Battle of Zenta

Battle of Zenta
Part of the Great Turkish War and the Ottoman–Habsburg wars

Battle of Zenta, 11th September 1697
by Franz Eisenhut
Date11 September 1697
Location
near Zenta, Kingdom of Hungary, occupied by Ottoman Empire
present-day Senta, Vojvodina, Serbia
45°55′34″N 20°05′53″E / 45.92611°N 20.09806°E / 45.92611; 20.09806
Result
  • Holy League victory
Belligerents

 Habsburg Monarchy

  • Kingdom of Hungary
  • Serbian Militia

Ottoman Empire

  • Crimean Tatars
  • Kuruc rebels
Commanders and leaders
Strength

50,000 men[1][a]

  • 34,000 infantry
  • 16,000 cavalry
60 guns[2]		 75,000–100,000 men[3][b]
200 guns[2]
Casualties and losses
429 killed[c]
1,598 wounded[5]		 30,000 killed wounded or drowned[3][6][7][1][d]

The Battle of Zenta, also known as the Battle of Senta, was fought on 11 September 1697, near Zenta, Kingdom of Hungary (occupied by the Ottoman Empire and now modern-day Senta, Serbia), between Ottoman and Holy League armies during the Great Turkish War. The battle was the most decisive engagement of the war, and it saw the Ottomans suffer an overwhelming defeat by an Imperial force half as large sent by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1697 a last major Ottoman attempt to reconquer Hungary was made; Sultan Mustafa II personally led the invasion force. In a surprise attack, Habsburg Imperial forces commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy engaged the Turkish army while it was halfway through crossing the Tisza river at Zenta, 80 miles northwest of Belgrade. The Habsburg forces inflicted thousands of casualties, including the Grand Vizier, dispersed the remainder, captured the Ottoman treasury, and came away with such emblems of high Ottoman authority as the Seal of the Empire which had never been captured before. The European coalition's losses, on the other hand, were exceptionally light.

As an immediate consequence, the Ottoman Empire lost control over the Banat. Eugene followed up this victory by raiding deep into Ottoman Bosnia. Zenta was one of the Ottoman Empire's worst defeats, after which it was forced to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), ceding parts of Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia to Habsburg Austria, which marked the end of Ottoman dominance in central Europe.[9]

  1. ^ a b c Parker 1996, p. 538.
  2. ^ a b Chandler 1990, p. 150.
  3. ^ a b Faroqhi, p. 97.
  4. ^ Finkel 2012, pp. 906–908.
  5. ^ Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Kriegsarchiv 1878, p. 156.
  6. ^ Clodfelter 2008, p. 59.
  7. ^ Grant 2017, p. 388.
  8. ^ TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
  9. ^ Robinson 2018, p. 123.


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