Morean War The
Republic of Venice had held several islands in the Aegean and the Ionian seas, together with strategically positioned forts along the coast of the Greek mainland since the carving up of the
Byzantine Empire after the
Fourth Crusade. However, with the rise of the Ottomans, during the 16th and early 17th centuries, they lost most of these, such as
Cyprus and
Euboea (
Negropont) to the Turks. Between 1645 and 1669, the Venetians and the Ottomans fought a long and costly
war over Crete, the last major Venetian possession in the Aegean. During this war, the Venetian commander,
Francesco Morosini, came into contact with the rebellious
Maniots, for a joint campaign in the Morea. In 1659, Morosini landed in the
Morea, and together with the Maniots, he took
Kalamata. However, he was soon after forced to return to Crete, and the Peloponnesian venture failed. , depicted by
Vincenzo Coronelli In 1683, a new war broke out between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottomans, with a large Ottoman army advancing towards Vienna. In response to this, a
Holy League was formed. After the Ottoman army was defeated in the
Battle of Vienna, the Venetians decided to use the opportunity of the weakening of Ottoman power and its distraction in the Danubian front to reconquer its lost territories in the Aegean and Dalmatia. On 25 April 1684, the Most Serene Republic declared war on the Ottomans. Aware that it would have to rely on its own strength for success, Venice prepared for the war by securing financial and military aid in men and ships from
Hospitaller Malta, the
Duchy of Savoy, the
Papal States, and the
Knights of St. Stephen. In addition, the Venetians enrolled large numbers of mercenaries from Italy and the German states, especially
Saxony and Brunswick.
Operations in the Ionian Sea In mid-June, the Venetian fleet moved from the Adriatic towards the Ottoman-held
Ionian Islands. The first target was the island of
Lefkada (Santa Maura), which fell, after a siege of 16 days, on 6 August 1684. The Venetians, aided by Greek irregulars, then crossed into the mainland and started raiding the opposite shore of
Acarnania. Most of the area was soon under Venetian control, and the fall of the forts of
Preveza and
Vonitsa in late September removed the last Ottoman bastions. These early successes were important for the Venetians not only for reasons of morale, but because they secured their communications with Venice, denied to the Ottomans the possibility of threatening the Ionian Islands or of ferrying troops via western Greece to the Peloponnese, and because these successes encouraged the Greeks to cooperate with them against the Ottomans.
The conquest of the Morea Having secured his rear during the previous year, Morosini set his sights upon the Peloponnese, where the Greeks, especially the Maniots, had begun showing signs of revolt and communicated with Morosini, promising to rise up in his aid. Ismail Pasha, the new military commander of Morea, learned of this and invaded the
Mani Peninsula with 10,000 men, reinforcing the three forts that the Ottomans already garrisoned, and compelled the Maniots to give up hostages to secure their loyalty. As a result, the Maniots remained uncommitted when, on 25 June 1685, the Venetian army, 8,100 men strong, landed outside the former Venetian fort of
Koroni and laid siege to it. The castle surrendered after 49 days, on 11 August, and the garrison was massacred. After this success, Morosini embarked his troops towards the town of
Kalamata, in order to encourage the Maniots to revolt. The Venetian army, reinforced by 3,300 Saxons and under the command of general
Hannibal von Degenfeld, defeated a Turkish force of ca. 10,000 outside Kalamata on 14 September, and by the end of the month, all of Mani and much of
Messenia were under Venetian control. in 1684 In October 1685, the Venetian army retreated to the Ionian Islands for winter quarters, where a plague broke out, something which would occur regularly in the next years, and take a great toll on the Venetian army, especially among the German contingents. In April 1686, the Venetians helped repulse an Ottoman attack that threatened to overrun Mani, and were reinforced from the Papal States and
Tuscany. The Swedish marshal
Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck was appointed head of the land forces, while Morosini retained command of the fleet. On 3 June, Königsmarck took
Pylos and proceeded to lay siege the
fortress of Navarino. A relief force under Ismail Pasha was defeated on 16 June, and the next day the fort surrendered. The garrison and the Muslim population were transported to
Tripoli.
Methoni (Modon) followed on 7 July, after an effective bombardment destroyed the fort's walls, and its inhabitants were also transferred to Tripoli. The Venetians then advanced towards
Argos and
Nafplion, which was then the most important town in the Peloponnese. The Venetian army, ca. 12,000 strong, landed around Nafplion between 30 July and 4 August. Königsmarck immediately led an assault upon the hill of
Palamidi, then unfortified, which overlooked the town. Despite the Venetians' success in capturing Palamidi, the arrival of a 7,000 strong Ottoman army under Ismail Pasha at Argos rendered their position difficult. The Venetians' initial assault against the relief army succeeded in taking Argos and forcing the pasha to retreat to
Corinth, but for two weeks, from 16 August, Königsmarck's forces were forced to continuously repulse attacks from Ismail Pasha's forces, fight off the sorties of the besieged Ottoman garrison and cope with a new outbreak of plague. On 29 August 1686 Ismail Pasha attacked the Venetian camp, but was heavily defeated. With the defeat of the relief army, Nafplion was forced to surrender on 3 September. News of this major victory were greeted in Venice with joy and celebration. Nafplion became the Venetians' major base, while Ismail Pasha withdrew to
Achaea after strengthening the garrisons at Corinth, which controlled the passage to central Greece. of Athens during 1687 Despite losses to the plague during the autumn and winter of 1686, Morosini's forces were replenished by the arrival of new German mercenary corps from
Hanover in spring 1687. Thus strengthened, he was able to move against the last major Ottoman bastion in the Peloponnese, the town of
Patras and the
fort of
Rion, which along with its twin at
Antirrion controlled the entrance to the
Corinthian Gulf (the "Little
Dardanelles"). On 22 July 1687, Morosini, with a force of 14,000, landed outside Patras, where the new Ottoman commander,
Mehmed Pasha, had established himself. Mehmed, with an army of roughly equal size, attacked the Venetian force immediately after it landed, but was defeated and forced to retreat. At this point panic spread among the Ottoman forces, and the Venetians were able, within a few days, to capture the citadel of Patras, and the forts of Rion, Antirrion, and
Nafpaktos (Lepanto) without any opposition, as their garrisons abandoned them. This new success caused great joy in Venice, and honours were heaped on Morosini and his officers. Morosini received the
victory title "
Peloponnesiacus", and a bronze bust of his was displayed in the Great Hall, something never before done for a living citizen. The Venetians followed up this success with the reduction of the last Ottoman bastions in the Peloponnese, including Corinth, which was occupied on 7 August, and
Mystra, which surrendered later in the month. The Peloponnese was under complete Venetian control, and only the fort of
Monemvasia (Malvasia) in the southeast continued to resist, holding out until 1690.
Polish–Ottoman & Austro-Turkish Wars (1683–1699) in October 1683 After a few years of peace, the Ottoman Empire attacked the Habsburg monarchy again. The Turks almost captured Vienna, but King John III Sobieski of Poland led a Christian alliance that defeated them in the Battle of Vienna, which shook the Ottoman Empire's hegemony in south-eastern Europe. A new
Holy League was initiated by
Pope Innocent XI and encompassed the
Holy Roman Empire (headed by the Habsburg monarchy), joined by the Venetian Republic and Poland in 1684 and the
Tsardom of Russia in 1686. The Ottomans suffered three decisive defeats against the Holy Roman Empire after siege of
Buda: the second
Battle of Mohács in 1687, the
Battle of Slankamen in 1691 and the Battle of Zenta a decade later, in 1697. The last battle of the campaign was the
Battle of Podhajce in 1698, where a Polish
hetman named
Feliks Kazimierz Potocki defeated the Ottoman incursion into the Commonwealth. The League won the war in 1699 and forced the Ottoman Empire to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz. The Ottomans thereby lost much of their European possessions, with
Podolia (including Kamenets) returned to Poland.
Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700) During the war, the Russian army organized the
Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689, which both ended in Russian defeats. Despite these setbacks, Russia launched the
Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696, and after laying siege to Azov in 1695 successfully occupied the city in 1696. == Conclusion ==