Siege · July 14 – September 12, 1683 · Austria Theater

Kara Mustafa Pasha arrived before Vienna with perhaps 150,000 men in July 1683 and began a methodical siege, driving mines toward the city walls while Starhemberg's garrison of 15,000 held on by improvised countermining and desperate sorties. By September the walls were breached and the city was days from falling. On September 12, a relief army of some 70,000 under Sobieski descended from the Kahlenberg in the largest cavalry charge in recorded history — 18,000 horsemen, led by 3,000 Polish winged hussars, swept down the hillside and into the Ottoman camp. The Turkish army broke and fled, abandoning its siege works, artillery, and the grand vizier's tent.

Battle · October 9, 1683 · Hungary Theater

Sobieski pursued the retreating Ottomans into Hungary and struck at Párkány (modern Štúrovo), across the Danube from Esztergom. A first Polish assault on October 7 was repulsed with heavy losses, but two days later the combined Polish-Imperial force attacked again and destroyed the Ottoman garrison. The fortress of Esztergom surrendered shortly after, reopening the Danube.

Siege · June 18 – September 2, 1686 · Hungary Theater

Buda had been under Ottoman rule for 145 years — since the catastrophe at Mohács in 1526. After a failed attempt in 1684, the Imperial army returned in force in 1686 with over 75,000 troops, including contingents from across the Holy League. The garrison of roughly 10,000 fought with extraordinary tenacity; the Ottoman governor Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha was killed leading a final sortie as the walls fell. The city was devastated by the storming and subsequent sack.

Battle · August 12, 1687 · Hungary Theater

Fought near the same field where the Ottomans had destroyed the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in 1526, the second Mohács was a symbolic reversal of history. The Ottoman army under Sari Süleyman Pasha attempted to block the Imperial advance into southern Hungary but was outmaneuvered and routed. Ottoman losses were heavy — perhaps 10,000 killed — and the army disintegrated during the retreat.

Siege · August 16 – September 6, 1688 · Serbia Theater

Max Emanuel of Bavaria besieged the great fortress of Belgrade — the key to the Balkans — with 40,000 troops. The garrison held out for three weeks before the Bavarians stormed the walls in a ferocious assault. Belgrade's fall put the entire Serbian heartland within reach and seemed to promise the complete collapse of Ottoman power in Europe. The advance was the farthest south the Holy League would reach.

Battle · August 19, 1691 · Serbia Theater

After the Ottomans retook Belgrade in 1690, Grand Vizier Fazıl Mustafa Pasha pushed north to recover Hungary. Louis of Baden, the Imperial commander known as Türkenlouis, met him at Slankamen on the Danube. The battle was desperately fought — both sides suffered enormous casualties — and turned when Fazıl Mustafa was killed by a musket ball to the head. With their commander dead, the Ottoman army collapsed. Over 20,000 Ottomans were killed.

Battle · September 22, 1695 · Transylvania Theater

Sultan Mustafa II, determined to reverse the tide, personally led an Ottoman army into Transylvania. Friedrich von Veterani, with a badly outnumbered Imperial force, tried to hold a defensive position at Lugos (modern Lugoj). The Ottomans overran the position; Veterani was killed fighting. It was one of the few Ottoman victories in the latter half of the war.

Siege · May – July 19, 1696 · Sea of Azov Theater

Peter the Great of Russia, who had joined the Holy League in 1686, laid siege to the Ottoman fortress of Azov at the mouth of the Don River. A first attempt in 1695 had failed for lack of a fleet. Peter built one over the winter — Russia's first navy — and in 1696 the fleet blockaded Azov from the sea while the army besieged it from land. The garrison surrendered in July.

Battle · September 11, 1697 · Serbia Theater

Eugene of Savoy caught the Ottoman army in the act of crossing the Tisza River at Zenta and attacked without waiting for orders. He struck the rearguard while half the army was across and half was not, trapping the Ottoman troops with their backs to the water. The result was annihilation: perhaps 25,000–30,000 Ottoman soldiers were killed, including the Grand Vizier and several pashas. Sultan Mustafa II barely escaped across the river. Eugene's losses were around 500.

Political event · January 26, 1699 · Serbia Theater

Signed in the village of Sremski Karlovci, the Treaty of Karlowitz ended the Great Turkish War and redrew the map of southeastern Europe. The Ottoman Empire ceded Hungary, Transylvania, and Slavonia to Austria; Podolia to Poland; Morea (Peloponnese) to Venice; and Azov to Russia. It was negotiated under English and Dutch mediation and represented the first time the Ottoman Empire had signed a peace as the losing party, ceding major territory.