Peace of Vasvár - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Peace of Vasvár was a treaty between the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n Habsburg Monarchy

Habsburg Monarchy

The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

and the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

which followed the Battle of Saint Gotthard of August 1, 1664, and concluded the Austro-Turkish War (1663-1664). It held for about 20 years, until 1683, during which border skirmishing escalated to a full scale war

Great Turkish War

The Great Turkish War refers to a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and contemporary European powers, then joined into a Holy League, during the second half of the 17th century.-1667–1683:...

and culminated with the Ottoman's siege of Vienna for the second time

Battle of Vienna

The Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...

.

At the moment of signing the Habsburg monarchy seemed to be in a better position than the Ottoman military-wise. Instead of maintaining initiative and momentum, negotiations began, fighting stopped and peace was signed. Factions within the Monarchy insisted on further operations, particularly Croats and Hungarians, mainly because most of their territory was in Ottoman hands so they wanted to use the opportunity to reclaim their land. The noble Croatian families Zrinski

Zrinski

The Zrinski family was a Croatian noble family, influential during the period in history marked by the Ottoman wars in Europe in the Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary and in the later Austro-Hungarian Empire...

and Frankopan

Frankopan

The Frankopans are a Croatian noble family. Also called Frankapan, Frangepán in Hungarian, and Frangipani in Italian.The Frankopan family is the leading princely Croatian aristocratic family which dates back to the 12th Century and even earlier to Roman times...

viewed the treaty as particularly supplicating to the Ottomans, with them actually having to give the territories that had just been liberated back to the Ottomans as terms of the treaty, some of which belonged to them before occupation. This caused internal strife and instability in the Monarchy which would eventually culminate with the rebellion of the two Croatian noble families and Hungarian nobles led by Ferenc Rákóczi I against the king of Hungary (also Emperor to the German states in the monarchy).

With this peace treaty, Ottoman control of Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

and Uyvar was recognized, as well as the Austrian Empire becoming obliged to pay war reparations to the Ottoman Empire. This was the only time the French king, a traditional ally of the Ottomans since king Francis I of France

Francis I of France

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

fought against them. It was, also, one of the major factors in the Habsburgs' decision, as the much more valuable (and Kings personal) estates in the Netherlands, Belgium and the Holy Roman States (of the German Nation) as well as in Italy were threatened by France.

See also