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Long War Fifteen Years' War of Hungary
Part of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars
Date 1593 – c.1606 Location Hungary, Wallachia, Balkan Peninsula Result Decisive Ottoman Victory Peace of Zsitvatorok
Belligerents
Habsburg Austria Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Croatia Kingdom of Bohemia Transylvania Wallachia Zaporozhian Host Moldavia Spain Serbian rebels Papal States Venice Saxony Tuscany Persia Knights of St. Stephen Bulgarian rebels Duchy of Ferrara Duchy of Mantua Republic of Ragusa Duchy of Savoy	Ottoman Empire Crimean Khanate Nogai Khanate
Commanders
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor István Bocskai István Pálffy Hermann Christof Rusworm Giorgio Basta Michael the Brave	Murad III Mehmet III Ahmed I Sinan pasha Ibrahim pasha Lala Mehmed pasha
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown, heavy	Unknown, heavy

The Long War or Fifteen Years' War (1591 or 1593 – 1604 or 1606) was one of the numerous wars between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire that took place after the Battle of Mohács.

History

The main participants of this war were the countries forming the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria, Royal Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia), Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire. Ferrara, Tuscany, Mantua and the Papal State also became involved in the war to some extent.

After intensifying skirmishes from 1591, the war started on July 29, 1593 when the Ottoman army under Sinan Pasha launched a military campaign against the Habsburg monarchy. Ottomans captured Győr (Turkish: Yanıkkale) and Komarom (Turkish: Komaron).

In 1595, a Christian alliance of European powers was organized by Pope Clement VIII against the Turkish, and a treaty of alliance was signed in Prague by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II and Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania, to which Aron Vodă of Moldavia and Michael the Brave of Wallachia joined.

The objective of the war on behalf of the Ottoman Empire was to seize Vienna, while the Habsburg Monarchy wanted to liberate the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary occupied by the Ottoman Empire.

The control over the Danube-line and the possession of the fortresses located there was crucial. The war was mainly fought in Royal Hungary ( mostly in present day western Hungary and southern Slovakia), Transdanubia, the Ottoman Empire (Rumelia - present day Bulgaria and Serbia, and Wallachia (in present-day southern Romania).

In 1595, the Christians captured Győr, Esztergom and Visegrád, strategic fortresses on the Danube but they did not dare to engage in the siege of the key-fortress Buda. Ottomans launched siege of Eger (Turkish: Eğri) and conquered it in 1596.

On the eastern front of the war, Michael the Brave prince of Wallachia started a campaign against the Turks in autumn 1594, conquering several castles near the Lower-Danube, including Giurgiu, Brăila, Hârşova, and Silistra, while his Moldavian allies defeated the Turks in Iaşi and other parts of Moldova.^[1] Michael continued his attacks deep within the Ottoman Empire, taking the forts of Nicopolis, Ribnic, and Chilia ^[2] and even reaching as far as Adrianople ^[3]. At one point his forces were only 24 kilometers from Constantinople.

The conflict continued with the Battle of Călugăreni, considered one of the most important battles between Ottomans and Wallachians (Romanians). Although the Wallachians emerged victorious from the battle, Michael was forced to retreat with his troops and wait for aid from his allies (Prince Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania, Emperor Rudolf] of Austria). The war between Wallachia and the Ottomans continued until a peace finally emerged in late 1599, when Michael was unable to continue the war due to lack of support from his allies.

The turning point of war was the Battle of Mezőkeresztes which took place on the territory of Hungary on October 24–26, 1596. The combined Habsburg-Transylvanian force of approximately 45-50,000 troops was defeated by the Ottoman army, due to the fact that Christians started looting in the Turkish camp. Despite their victory, the Turks realized for the first time the superiority of Western military equipment over the Ottoman weapons. This battle was the first significant military encounter in Central-Europe between a large Christian army and the Ottoman Turkish Army after the Battle of Mohács. It demonstrated that even a large Christian army is, for the time being, unable to win a major plainfield battle against the Turkish. As a result of the Battle of Mezőkeresztes, the Christians became unable to achieve their strategic objective and the war became reduced to permanent middle-size clashes, sieges of fortresses, capturing and recapturing them by the opposing forces.

Battle of Guruslău

In August 1601, in the Battle of Guruslău, Giorgio Basta and Michael the Brave defeated the Hungarian nobility led by Sigismund Báthory, who accepted the Ottoman protection. The Hungarian nobility led by Mózes Székely was again defeated in the Battle of Braşov (1603) by the troops of Wallachia led by Radu Şerban and the Habsburg Empire.

The last phase of the war (1604–1606) corresponds to the uprising of prince of Transylvania Stephen Bocskay against the Habsburg ruler. The uprising was supported by the Hungarian nobility of the Royal Hungary and by the Ottoman Empire as well. The goal of the uprising, beside receiving guarantees from the Habsburg emperor for the respect of freedom of religion and liberties of the Hungarian Estates, was to make the Habsburg ruler to make peace with the Ottoman Empire. The war devastated both Hungary and in Transylvania without any further hope for a positive strategic outcome for the 'Christians'.

The Long War ended with the Peace of Zsitvatorok on November 11, 1606. On the one hand, the Peace of Zsitvatorok confirmed Ottomans' inability to penetrate further into Habsburg territories, which meant one of their first geopolitical defeats. On the other hand, the Treaty stabilized conditions on the Habsburg-Ottoman frontier and the liberation of Hungary was put off the agenda for half a century.

Among the many lessons learned by Christians from the war, the most important were that without becoming able to win major plainfield battles against the Turkish no long-term military success is possible. After the similar events of the 1550s, it was proved once again that Transylvania is out of the effective radius of action of the Habsburg army, more importantly, it is unable to operate with success east of the Danube, so it can not keep Transylvania against the Turks. This was the reason why Transylvania gave up experimenting with anti-Turkish policies for the coming 60 years. However, it was also demonstrated the Ottoman Empire is not able either to make further strategic advances and western military capabilities equaled the Turkish.

References

External links

• A timeline (approx. in the middle of the page)