The Treaty of Karlowitz ends three centuries of Ottoman expansion
For the first time, Ottoman diplomats negotiate a peace as the losing side, and the empire cedes Hungary, Transylvania, and Croatia.
Quick facts
- Signed
- 26 January 1699
- Parties
- Ottoman Empire, Austria, Poland, Venice
- Ottoman negotiator
- Rami Mehmed Pasha
- Territory ceded
- Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Podolia, the Peloponnese
What happened
After sixteen years of continued warfare following the failed second siege of Vienna, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Karlowitz with Austria, Poland, and Venice on 26 January 1699, ending the Great Turkish War. The Ottomans ceded Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia to Austria, Podolia to Poland, and the Peloponnese and parts of Dalmatia to Venice. The Ottoman negotiating team, led by Rami Mehmed Pasha and the Greek dragoman Alexandros Mavrokordatos, represented the first time in the empire's history that its diplomats negotiated a peace settlement from the position of the defeated side rather than the victor.
Why it matters
Karlowitz marked the formal, legal end of nearly four centuries of continuous Ottoman territorial expansion in Europe since Osman's founding beylik, and it established a pattern of negotiated territorial concession that would recur through the following two centuries as European powers came to see Ottoman decline as a permanent diplomatic problem, later termed the Eastern Question.
How we know
A study published by the Turkish Historical Society (Turk Tarih Kurumu) describes Karlowitz as the first peace treaty in which the Ottomans took part in negotiations as the defeated side and identifies the specific Ottoman negotiators involved.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Battles & Conquests Of The Ottoman Empire (1299-1683) · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Ema Petrovic and Milica Mijatovic, Turkish Historical Society (Turk Tarih Kurumu). Treaty of Karlowitz: (Un)Successful Ottoman Diplomacy and Its Impact on Serbia · Peer-reviewed (author-declared)ttk.gov.tr · Cited as a "journal" source (no stronger domain match).
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