Ottoman Disadvantages and its Implications on The Siege of...

Under Suleiman the Magnificent the Ottoman Empire was a force to be reckoned with, it ruled the Middle East and Suleiman was quickly realizing his goal of advancing into Europe. However in 1529 a major military upset in the Austrian city of Vienna would halt the Islamic Ottoman expansion and save Europe from the possibility of Ottoman control. However this might not had been the case if it were not for several key disadvantages the Ottoman Empire had against the Viennese. Suleiman the Magnificent’s defeat during the siege of Vienna, 1529, was caused by poor weather conditions, chaos and disorganization amongst the Ottoman ranks, and a much stronger Viennese defense than was anticipated. On May 10, 1529 Sultan Suleiman left Istanbul on†¦show more content†¦This divided Hungary into two states, Royal Hungary and Ottoman Hungary, this division lasted until 1700. In the spring of 1529 Suleiman the Magnificent began to construct his massive army in Ottoman Bulgaria, his objective is to conquer and secure control over all of Hungary and eliminate the threat posed by Ferdinand I and the Holy Roman Empire. Estimates of the size of Suleiman’s army vary vastly from around 100,000 men to well over 300,000. The army also consisted of many units of Sapahi, the elite Ottoman Calvary, and thousands and thousands of Janissaries, an extremely well trained Ottoman fighting force. With such a vast group moving all at once there were certain inherent difficulties the Ottomans faced. The biggest of these would be the sheer chaos caused by the disorganization. Desertion was particularly rampant amongst the Ottoman forces and with the disorganization it was nearly impossible to properly distribute resources, malnourishment was a big problem because of the difficulty of acquiring food. This would mark a major disadvantage of the Ottoman morale; it diminished their will to fight, and thus, their will to win. Suleiman launched his campaign on May 10th, because this was so late in the year, the weather was almost immediately a problem. The spring rains associated with that area of Europe caused flooding and bridge wash outs were very common, this barley allowed to troops to leave