces fought against Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain) and their allies; which ended in a stalemate

• War during which Ottoman forces captured the fortress of Raab in Hungary

1595 - Siege of Esztergom (All Facts)

• Battle in which Habsburg forces defeated Ottoman forces during the Long Turkish War Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

1595 - Battle of Giurgiu (All Facts)

• Battle in which Sigismund Bathory and his Habsburg forces defeated Ottoman forces during the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

1596 - Battle of Mezőkeresztes (All Facts)

• Battle in which Mehmed III and his Ottoman forces defeated Sigismund Bathory and his Habsburg forces and allies during the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Battle in which Mehmed III

  • was personally responsible for turning the tide of battle, despite a mass desertion by the Ottoman Turkish infantry

  • in one fell swoop, saved a huge swathe of territory for the Ottoman Empire, saving its possessions in Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Hungary despite a string of previous Hungarian military victories

  • tried to follow the “siphahis” when they walked off the battlefield, but his generals held a council of war to persuade him to stay with the rest of his army

• Battle which

  • began badly for the Ottoman forces, when early reverses caused the “sipahis,” the fief-holding backbone of the Ottoman forces, to simply walk off the battlefield

• Battle in which the overconfident Christian Habsburg forces broke rank to plunder the Ottoman Turkish camp, only for the Ottoman cavalry to kill them and take enormous booty including a hundred cannons

• Battle in which 30K Hungarians and Germans died

1606 - Peace of Zsitvatorok (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Holy Roman Emperor Matthias and Sultan Ahmed of the Ottoman Empire, ending the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Peace Treaty signed between equals (unlike previous treaties which were “graciously accorded by the Sultan” to his “vanquished” rival) in the namesake obscure town on the Hungarian frontier, which promised a new era of stability between the two longstanding foes

• Peace Treaty in which Austria was no longer able to pay an annual tribute (to the Ottoman Empire) and a final payment was agreed upon, after which the ambassadors (and rulers) of the two great powers promised to exchange ceremonial gifts every three years

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Ottoman Empire renounced its claims to Hungary with the exception of two newly-created provinces and the frontier fortresses of Erlau, Gran, and Kanischa

  • Stephen Bocskai and Transylvania gained considerably autonomy under Ottoman rule

• Peace Treaty which would remain in effect (definitively) for the next 20 years

1618 - 1648 - Thirty Years’ War (All Facts)

• Conflict

  • between Catholics and Protestants in Germany following the failure to reconcile them via the Peace of Augsburg

• Conflict in which

  • 4.5M-8M people were killed from

    • the battlefield

    • plague and disease

      • the constant maneuvering helped to spread disease

    • famine

      • the constant maneuvering laid waste to vast tracts of farmland

        • Crops were destroyed

  • German towns lost as many as 50% of their populations from

    • being razed to the ground by siege and fire

    • plague borne by countless armies

  • the European continent was nearly destroyed

• Conflict which began

  • with the Defenestration of Prague and Bohemian Revolt

  • when Bohemia elected itself a new Protestant as king, Frederick V, previously the elector of Palatine, to replace the Habsburg King Ferdinand II, whom the Bohemian estates had previously “accepted” as king

• Conflict during which

  • The Protestant Union was dissolved

• Conflict during which

  • Johann Tserclaes (Count of Tilly) and his Catholic forces sacked the Heidelberg University Library

  • Bavaria (as well as Spain and Austria) invaded France with their armies and advance units of the Bavarian cavalry arrived in the Parisian suburbs

    • These armies invaded France but were driven back

• Conflict which saw

  • The Bohemian Revolt

    • The Defenestration of Prague

    • The Battle of White Mountain

  • The Vatellina War (between Spain and Switzerland)

  • The Battle of Lutter

  • The Battle of Dessau Bridge

  • The Sack of Magdeburg

  • The Battle of Breitenfeld

  • The Battle of Lutzen

  • The Battle of Nordlingen

  • The Battle of Wittstock

  • The Battle of Rheinfelden

  • The Battle of Freiburg

• Conflict which involved

  • The Eighty Years’ War / Dutch Revolt (between Spain and the Netherlands / Dutch Republic)

• Conflict which ended with

  • The Peace of Prague

  • The Peace of Westphalia

    • This took three years of negotiation in two cities, Munster and Osnabruck, to bring about the official signing

• Just four years prior to the start of the war,

  • Catholics and Protestants alike in Germany were already preparing for the conflict, which threatened to engulf the whole continent as

    • battle-lines were already being drawn up by then

    • fortunes were already being spent equipping private armies throughout Germany

    • Germany prepared itself to be the battlefield when the war would break out

  • In the Protestant north of Germany,

    • whole cities were ringed with star-shaped walls, bastions, and moats

  • In Catholic Bavaria and in the Rhineland,

    • great new fortresses pierced the skylines

  • intense diplomatic activity was taking place, particularly on the part of

    • Prince Christian of Anhalt-Bernburg

    • King James of England

• Conflict which ended when three successive salvos crashed out from 70 cannons on the walls of Munster to announce that peace came from a war-ravaged Europe after three decades of bitter conflict in which every power became involved both on land and sea

• Conflict after which

  • 100K+ mercenaries had to be paid and returned home lest they turn themselves into robber-bands adding even more torment to a war-weary Europe

  • the high cost of the war caused massive tax demands on both nobles and peasants, both parties of whom threatened revolt

1626 - 1627 - Upper Austrian Peasant War (All Facts)

• War which began when 17 Austrian peasants were led out of Frankenfeld Castle and hanged for their heresy, as Archduke Ferdinand II did not like their rudeness to his newly installed Italian Catholic priests in former Protestant churches in Linz

  • War which began when Protestant revolted as a result of their deaths

• War in which rebel peasants put Linz under siege and pleaded for foreign aid

• War during which

  • Calvinist ministers were expelled

  • nobles faced a choice between conversion and expulsions

  • plans were afoot to proscribe Protestantism completely

1635 - Peace of Prague (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Elector John George of Saxony in which

  • ended the pre-French “religious-based” phase of the Thirty Years’ War as the war was not really about religion thereafter

  • the dukes of Saxony and Brandenburg retained their ecclesiastical lands which they held eight years prior

  • the armies of Saxony and Brandenburg had to switch allegiance and come under the command of the Holy Roman Empire

  • Calvinists were excluded, and the Holy Roman Empire would continue to wage war on them thereafter

• Peace Treaty signed between Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and the Lutheran states of Bavaria, Mainz, Cologne, and Trier

  • This allowed the emperor to claim that all the major German Protestant Princes were united behind him

  • The treaty was political and religious in nature

• Peace Treaty which

  • brought rejoicing to Germany

  • brought fear to France, the Netherlands, and other European powers

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

1656 - Treaty of Koningsberg (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Charles X Gustav and Frederick William of Brandenburg during the Northern War, which

  • made East Prussia into a fief of Sweden

  • gave Sweden privileged access to and half the customs revenue of the Prussian ports of Memel and Pillau

  • represented a step towards Charles X Gustav and Sweden’s dream of dominating the Baltic

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

1664 - Battle of Saint Gotthard (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Raimondo Montecuccoli and the Holy Roman Empire and France and their combined forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Austro-Turkish War, a battle whose victory was held as a triumph of Christianity over Islam

• Battle in which French auxiliaries played a key role in repelling the superior numbers of the Ottoman forces, destroying most of their cannons and equipment

• Battle which ended with the Peace of Vasvar

1664 - Peace of Vasvar (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty which ended the Austro-Turkish War / Seventh Habsburg-Ottoman War, which

  • renewed the Peace of Zsitvatorok

  • made it so that the Habsburgs

    • paid money to the Ottomans

    • evacuated Transylvania

    • recognized the Ottoman vassal Apafy

  • made it so that the Ottomans

    • retained much of northern Hungary

    • retained the newly-conquered stronghold of Nauhausel

  • lasted nearly twenty years

1683 - 1699 - Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War (All Facts)

• War during which the armies of the Holy League were drawn from the Republic of Venice, Poland, Malta, Tuscany, and the Papacy and moved steadily across Hungary to force the Ottoman Empire out of Hungary

• War in which the Ottoman Empire suffered a major reverse at the hands of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold’s Habsburg forces which boldly fought their way across the plains to occupy much of Hungary and Transylvania (Romania) in the namesake campaign

• War which saw the

  • Battle of Vienna / Battle of Kahlenberg

  • Siege of Buda

  • Battle of Mohacs

  • (First) Siege of Belgrade

  • (Second) Siege of Belgrade

  • Battle of Zenta

  • Third Russo-Turkish War

  • Sixth Ottoman-Venetian War / Morean War

• War during which the Ottoman Empire lost control of Albania, the latest Balkan outpost of the weakened empire to succumb to a rising tide of nationalism as

  • Albania began to revolt following the Ottoman forces and their defeat in the Battle of Vienna / Battle of Kahlenberg

  • Albanian rebel forces seized Kamina, Vlore, and Medun (the citadel) in insurrection against the Ottoman Empire

  • Albanian anti-Ottoman resistance during the namesake war was primarily based on an unusual coalition of urban Muslims and rural Christians

• War during which the Ottoman Empire lost control of Montenegro, another Balkan outpost of the weakened empire to succumb to a rising tide of nationalism

• War which ended with the Treaty of Karlowitz

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

1686 - Siege of Buda (All Facts)

• Battle in which Charles V of Lorraine and his Holy Roman forces defeated the Ottoman forces and besieged the namesake city in Hungary, taking it from the Ottoman Empire and annexing it to Austria

• Battle after which Hungary was no longer a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, but a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria

1687 - Battle of Mohacs (All Facts)

• Battle in which Charles V of Lorraine and his Holy Roman forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

1697 - Battle of Zenta (All Facts)

• Battle in which Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman and Hungarian forces defeated Sultan Mustafa II and his Ottoman forces during the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

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)

1701 - Treaty of the Hague (All Facts)

• Treaty signed King William III of England and the Netherlands (the House of Orange) and Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke Leopold of Austria (the House of Habsburg) to reinstitute the Grand Alliance against King Louis XIV and France

• Treaty signed by both parties because they were fearful of a union between Spain and France following King Charles II’s appointment of Philip V of the House of Bourbon (of France) as his successor which threatened the balance of power throughout Europe at the time because it meant that the French and Spanish thrones were united

• Treaty which effectively reformed the Grand Alliance between England, the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire, and Austria against Spain and France, and thus effectively initiated the War of the Spanish Succession

1701 - 1714 - War of the Spanish Succession (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Bourbons (France and Spain) fought against the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and Prussia) and the Grand Alliance (led by England / Great Britain and the Netherlands and eventually Portugal) for control of the Spanish throne, following King Charles II’s appointment of Duke Philip of Anjou of France (of the House of Bourbon) as King Philip V of Spain, which threatened the European balance of power since the Bourbons took control of France and Spain

• Conflict which was inevitable due to the complicated series of marriages between the royal families of the Bourbons and Habsburgs, with no clear contender for the Spanish throne aside from King Charles II’s threatening appointment

• Conflict which

  • began after a series of treaties,

    • including

      • the

        • Treaty of the Hague / First Partition Treaty

        • Treaty of London / Second Partition Treaty

      • which were signed

        • in attempt to reconcile France with England and the Holy Roman Empire

        • in attempt to avoid appointing the Bourbon Philip of Anjou to the Spanish throne as Philip V

    • which failed, resulting thus in the (Second) Treaty of the Hague, in which England, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire and Austria allied themselves and reinstituted the Grand Alliance against the Bourbons (France, and now Spain), which then triggered the namesake conflict

  • began when the Grand Alliance declared war on France to stall the Franco-Spanish alliance

• Conflict which saw the

  • (Twelfth) Siege of Gibraltar

  • Battle of Blenheim

  • Siege of Barcelona

  • Battle of Ramillies

  • Battle of Oudenaarde

  • Siege of Lille

  • Battle of Malplaquet

  • Siege of Mons

  • Battle of Villaviciosa

• Conflict which saw Queen Anne’s War, in which

  • the namesake conflict expanded into the New World (colonial America) when

    • English / British forces raided the Spanish-controlled town of St. Augustine in (Spanish) Florida

    • French forces massacred the Puritan colony at Deerfield as the French and their Native American allies had been attacking English settlements throughout New England in response to the British raid on St. Augustine in (Spanish) Florida

    • French forces seized control of the eastern shore of Newfoundland after winning a victory at St. John’s

    • Britain carried out an expedition under Francis Nicholson which captured the French stronghold of Port Royal in Acadia (modern-day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)

    • Britain carried out its Quebec expedition, having invaded but failed to take (French) Canada with 64 ships, 5K troops, and 6K seame

  • the namesake conflict ended its New World (colonial American) extension simultaneously with the end of the more broader namesake conflict

• Conflict which expanded into the Mediterranean when

  • British forces captured the islands of Sardinia and Minorca from French forces

• Conflict during which Portugal

  • joined the Grand Alliance after signing the Methuen Treaty with England

  • entered Madrid in Spain, only to be driven out a year later by King Philip V of Spain

• Conflict during which France

  • had imposed the use of the flintlock rifle and equipped its soldiers with bayonets thanks to the military engineering of Sebastien Le Prestre

  • had grown tired of being beat by John Churchill and Prince Eugene of Savoy and their forces, especially after their losses to Churchill and Eugene and their forces at

    • Ostend

    • Menin

• Conflict during which England, led by John Churchill, seized Gibraltar

• Conflict which ended with the

  • Treaty of Utrecht

  • Treaty of Rastatt

1703 - 1711 - Rákóczi’s War of Independence (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Francis II Rákóczi, Miklós Bercsényi, and their army of Hungarian peasants rose up against Habsburg rule over Hungary

• Revolt which began due to the Habsburg’s imposition of heavy taxes on Hungary, which negatively affected all classes of Hungary, but particularly the peasant class

• Revolt which was so fierce that the Habsburg forces were loth to move in the countryside, having confined themselves to garrisons in which they made only sproadic attempts to subdue the rebellion until it was suppressed eight years after it had started

• Conflict during which the Budapest Parliament declared the fall of the Habsburgs and the independence of Hungary

• Conflict which ended when the Hungarian rebels agreed to peace terms with the Habsburgs after they were denied support by France and by Russia

1704 - Battle of Blenheim (All Facts)

• Battle in which John Churchill and his English and Scottish forces, Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman forces, and Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance defeated French forces and Bavarian forces during the War of the Spanish Succession, decisively changing the balance of military power throughout Europe during the war

  • Battle which took place near the namesake village in Bavaria (Germany), where French forces had assembled on their march to capture Vienna in Austria

• Battle in which John Churchill duped his opponents, as he pretended he was preparing to campaign a few miles up the Rhine River at Moselle, and instead made a lightning march to the Danube River, hundreds of miles distant

  • Battle in which at one point Churchill was far to the north in the Netherlands, kept there by the Dutch forces who feared for their frontiers

• Battle in which 30K French and Bavarian forces were killed or captured, with many more having drowned in the Danube River

• Battle in which 670 English soldiers were killed and 1,5000 were wounded

1705 - Siege of Barcelona (All Facts)

• Battle in which English forces, with help from Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the Habsburgs (in Spain) defeated Bourbon Spanish forces and captured the namesake Spanish city and took it from them during the War of the Spanish Succession

1708 - Battle of Oudenaarde (All Facts)

• Battle in which John Churchill and his English and Dutch forces and Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman and Austrian forces defeated French forces during the War of the Spanish Succession

1708 - Siege of Lille (All Facts)

• Battle in which John Churchill and his British and Dutch forces and Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman and Austrian forces defeated French forces and besieged and took the namesake city from France during the War of the Spanish Succession

1709 - Battle of Malplaquet (All Facts)

• Battle in which John Churchill and his British and Dutch forces and Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman and Austrian forces defeated French forces during the War of the Spanish Succession

1709 - Siege of Mons (All Facts)

• Battle in which British, Dutch, Holy Roman, and Austrian forces defeated French forces and took the namesake town during the War of the Spanish Succession

• Battle which took place in the Southern (Spanish) Netherlands (modern-day Belgium)

• Battle which some contemporary critics argued was indecisive, but most contemporary observers admitted that it was the culmination of many battles led or coordinated by John Churchill which forced the French to lose their appetite for doing battle with him

1710 - Battle of Villaviciosa (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Philip V of Spain and his Spanish Bourbon forces and French forces defeated British and Dutch forces, Spanish Habsburg forces, Austrian forces, and Portuguese forces during the War of the Spanish Succession

1713 - Treaty of Utrecht (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Louis XIV of France, King Philip V of Spain, Queen Anne of Great Britain, Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke Charles VI, Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia, William IV of the Netherlands, John V of Portugal; which ended the War of the Spanish Succession (and Queen Anne’s War in North America)

• Peace Treaty which

  • allowed King Philip V to keep the Spanish throne in return for permanently renouncing his claim to the French throne

  • ensured that France and Spain should not merge, confirming the permanent separation of the crowns of France and Spain

  • prevented the House of Bourbon from gaining too much power and thus maintained the balance of power throughout Europe

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Great Britain

    • retained its hold on Gibraltar and Minorca (from Spain)

    • strengthened its position in the Mediterranean (by a settlement which gave Naples and Reggio to its ally, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI)

    • gained sovereignty in Newfoundland, Hudson Bay, and St. Kitts (from France)

    • gained Asiento, a contract which allowed their South Sea Company to bring 4,800 African slaves per year into the colonies of the Spanish Empire, from Spain

  • the Holy Roman Empire and Austria

    • were given Naples and Reggio, from Spain

  • Spain

    • confirmed its rule by King Philip V of the House of Bourbon

    • was forced to secede (concede) much of its empire to the Holy Roman Empire and Austria including

      • Naples (given to Austria)

      • the (Spanish) Netherlands / Low Countries, whereby they became the (Austrian) Netherlands / Low Countries thereafter (given to Austria)

      • Sicily (given to Savoy within the Holy Roman Empire)

      • Sardinia (given to Austria)

    • retained its colonial territories in the New World

      • However, Britain, as per the namesake treaty, had a monopoly on transporting African slaves to those colonial territories

• Peace Treaty whereby

  • Great Britain recognized that the throne would be handed over to the House of Hanover in succession to the House of Stuart, confirming the prior Act of Settlement / Establishment after the death of Sophia, Electress of Bavaria

• Peace Treaty which therefore

  • significantly reshaped Europe and which came about on the deaths of Queen Anne of Britain and King Louis XIV of France

  • gave much more power and territory to Austria, an emerging European power by this time

1714 - Treaty of Rastatt (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Prince Eugene of Savoy and Austria and France, which ended the French-Austrian hostilities associated with the War of the Spanish Succession

1716 - 1718 - Second Austro-Turkish War (All Facts)

• War in which Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman, Austrian, Bavarian and Serbian forces and Venetian (Italian) forces defeated the Ottoman forces

• War which saw the

  • Siege of Belgrade

• War which ended with the Treaty of Passarowitz

1717 - Siege of Belgrade (All Facts)

• Battle in which Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman, Austrian, Bavarian, and Serbian forces defeated the Ottoman forces

• Battle in which Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman, Austrian, Bavarian, and Serbian forces occupied the namesake strategically important city, ending the Ottoman Turkish military revival in the Balkans

• Battle in which the Ottoman forces, who had supplies for another six months, decided to surrender after their relief relief force which was camped outside the namesake city was slaughtered in a dawn raid a week ago by Habsburg troops led by Prince Eugene of Savoy

  • This raid was a dramatic triumph for Prince Eugene of Savoy who appeared to stand little chance to winning the battle

  • This was because his siege army was thought to be on the verge of destruction as they were

    • ravaged by dysentery

    • trapped and raked by deadly artillery fire from the Ottoman relief force on a plateau to the east

• Battle in which Prince Eugene of Savoy left 10K men to watch the namesake city, while, under cover of fog, 60K men fortified by wine and beer overran the Ottoman forces themselves

• Battle in which, as victorious troops of the House of Habsburg marched into the devastated namesake city, 60K Muslims, including 20K Ottoman forces, were allowed to leave

1718 - Treaty of Passarowitz (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Venice (Italy) in Serbia; which ended the Fourth Austro-Turkish War

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) ceded Temesvar to the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, effectively putting the whole of Hungary under Habsburg rule

  • the Ottoman Empire’s (Turkey’s) threat to Europe was effectively stamped out

1718 - Quadruple Alliance (All Facts)

• Defensive Pact signed between Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire (Austria and Savoy) in response to King Philip V’s violation of the Treaty of Utrecht in order to maintain the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht and thus the balance of power in Europe

1718 - 1720 - War of the Quadruple Alliance (All Facts)

• War in which Victor Amadeus II and his coalition of British, French, Dutch, Austrian, and Savoyard (Holy Roman) forces defeated Giulio Alberoni and his Spanish forces

• War which began

  • when Spanish forces were sent by King Philip V of Spain to conquer Sardinia (and eventually Sicily) on the pretext that a Spanish citizen was arrested in Italy, which violated the Treaty of Utrecht that had ended the War of the Spanish Succession

  • after the namesake coalition had formed to uphold and maintain the Treaty of Utrecht after it had been violated by King Philip V of Spain in order to maintain the balance of power throughout Europe

  • when Victor Amadeus II ceded the island of Sicily to Austria in exchange for Sardinia

  • King Philip V of Spain declared war on France after his Spanish occupation of Sardinia and Sicily

• War which involved

  • two years of hostilities between French and Spanish troops in modern-day Florida and modern-day Texas which culminated in the Spanish possession of modern-day Texas by that point

• War which ended with the Treaty of the Hague

1720 - Treaty of the Hague (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Savoy (the Holy Roman Empire), and Spain; which ended the War of the Quadruple Alliance

• Peace Treaty in which

  • King Philip V of Spain agreed to evacuate Spanish forces from Sardinia and Sicily

  • King Philip V of Spain agreed to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht

  • British forces occupied Vigo in Spain

1725 - Treaty of Vienna (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke and Habsburg overlord Charles VI and King Philip V of Spain which ended Spanish and imperial adhesion to the Quadruple Alliance

• Treaty in which King Philip V of Spain guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction of Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke Charles VI

• Treaty in which King Philip V of Spain received a promise support in the recovery of Gibraltar and Minorca, though this did not extend to military aid

• Treaty in which King Philip V of Spain appeared to gain very little, but whose Spanish negotiator claimed to have added secret clauses unbeknownst to Britain and France

• Treaty which precipitated the Anglo-Spanish War

1728 - Treaty of Berlin (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, in which Prussia recognized Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke Charles VI’s “Pragmatic Sanction”

1731 - Treaty of Vienna (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Britain and the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, in which Britain recognized Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke Charles VI’s “Pragmatic Sanction”

• Treaty later signed also by Spain, in which Spain recognized Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke Charles VI’s “Pragmatic Sanction”

1732 - Diet of Ratisbon / Diet of Regensburg (All Facts)

• Longtime Imperial Diet in which the rest of the states of the Holy Roman Empire recognized Holy Roman Emperor and Austrian Archduke Charles VI’s “Pragmatic Sanction”