The Balkans 1700–92

The Battle of Vienna (1683) effectively marked the end of the Ottoman threat to the West, and initiated the erosion of its territorial possessions in Europe. The Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) saw the Habsburgs gain Hungary and Transylvania, while their Venetian allies acquired Morea. Smarting from these losses, the Ottomans declared war on Venice (1714), but when the Habsburgs joined in, were forced to sue for peace. At Passarowitz (1718), they regained Morea, but ceded the Banat of Temesvar, and much of Serbia and Wallachia to the Habsburgs. The process was not entirely one way: the Russians were beaten (1711) and Austria lost many of their acquisitions at Belgrade (1739). But the direction of travel resumed after the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768–74 and 1787–92. Russia acquired first a foothold, then a boardwalk, on the Black Sea in Jedisan and Crimea, while the Habsburgs were tossed the trinket of Bukovina.