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==Introduction==
In the early modern period in Europe, Ottoman Turkey was arguably the greatest military and political power. The Ottoman Sultan ruled an Empire from Persia to Central Europe. It is widely accepted that if the Ottomans Muslims Empire had been successful at the Battle or Siege of Vienna in 1683 that they it could have gone on and dominated Europe and changed not only European history but also world history. The defeat of the Turkish army outside the gates of Vienna it widely seen as the beginning of the long decline of the Ottoman Empire and played a very important part in the rise of Europe. This article discusses the prelude to the siege and describes the actual events of 1683. It focuses on the main reasons why the great Ottoman Empire, failed to seize Vienna.
==Background==
The Ottomans had ruled a vast empire that encompassed the Balkans, modern day Turkey and much of the Middle East since the fifteenth century. They had captured Byzantium and ended the Byzantine Empire. They had launched repeated attacks on the Christian kingdoms of Europe for many centuries. By the 1680s the main defense against the Ottomans was the Hapsburg Empire<ref>Alan Palmer, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire (New York, Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1992), p. 113</ref>. This was a large empire that was centered on the German-speaking lands of modern Austria and its capital was Vienna. The Hapsburg Empire and the Ottomans had long contested the control of central Europe and for the control of Hungary. In 1529 the Ottomans had laid siege to Vienna but had been beaten back. This has also led to the partition of Hungary between the Turks and the Hapsburgs. However, the Catholic Hapsburgs distrusted and occasionally persecuted many of their Hungarian subjects who were Protestants <ref> Palmer, p. 113</ref>. The Catholic forces moved into an area of Hungary that had been traditionally a buffer zone between the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans. This gave the Ottomans the excuse that they had long wanted to drive their armies into the heart of Europe. Since the death of Suleiman, the Magnificent the Ottomans had been in decline, but this had been reversed by a series of energetic Viziers. They had reformed the army and had built up the infrastructure of the Empire. The Hapsburg intervention into Hungary was the perfect opportunity for the Turks to capture Vienna. They wanted the city so that they could control vital land trade routes and to potentially fatefully weaken the Hapsburgs.
