The Enemy at the Gate: Hapsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe, by Andrew Wheatcroft: A Review

By James Barasch on January 21, 2015

Faced with present-day global influence of Western Civilization, it is sometimes difficult to imagine a world where Europe was not the dominant world power, and battles were fought to ensure the survival of Western autonomy. In The Enemy at the Gate: Hapsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe, historian Andrew Wheatcroft recounts the high-water mark of Ottoman Turkish expansion into Europe, and the epic clash in 1683 between East and West at the Second Siege of Vienna. Not only writing the history of what occurred, Wheatcroft also engages in fascinating cultural analysis, exploring how the opposing societies dealt with going to war, and why their different tactics and strategies determined success or failure. Wheatcroft’s book is an exciting account that takes the reader to a decisive battle at the dawn of European power.

The Ottomans, heirs to both a rich Islamic culture and the Byzantine tradition for organization and martial prowess, had for centuries inexorably expanded into Europe, from conquering Constantinople in 1453, to overrunning the powerful Christian kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. With the resources of a vast empire, and a disciplined competent bureaucracy to expedite mobilization and organization, the Ottoman army and its fearsome elite Janissaries, mastered the arts of patient siege warfare as well as terrifying assaults. Despite the individual skill and courage of its soldiery, Ottoman armies however lacked cohesive discipline and tactical flexibility provided by a hierarchy of officers. Once an assault was called, it could not be recalled without devastating losses. In Europe, the long religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries had served as a catalyst for the training of a disciplined general staff, methodical mobilization, and the formation of “line units” that relied on redoubtable discipline in the face of assault, and individual maneuverability during battle. In his book, Wheatcroft explains that the Siege of Vienna in 1683 and the following campaigns demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of both ways of war.

For centuries, capturing Vienna had been a key strategic objective for the Ottomans. Though a previous siege in 1529 had been defeated, Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-1687) and his Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha mounted a vast campaign in 1683 and sent an army of over 100,000 soldiers against Vienna, and their inveterate enemy, the Austrian Hapsburgs. Due to the political intervention of Pope Innocent IX, the diplomatic skill of Hapsburg Emperor Leopold I, and the heroic defense of Vienna’s outdated fortifications by the city’s garrison, there was time to assemble a vast relief army from across the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, and most importantly Poland, whose cavalry army, led by King Jan III Sobieski (1674-1696) would decisively break Turkish siege lines. It was a close call, however, as Vienna was only days away from a vicious sack that would have had great symbolic and political importance. Fortunately, the timely arrival of these relief forces, and their massive charge down the Kahlenberg hill drove the battered and exhausted Ottomans away from Vienna. Fifteen further years of European campaigning reconquered all of Hungary and pushed deep into the Ottoman Balkans. By 1700, the power dynamic had been reversed, and it would be the Ottoman East, not European West, that would endure economic, military and political pressure for more than a century to come.

What makes The Enemy at the Gate a special work is Wheatcroft’s superb and balanced analysis of political, military and cultural history. Debunking myths of inevitable Ottoman decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, Wheatcroft clearly demonstrates that the salvation of Vienna, and indeed the rise of the European West to global pre-eminence were by no means inevitable. With engaging prose, he skillfully strips away the 20/20 vision of hindsight, and vividly resurrects the colorful cast of historical characters and the rapidly changing world in which they lived.

Rating: *****

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