Vienna Saved: Coalition Crushes Ottoman Siege
A coalition army of roughly 84,000 troops from Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria, Saxony, and other German states smashed the Ottoman siege of Vienna on September 12, 1683. Polish King Jan III Sobieski led the decisive charge with 18,000 cavalry, including 3,000 Polish winged hussars, crashing into the Ottoman camp in what remains the largest cavalry charge in history. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha fled the field, abandoning his army. The Ottomans lost 15,000 killed and their entire camp with all its treasures. Sobieski reportedly adapted Julius Caesar: "I came, I saw, God conquered." The victory permanently ended Ottoman expansion into Central Europe and launched a Habsburg counteroffensive that stripped the Ottomans of Hungary within fifteen years.
September 12, 1683
343 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Europe
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Ottoman Empire
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Battle of Vienna
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Great Turkish War
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Great Turkish War
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Battle of Vienna
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Ottoman Empire
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John III Sobieski
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Kara Mustafa Pasha
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Entsatz
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Geschichte Polens
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Zweite Wiener Türkenbelagerung
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Austrian Empire
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Vienna
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