Treaty of Karlowitz

The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed on 26 January 1699 in Sremski Karlovci (today in Serbia), concluding the Great Turkish War of 1683–1697 in which the Ottoman Empire had been defeated at the Battle of Zenta by the Holy League.[1] It marks the end of Ottoman control in much of Central Europe, with their first major territorial losses after centuries of expansion, and established the Habsburg Monarchy as the dominant power in 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 then-current 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. This 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 (modern 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, whereby the Sultan ceded the Azov region to Peter the Great.[2] (Russia had to return these territories eleven years later following 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 Austria as a dominant regional power.[2] It was later increased in size still further by the acquisition of Polish territories in 1772 and 1795, by the annexation of Dalmatia in 1815, and by the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908.

Maps and images
  • Political situation in 1568–71, before the treaty. All territories shown are Ottoman eyalets or vassals.
  • Central Europe in 1683, before the treaty:
          Habsburg Empire
        Ottoman 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 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

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
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