118 ISLAM AT WAR
The year 1717 saw one disaster after another, with the Austrians oc-
cupying Belgrade in August, and while doing so capturing all the Ottoman
artillery and ammunition, plus thousands of prisoners. Meanwhile, the
Venetians, supported by the pope and the Knights of Malta, attacked the
Ottoman rear, capturing Preveze and landing troops in Dalmatia. The only
Ottoman successes were a naval engagement off Cape Matapan in July
1717 and the defeat of a Venetian effort to recapture Morea. A disastrous
peace was signed in 1718, and the early promise of Ahmet’s reign ended
in catastrophe.
Peace was restored on the northwest frontier, but in the east wars con-
tinued. A few years of peace in the west ensued, but in the 1720s, Ottoman
armies were fairly constantly engaged suppressing rebellion and religious
strife in Iraq and Persia.
In 1736 a new war broke out, as both Austria and Russia combined to
strike the tottering Turkish Empire. The Russian goal was to make the
Black Sea into a Russian lake by occupying the Crimea and mouths of
the major rivers that emptied into the Black Sea and by destroying the
Tartars, who had caused much damage to the southern Russian provinces.
The Austrians wanted to keep pushing to extend their frontiers farther to
the south. The Ottoman Empire faced both the Austrians and Russians
simultaneously.
The Ottomans, caught by surprise, actually staved off first the Russian
and then the Austrian advance, inflicting several sharp defeats on both.
This was too much for the Hapsburgs, who sued for peace in September
- Russia quickly followed suit, accepting French mediation. This vic-
tory was to prove a short-term blessing for the Empire, for in 1768 the
same two powers again advanced against the weary Turks. This time, the
improved Russian and Austrian forces were too powerful. The Crimean
Peninsula was swept clean of Ottoman influence and the Austrians finally
acquired complete control of the Balkans, laying open the possibility of
an advance on Istanbul itself. All that saved the sultan was a combination
of circumstances—Pugachev’s rebellion diverted the Russians, and Prus-
sia applied pressure to both European powers to limit their conquests.
Peace was signed in 1774, but vast lands had fallen to Russia, and the
vital approaches to the capital were now in Austrian hands.
This crushing defeat was followed in 1787, when the two European
powers again helped themselves to slices of Ottoman territory. This might
have been the end of the ancient, and by now decrepit Empire. Salvation
for the last of the ancient autocrats came in the unlikely form of the French
Revolution, and by 1792 the Europeans were too focused on their own
problems to interfere in the south. More disasters and few bright days