Customer Reviews

The Enemy at the Gate : Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe

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Empires soon to both go into decline incidentally. The Habsburgs and Ottomans were both heading into their declines - the Habsburgs soon to fall into a role of mid-tier power and the Ottomans coming to the place where they would be humiliated by just about everyone. The history account and insight is strong - the book weakens toward the end where Wheatcroft tries to draw neat moral parallels and lessons for our time. While there's certainly lessons here, I don't think that "Muslims aren't so different from us" is really the most profound or useful lesson to be drawn here.

Scottish professor Andrew Wheatcroft has written a very readable and succinct history about the war between the Habsburgs and Ottoman Turks that culminated (but did not end) at the Siege and Battle of Vienna in the summer and fall of 1683, in his book, "The Enemy at the Gate". His book is a good look at both the geo-political and military issues.

The forces of Christendom and Islam had been sparring for well over 600 years by the time the Turks tried for the last time to take the walled city of Vienna in 1683. The area south and east of Vienna - Hungary and points south - had been the scene of random raids, battles between the two, wholesale slaughter of people on each side by the other side, and general sniping at each other. And just as sites in lower eastern Europe had been a battlefield for years, so had the Ottoman empire itself. From the Crusades onward, there had been bad blood between Christians and Muslims and cities and territory often changed hands in this period. The Turks had tried to capture but had been turned back from the gates of Vienna in 1529. The area slumbered for the next 150 years with minor excursions into each others' territory by both Turks and Austrians, and "tribute" was paid reluctantly by the Habsburgs to the Turks to keep the peace. Reluctantly and often late, as it were.

Then, in the early 1680's, a nationalism was fired up in the Turks and they decided to finally "take" Vienna - one of the prizes of "Christendom". Wheatcroft tells the story of the history of the enmity between two, as well as the story of the siege of Vienna the summer of 1683 and the battle to relieve the Turkish siege on September 12th. An all-day battle of European coalition forces put together by allies of the Habsburgs routed the Ottoman forces and sent them back down the Danube to their own area. Another battle was won at Buda, returning that city to the Habsburg fold. Wheatcroft's writing of the Siege of Vienna and the battle and the forces put together was the best part of the book. He writes well about battle and diplomacy; particularly the latter was important in getting such various figures as the (elected) King of Poland and various German princes together to fight the Turks. For the serious amateur history reader, Andrew Wheatcroft's book is a valuable addition to their library.