The Turkish Empire, Its Growth and DecayEversley, G. Shaw-Lefevre (George Shaw-Lefevre), Baron
History
The Turkish Empire, Its Growth and Decay
Eversley, G. Shaw-Lefevre (George Shaw-Lefevre), Baron
Turkey -- History
Nothing could exceed the imbecility and infatuation of the Austrian
generals, Wallis and Niepperg. They were now as anxious to make peace
as they had been boastful and bellicose at the commencement of the
campaign. The French Ambassador, Villeneuve, was with the Turkish army.
His mediation was accepted by the Austrians, and terms of peace were
agreed to, without consultation with the Russian generals. Belgrade and
all the parts of Serbia and Bosnia which had been ceded to Austria by
the treaty of Passarowitch and a great part of Wallachia were restored
to the Ottoman Empire. The victory of the Ottomans at Krotzka and,
still more, the treaty of Belgrade which followed, caused dismay and
indignation to the victorious Russians in Moldavia. It was obviously
impossible for their army at Jassy to make any further advance into
Turkey, or even to hold its own in Moldavia, when an Ottoman army of
two hundred thousand, fresh from victory over the Austrians, was on
their flank on the Danube. Munnich’s grandiose scheme for the capture
of Constantinople was extinguished. It became necessary for the
Czarina to follow the example of the Austrians and to make peace with
the Turks. Terms were ultimately agreed to, under which the Russian
conquests in Moldavia and the Crimea and the city of Oczakoff were
given up. Russia retained only a narrow strip of land on the shores of
the Black Sea. The city of Azoff was to be demolished and its territory
was to form a belt of borderland, uncultivated and desert, between the
two Empires. The Russians were prohibited from maintaining a fleet
either in the Black Sea or the Sea of Azoff.
The two treaties, as a result of the campaign of 1739, were a triumph
for Turkey. They were more due to the imbecility and incapacity of the
Austrian generals than to the valour of the Ottomans, for it was no
great feat of arms for two hundred thousand Turks to defeat fifty-seven
thousand Austrians at the battle of Krotzka. But the strategy of the
Porte in concentrating their main force against the Austrians on the
Danube, while making little resistance to the Russians in Moldavia, was
fully justified.
XVI
TO THE TREATY OF KAINARDJI
1739-74
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