Page 84 - All About History - Issue 180-19
P. 84
of the country continues to resist and That, plus all of the pressures they were
they’re working with the Habsburgs and facing from the Safavids [in Persia] and
others to try to throw them out, trying others, that could have led to a lot of
to push them out. So that’s seen as one fragmentation. They might have found
of the reason why Suleiman decides to that they had overstretched if they’d won.
attack Vienna.
What would ottoman victory have
Why was the Siege of Vienna meant for europe?
ultimately unsuccessful? One thing the Ottomans were doing, that
There are a few factors that played into it. Christian cities weren’t, is the Ottoman
One is that they were very far from their cities were more integrated. You had
centre of supply. They had marched out not just Muslims, but Christians and
much farther west than they had before. Jews, and they were all an active part of
They were in constant threat of being cut these towns in Europe. That might have
off from their supply lines. It was also been very eye-opening for Europeans to
an incredibly rainy period, so moving experience that, for central Europeans in
the troops under these conditions was particular. You could make the argument,
very difficult. Keeping them together and had they held on to Vienna and other
keeping up morale was very hard. They areas around it, it might have created a
faced issues like the gunpowder getting greater acceptance of who the Ottomans
wet. It didn’t have as many factors in its were, and allowed more people to see
favour as some of the other sieges that them as fellow rulers in the area, to
ultimately were more successful. understand their strategies a little bit
better. The anti-Ottoman rhetoric just
What was the outcome of losing [kept] getting stronger and stronger. It’s
the siege? easy to do that once someone is located a
One big theory is that this caused the distance away from you, right? It’s easier
Ottomans to shift their focus away a to vilify them and to indulge in a lot of
little bit from Eastern Europe. That they stereotypes and such, but when they’re
were going to try to expand their empire living much closer by and you’re dealing
very much in that region after that. It with them, as fellow rulers, as neighbours The Ottomans
made them look a little more toward in your own town, as trade associates, it were ultimately
forced to
the Mediterranean. They’re much more often times is much more eye-opening. withdraw and
active in that area, as far as North Africa admit defeat
and other places like that, so that’s one What implications does that have in
aspect. But the other aspect is you could the longer term?
say that arguably, if Suleiman’s goal It would have made the Ottoman Empire
was to protect Hungary, it achieved that more of a familiar partner in European
goal. There weren’t any serious threats politics. There are two kinds of tracks
to it, certainly coming by way of Central that you see in the way that people were
Europe or the Habsburgs after that. That dealing with the Ottomans in Eastern
did help stabilise the region for him for Europe. One was to be outraged that
quite some time. this foreign power, that this Muslim
power, was ruling over formerly Christian
What if the ottomans had areas and to say this was unacceptable
successfully conquered Vienna? and they had to be expelled and they
It would have been seen as an incredible didn’t belong there. The other was to
victory, but also it would have added to deal with them, and to accept them to
some of their challenges, because of the open up diplomatic lines, which most
distance from the centre of the empire. governments did immediately. Once you
I think they would have always been get behind some of the rhetoric about
worried about being surrounded, being the Ottomans as being ‘the infidel’, or
cut off from their supplies, from regular ‘the barbarian’, as they were also called
access to replenishment of troops and at this time, they’re treated like other
other resources from the centre of the local princes. So it might have lessened
administration. So I think they would a lot of the fear, that sense of distance
have had to work very hard to secure that developed about Islam and about
the area around Vienna, and all the Muslims. It might have reduced a lot of
routes leading back toward the East. That that sense of othering that you see toward
would have cost them a lot, in addition Islam, and this sense of there being a
to the outlay of the conquest itself. The divide between East and West. I think it
maintenance would have been very high. could have really softened that, if they
84
