Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War

The Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War ( hr, Stogodišnji hrvatsko-turski rat, links=no,
Kratka politicka i kulturna povijest Hrvatske ''Stogodišnji rat protiv Turaka'', ''Stogodišnji rat s Osmanlijama'') is the name of a sequence of conflicts, mostly of relatively low intensity, ("Small War", Croatian: ''Mali rat'') between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Croatia (ruled by the Jagiellon and Zápolya dynasties), and the later Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia.

Pope Leo X called Croatia the ''Antemurale Christianitatis'' ("Bulwark of Christianity") in 1519, given that Croatian soldiers made significant contributions to the struggle against the Turks. The advancement of the Ottoman Empire in Europe was stopped in 1593 on Croatian soil (Battle of Sisak). Nevertheless, the Muslim Ottoman Empire occupied parts of Croatia from the 16th to the end of the 17th century. Furthermore, Christianity remained in the majority in most of Europe.

Time span

There are several different variations about the exact length of the war. According to one group of historians, the war began with the Battle of Krbava Field in 1493, and ended with the Battle of Sisak in 1593. According to the other group of historians, the war lasted from the second half of the 15th century and into the entire 16th century. A third group of historians mark the Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606 as the end of the war. The war was won by the Ottoman's defeat upon their advance on the Kupa river border, with the remainder of Croatia's territory consisting of only 16,800 km². Milan Kruhek: Granice Hrvatskog Kraljevstva u međunarodnim državnim ugovorima, Povijesni prilozi 10/1991., str.37-39, ISSN 0351-9767

In light of the human and territorial loss, and also from the modern Croatian Romanticist point of view, the 15th and 16th centuries were known as the "Two centuries of Croatia in mourning" ( la, Plorantis Croatiae saecula duo carmine descripta, links=no) in the lyric-epic poem of Pavao Ritter Vitezović from 1703.

Background

By the mid 14th century, the Ottoman Empire established a foothold in Europe around the town of Gallipoli. From there, they expanded into the Bulgarian Empire and encircled Byzantine capital Constantinople. In 1361, the Ottomans captured Adrianople and proclaimed it their capital. Most of Moravian Serbia fell under Ottoman control following the battle of Kosovo in 1389, while Bulgaria was captured in 1396. The Serbian Despotate became an Ottoman vassal. These conquests opened the way further west and allowed the Ottomans to reach the Kingdom of Bosnia, as well as the Kingdom of Croatia and the Kingdom of Hungary. Croatia and Hungary were since 1102 in a personal union, with the territory of Croatia governed by a royal dignitary ( ban). The medieval Kingdom of Slavonia was governed by a separate ban, and was not a part of the royal title. Sigismund, the king of Hungary and Croatia, led the crusade of Nicopolis against the Ottoman Empire in 1396, which resulted in the rout of the Christian army. He then turned to the strengthening of border areas in his realm. Sigismund's rule was marked with dynastic struggles. Venice took advantage of this and between 1409 and 1420 established control over Dalmatia.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 enabled the Ottoman Empire to engage more troops in their Balkan campaigns. Bosnia was conquered by Sultan Mehmed II in May 1463, after the capture of Bobovac and the execution of Stephen Tomašević, the last Bosnian king. Ottoman forces then raided the neighbouring Croatia and Venetian Dalmatia. The valleys of the Sana and Una rivers were successfully defended by Croatian Ban Pavao Špirančić during the summer of 1463. The Ottomans then directed their incursions to the south, on the Croatian region of Krbava and around the coastal town of Senj. Špirančić was captured in battle in September and died in captivity.

King Matthias Corvinus waited until most of the Ottoman troops left the region. In the fall of 1463, Corvinus led an army and captured parts of northern Bosnia and towns along the Vrbas and Usora rivers, including the fortress of Jajce in December, after a three month siege. Croatian Ban Stephen III Frankopan took part in Corvinus's campaign. Sultan Mehmed did not immediately respond to the offensive. He established the Sanjak of Bosnia on the territory of the former Bosnian Kingdom, which became the starting point of Ottoman raids into Croatia. Corvinus appointed Slavonian nobleman Emeric Zápolya as the governor of Bosnia, in order to organize the defense.

In 1464, Mehmed gathered an army to recapture the lost territories. He arrived to Bosnia in June and began a month-long siege of Jajce, but the garrison withheld the attack. Corvinus led an offensive into northeastern Bosnia and along the Drina River, and captured Srebrenik.

Ottoman style of Warfare

The usual Ottoman tactic consisted of persistent loot and scorching raids usually conducted by the irregular light cavalry called the akinjis. The aim of these raids, (somewhat similar to the ''chevauchées'' conducted during the Hundred Years War) was to intimidate and demoralize the local civil inhabitants, to exhaust the economic opportunities and disable the normal economic life on the frontier areas and thus soften up the enemy defense.

On the other side, Croatian and allied Christian forces implemented counterattacks, especially in the first phases of war, when they were still able to apply the counterattacking or the offensive tactics. Despite these destructive tactics, the armies did sometimes clash. Sometimes the local armies intercepted or pursued the raiders on their return. At that point the presence of captives which akinjis would capture as well as the heavy booty which they carried back made their return more slow and therefore vulnerable to the enemy attack. The captives captured in these raids, were usually sold as slaves on the Ottoman slave markets. There was also more intense military actions, such as the Battle of Sisak.

Early confrontations

The Ottoman Empire implemented attrition warfare, mostly characterized by raids carried out by irregular light cavalry, the akinji, instead of organized military campaigns. This tactic was known as the "little war" ( ger, Kleinkrieg), waged for the purpose of plundering and taking captives, and was often a part of a strategic plan to weaken the area for its later conquest. The regions of Krbava and Lika were initially the main targets of Ottoman raids, regularly led by local sanjak-beys. The mountains and forests of medieval Croatia provided cover for Ottoman raiding groups, enabling them to remain longer on Croatian territory and wage a sort of guerilla war. Later, the duchies of Carniola, Styria, and Carinthia, the County of Gorizia, and Venetian-held territories were targeted as well.

Corvinus established the banates of Jajce and Srebrenik, which formed the centre of his new defense system. While it faced difficulties with coordination and finances, the system provided protection for northern Croatia, Slavonia, and southern Hungary from Ottoman raids, but the Adriatic coast and southern Croatia were still exposed. The fortresses of Knin, Klis, and Skradin formed the main line of defense in Croatia, while Krupa, Bihać, Otočac, and Senj formed the rear line. Later in 1469, the Captaincy of Senj was formed as a military and administrative unit within the defense system.
In 1467, Ottoman akinji plundered the surroundings of Zadar and Šibenik. This was repeated in 1468 and January 1469, along with raids around Senj and across the Kupa River into the Duchy of Carniola. Another raid into southern Croatia followed in June 1469, when several thousand people were taken captive. Estates of the Frankopan and Kurjaković families were particularly affected by these raids. The Frankopans were also struck by Corvinus's centralization measures, and were deprived of Senj and several other possessions.

In the wake of the conquest of Bosnia, the Ottomans also expanded on most of the lands of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača by 1465. The town of Mostar was captured in 1466. In this area, the Ottoman Sanjak of Herzegovina was established in 1470.

The military of the Croatian Kingdom was based on a banderial system, involving soldiers on the ban's payroll and those of the magnates and the nobles. Owing to maintenance costs and the mountainous terrain of Croatia, the infantry significantly outnumbered the cavalry. Units of the middle and lesser nobility presented the most numerous component of the Croatian armed force. These armies lacked the mobility as members of the noble families were tied to their often scattered holdings, which were vulnerable to akinji attacks. The Croatian nobles raised their troops at the request of their counts or the head of the county (''župan''). Such a mobilization system was slow and unable to react in time to prevent an incursion from the fast Ottoman light cavalry. While the incursions of the akinji were usually successful, the forces of the Croatian ban and local nobles sometimes intercepted Ottoman raiding groups on their way back to Ottoman-held territory. In 1475 and 1478, the counts of the Zrinski family ambushed Ottoman troops returning from a raid and defeated them in the Una Valley.

In 1476, for the sake of better military organization, the office of the Ban of Croatia was merged with that of the Ban of Slavonia, which contributed to the process of political integration of Croatia and Slavonia. The Ottoman threat did not stop internal conflicts among the Croatian and Slavonian nobility, which further undermined an efficient defense.

Battle of Krbava

Incursions continued under Sultan Bayezid II, but with less intensity than in the 1470s. The Ottomans captured Herceg Novi in 1482, completing the conquest of Kosača's realm. In 1483, an army led by Croatian Ban Matthias Geréb routed the Ottoman cavalry at the battle of Una near Novi Grad. A seven-year peace treaty between Bayezid and Corvinus was signed later in the year. By that time, the constant warfare left many villages deserted, and almost completely stopped the major trade route that went from Senj to Zagreb and further towards inner Hungary. Corvinus died in 1490 and was succeeded by Vladislaus II. As the peace treaty came to an end, the hostilities renewed. In 1491, Croatian forces defeated an Ottoman group returning from Carniola in the battle of Vrpile Gulch in Lika. This defeat forced the Ottomans to halt their attacks during the following year.

The Frankopans attempted to regain Senj in July 1493, which led to a conflict with Croatian Ban Emerik Derenčin. News of an Ottoman army passing through Croatia towards Bosnia in August forced them to make peace. An army gathered by Derenčin, consisting of a number of Croatian nobles, attempted to block the Ottoman path. Derenčin decided to face them in an open battle, although some insisted that an ambush would be a better option. On 9 September, the Croatian army clashed with the Ottoman forces near Udbina in Lika and suffered a huge defeat in the battle of Krbava Field. Ottoman strategy and tactics employed in the battle proved superior to that of the Croatian side. While the outcome of the battle was not immedietely felt, it accelerated the decline of the power of the nobility, particularly the lesser and the middle nobles.

Efforts of Croatian nobility

In 1503, King Vladislaus concluded a seven-year peace treaty with Sultan Bayezid. The Ottoman Empire kept the strategically important fortified towns of Kamengrad and Ključ, which separated the Banate of Jajce from Croatia. The treaty was renewed in 1511. With the accession of Selim I as sultan in 1512, all peace treaties were annulled. The Banate of Srebrenik was captured in the autumn of the same year. Petar Berislavić was the most active Croatian Ban in the early 16th century. In 1513, he won a major victory at the battle of Dubica on the Una river. He took part in the 1518 battle of Jajce. He was killed in an Ottoman ambush at the battle of Plješevica in 1520.

In May 1522, after two failed attempts in 1513 and 1514, Bosnian sanjak-bey Gazi Husrev-beg besieged Knin, the capital of Croatia. While Croatian Ban Ivan Karlović was preparing a relief force, the commander of the Knin garrison Mihajlo Vojković surrendered the fortress. A few days later, Skradin surrendered as well. The loss of Knin accelerated the Ottoman advance, while Bihać took the leading role in Croatia's defenses south of the Sava River. From 1522, Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria, provided troops for the defense of Croatia. Although the support was limited, as inner-Austrian duchies opposed the permanent stationing of their troops outside the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, he managed to extend his influence in the kingdom.

Interregnum period

In 1526, Ottoman forces led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent defeated a large Christian force led by King Louis II at the battle of Mohács. Louis, who had no heir, died in battle. Croatia and Hungary became disputed territories between Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg, and John Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania. Most of the Croatian nobles backed Ferdinand. On 1 January 1527, the Croatian Parliament unanimously elected Ferdinand as King of Croatia at their assembly in Cetin.

Although on election of Cetin, Ferdinand Habsburg pledged to provide both financial and military aid to Croatian nobility who elected him, in reality he soon turned out to be unable to fully keep his promises. Croatian nobility continuously asked him to invest in both reconstruction of fortifications on the borderlands towards the Ottoman Empire and send actual troops to man them. They usualy argued that by defending Croatia, Ferdinand actually defends the Holy Roman Empire from the Ottoman incursions. At one point Croatians even pointed to the possibility of switching sides and actually allowing Ottoman armies freely pass through Croatia in order to attack the Holy Roman Empire. Ferdinand, however, invested most of his forces in civil war against Zapolya, could only offer limited help before the civil war with Zapolya was resolved.

Meanwhile, the Ottomans used these instabilities to capture Croatian forts in Obrovac, Udbina, Komić and Mrsinj and by which they asserted their control over entire Krbava county and made ground for further advances to Lika.

Habsburg period

Jajce fell in 1528, Požega in 1536, Klis fell in 1537, Nadin and Vrana in 1538, moving the Croatian-Ottoman border to the line, roughly, Požega-Bihać-Velebit-Zrmanja-Cetina.

Katzianer's Campaign

In 1537, after prevailing over Zapolya and as a result of continuous pressure from the Croatian nobility, Ferdinand Habsburg named one of his seasoned commander Johann Katzianer supreme royal captain "of our Slavonian kingdom" on joint Croatian-Slavonian parliament held in Križevci in spring of 1537.Kruhek, 95 This Croatian-Slavonian parliament proclaimed the general insurrection, while bishop of Zagreb Simon Erdody was in charge of the logistics. However, the same parliament refused to accept Katzianer as suppreme commander, which left this important matter unresolved before the campaign began. An army of 24 000 men assembled near Koprivnica and marched off to Slavonia in order to chase away the Ottomans. It seems that their main goal was Osijek. As the army reached Virovitica, the conflicts between different commanders enflamed and the army ranned out of food. The autumn rains also caused maladies among soldiers, which decimated the army. As Osijek garrison was reinforced by Jahjapašić and thus too strong to besiege it, Katzianer ordered a withdrawal, but the army was intercepted by Turks and everntually ended up near Gorjani. As army's top commanders such as Katzianer and bishop Erodoy escaped night before the battle, the remainder of the army was completely destroyed by the Ottomans in Battle of Gorjani on 9 October 1537.

Military Frontier

The fiasco of Katzianer's Campaign made a turning point and convinced both Habsburg king and Croatian-Slavonian nobility to turn to creation of defensive buffer zone which would rely on system of fortifications in the borderlands.Kruhek, 96 The old medieval fortifications in the area had to be reinforced and reconstructed in accordance with then modern rennaisance standards. Likewise, the joint armies confronting the Ottomans had to be united under joint command in order to avoid discord among the commanders. The defensive system also had to be permanently and systematically well financed.

In January 1539 king Ferdinand deployed the army of 3000-4000 Spanish mercenaries to Slavonia to man the fortifications, while Nikola Jurišić was named supreme royal captain in Slavonia in the aftermath of Katzianer's downfall. He also invited nobility on Croatian-Slavonian parliament to properly supply this newly arrived Spanish army with food and salary.

Croatian-Slavonian parliament also decided to recruit 300 strong haramija force in order to counter frequent Ottoman martolos raids. The arrival of Spanish army in Slavonia temporairly halted the Ottoman conquests, so in period of 1539-40, there were no major territorial losses in Slavonia.

By the end of 1540, the Ottoman Empire occupied the Croatian possessions between Skradin and Karin, eliminating them as a buffer zone between the Ottoman and Venetian territory in Dalmatia. By 1573, the remainder of the Dalmatian hinterland, now largely controlled by the Venetian cities, was even further reduced by Ottoman advances.

Hasan Pasha's Croatian campaign

In 1591, bellicose Telil Hasan pasha was appointed Ottoman governor of Bosnian Eyalet. Same year in spring, Ottomans constructed pontoon bridges over Sava river near Gradiška and started amassing troops in Banja Luka.Klaić, 465-467 In Croatian Sabor in July 1591 held in Zagreb information came that Hasan Pasha mobilised troops from all sanjaks under his control and is preparing an attack on one of Croatian bordertown forts. Croatian Sabor responded by proclaiming general insurrection throughout entire country.

In August 1591, Hasan Pasha's army crossed Sava river and marched off towards fort of Sisak. Various sources describe his army between 35 000-16 000 strong. He besieged the fort leading to First battle of Sisak. The Ottomans couldn't capture the fort, so they retreated back to Gradiška on August 11.Klaić, 467-470 Army of Slavonian Frontier and Croatian ban responded by besieging Moslavina fort and forced its garrison to surrender. In autumn same year, Hasan pasha responed by sending a raiding party of some 5000 horsemen on a plundering raid to Slavonian military Frontier, but his raiding party was intercepted and partially destroyed by local christian captains. On 6 November 1591, the Ottomans successfully captured the fort of Ripač.

In 1592, Ottomans resumed their offensives on Croatia, which eventuelly led to fall of Bihać. Subsequently Battle of Brest took place in July and ended in decisive Ottoman victory. The christian defeat near Brest, caused alarm throughout much of the Habsburg Monarchy, so christian armies started flowing in to Croatia from all over Europe. The decisive battle took place in June 1593 when Hasan pasha attempted to capture Sisak fort for the third time and it ended in decisive christian victory, while Hasan Pasha himself got killed in the battle. Soon after, much of the christian reinforcements returned back to their homelands, while Ottomans raised new army in Rumelia which arrived for the Fourth time near Sisak in August 1593 and had overwhelm its far fewer defenders. Although fall of Sisak caused fear among beacause it was last defense before Zagreb, the Ottoman armies eventually withdrew back to Bosnia, as they had ran out of food for further offensive campaigns, while Ottoman Rumelian forced marched off to Hungary.

International impact

Although the Croatian Kingdom suffered major defeats in battles, it remained in existence, keeping its identity, religion, and culture under the Habsburg monarchy. In addition, some Croats in the territories lost to the Ottomans remained because the Porte embraced ethnic diversity, many of them eventually converting to Islam throughout the following centuries of Ottoman rule. The regions of Bihać and Velika Kladuša were Islamized.

The Croatian combat against the Ottomans did not remain unnoticed in the political circles of European states. Copious amounts of information from the war was written in ''Monumenta Hungariae Historica, Codex diplomaticus partium Regno Hungariae adnexarum'' from 1903 (over 600 documents).

Zones of war peril

According to Croatian historian Ivan Jurković, the war-endangered areas could be classified in three zones:
*The first zone was the territory of Kingdom of Croatia, that had no effective control by both sides, as well as the parts of Kingdom of Croatia that were heavily struck by the Ottoman military and paramilitary operations. This zone was up to 50 km deep in the Croatian territory. It mostly covered the areas along the border and the later-formed Military Frontier. The infrastructure and the supra-structure became ruined and devastated, and the economic life suffered. This zone had high rate of emigration, mostly to the second and the third zones, along with emigrations abroad.
*The second zone was from time to time exposed to the raids of the Ottoman regular and irregular forces. The area was controlled by the Croatian authorities and the economic life was still somewhat functioning. Population level was steady and received a continuous inflow of displacees from the first zone. The Croatian nobles used this zone as the support point and the base for the defense or for the attempts of retaking of their estates in the first zone. These areas lived as economic support of the armies.
*The third zone was mostly Ottoman raid-safe zone, in which the majority of the zone had no Ottoman raids, although few areas were subjected to Ottoman raids.

Footnotes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hundred Years' Croatian-Ottoman War

15th-century conflicts
16th-century conflicts
Croatia under Habsburg rule
Ottoman period in the history of Croatia
Wars involving Bosnia and Herzegovina