THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE 113davia, but this caused him to split with the Hapsburg emperor, who had
sought Moldavia for himself. Now facing a divided enemy, a joint cam-
paign by the Ottomans and Poles allowed the Sultan Mehmet III to re-
capture both Wallachia and Moldavia. Once occupied, he put both of them
under native princes loyal to the Empire. In 1603 Mehmet III died, and
his son, Ahmet I (1603–17) assumed the title of sultan.
In a sad cycle that would be often repeated until the twentieth century,
the Catholic Hapsburgs were absolutely intolerant of the Protestants living
in Hungary and Transylvania. Every time these lands would pass from
Ottoman to Hapsburg control, the repressive, anti-Protestant measures of
the Hapsburgs would soon turn the local populations against them. Mem-
ories of the tolerance they’d experienced under the Ottomans quickly led
to active support of Ottoman military campaigns against the Hapsburgs.
The combined effect of the Sublime Porte’s counterattack and local sup-
port for the Turks forced the Hapsburgs to evacuate Transylvania and
peace was restored. Many modern readers find this catalog of unfamiliar
princes, provinces, and problems dizzying. But these ancient affairs fuel
the antipathy of many Balkans to this day.
By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Ottoman state was be-
ginning to show the strain of constant warfare. Where there was not fight-
ing, there was likely to be revolt in protest of the taxation and conscription
that fed the fighting front. When local Ottoman governors became too
powerful and ignored the central government, essentially becoming in-
dependent, the government rarely had the resources to deal with them.
Sultans could still be a powerful force in the Empire, but increasingly they
fell under the influence of the Janissaries or became the puppets of the
grand viziers. It became the business of a major national effort to capture
Crete in the 1640s. That this small island, so close to the heart of the
Turkish navy, should prove a significant obstacle, is an indication of the
difficulties beginning to hamper the Empire.
By 1663 the grand vizier Fazil set the stage for a decisive event in
modern European history. Not surprisingly, the context was a war with
Austria. It is worth a look in some detail.
All through the 1660s, bandits in Hapsburg employ had raided Turkish
territory in the Balkans. Fazil demanded an end of the Hapsburg border
raids, recognition of the sultan’s suzerainty in Transylvania, and increased
tribute from northern Hungary. When these were refused in 1663, he pre-
pared for war. That summer of 1663 saw Tartar raiders moving through
Transylvania into Moravia and Silesia, which provoked a general rising
in Western Europe to support the Austrians. Fazil personally led the Ot-
toman army against the Christian army under Montecuccoli. Montecuccoli