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Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)

1788–1791 military conflict between Habsburg Monarchy and Ottoman Empire

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ6542740 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Austro-Turkish War, also known as the Habsburg–Ottoman War, was fought from 1788 to 1791, between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. During the conflict, Habsburg armies succeeded in taking Belgrade (1789) and liberating much of central Serbia, also capturing several forts in central Croatia and in the Pounje region of Ottoman Bosnia. Much of those gains were lost in the later stages of the war, which ended under the Treaty of Sistova (1791), with minor territorial changes in favor of the Habsburgs. The war was fought concomitantly with the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792).

War aims

The war began soon after the breakout of the Russian-Turkish conflict. The Russian Empire, headed by Catherine the Great, had been involved in previous wars of conquest against the Ottomans, and the two nations were openly hostile. In August 1787, after "numerous Russian provocations" according to Hochedlinger, the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Russians. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II had concluded an alliance with the Russians in 1781, which (Hochedlinger) "obliged [him] to assist the Russians with his full might ... Vienna felt that it had to act promptly so as not to annoy the [Empress]. What Joseph had to make sure this time was that Austria did not come away empty-handed again, as over the Crimea in 1783–84".

Editorial summary

“Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)” enters the record as 1788–1791 military conflict between Habsburg Monarchy and Ottoman Empire. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Austro-Turkish, military and conflict can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1788, 1791, 1789, 1787—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Austro-Turkish, military and conflict.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Austro-Turkish, military and conflict provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6542740. The Library of Congress control number is sh85009772. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1788, 1791, 1789 and 1787.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

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  • Institutional context
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.