Battle of Vienna - Significance

Significance

The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years, losing control of Hungary and Transylvania in the process, before finally giving up. The end of the conflict was finalized in 1699 by the Treaty of Karlowitz.

The battle marked the historic end of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe.

The behavior of Louis XIV of France also set the stage for centuries to come: The Holy Roman Empire had to fight wars simultaneously in the West and the East. While its troops were fighting in the Holy League in defense of Vienna, Louis ruthlessly used the occasion, before and after the battle of Vienna, to annex territories, such as Luxembourg and Alsace. The biography of Ezechiel du Mas, Comte de Melac illustrates the devastations of large parts of Southern Germany by France.

In honor of Sobieski, the Austrians erected a church atop a hill of Kahlenberg, north of Vienna. The train route from Vienna to Warsaw is also named in Sobieski's honour. The constellation Scutum Sobieskii (Sobieski’s Shield) was named to memorialize the battle. Because Sobieski had entrusted his kingdom to the protection of the Blessed Virgin (Our Lady of Czestochowa) before the battle, Pope Innocent XI commemorated his victory by extending the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which until then had been celebrated solely in Spain and the Kingdom of Naples, to the universal Church; it is celebrated on 12 September.

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