battle and siege of Belgrade

Belgrade, battle and siege of (1717). In August the Austrians, commanded by Eugène of Savoy, were laying siege to the former Hungarian fortress of Belgrade. On the 16th a massive relieving force numbering some 150, 000 attacked the imperial lines. The Grand Vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, opened the proceedings with a bombardment from higher ground. Eugène swiftly decided on a surprise assault with 60, 000 men, covered by the early morning fog. The Turkish army was routed, losing around 15, 000 men. Belgrade surrendered on 21 August, clearing the way for the Treaty of Passarowitz (21 July 1718). The Austrian Habsburgs had secured a foothold in the Banat of Temesvar, Wallachia, and northern Serbia, and Austria had emerged from her decline of the previous century. This victory, coming hard on the heels of Eugène's equally stunning success at Peterwardein, also in the Danube valley, in the previous year, seemed to offer to the Austrians the prospect of replacing the Turkish administration in Moldavia and Wallachia, and simultaneously blocked Russian access to this strategic area.

— Toby McLeod