Battle of Vienna - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Ottomans lost at least 40,000 men dead and wounded in the fighting, plus at least 20,000 men captured and all cannons, compared to approximately 4,500 dead and wounded for the forces of the Holy League.

The loot that fell into the hands of the Holy League troops and the Viennese was as huge as their relief, as King Sobieski vividly described in a letter to his wife a few days after the battle:

Ours are treasures unheard of... tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels... it is victory as nobody ever knew of, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives... Commander Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his savior.

Starhemberg immediately ordered the repair of Vienna's severely damaged fortifications, guarding against a possible Ottoman counter-strike. However, this proved unnecessary. The victory at Vienna set the stage for Prince Eugene of Savoy's reconquering of Hungary and (temporarily) some of the Balkan lands within the following years. The Holy Roman Empire signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire in 1699.

Long before that, the Ottomans had disposed of their defeated commander. On 25 December 1683, Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade (in the approved manner, by strangulation with a silk rope pulled by several men on each end) by order of the commander of the Janissaries.

Despite the victory of the Christian allies there was still some tension between the various commanders and their armies. For example, Sobieski demanded that the Polish troops be allowed to have first choice at the spoils of the Turkish camp, since he believed it was his efforts entirely that saved Vienna. The German and Austrian troops were left with much smaller portions of the loot. Also the Protestant Germans, specifically Saxons, who had arrived to relieve the city were apparently subjected to verbal abuse by the Catholic populace of the Viennese countryside. The Saxons left the battle immediately, without partaking in the sharing of spoils and refusing to continue on any pursuit.