BANJA LUKA BATTLE AND SURVIVAL BOSNIAN PASHALUK 1737

Abstract

After the Habsburg Monarchy won substantial territorial expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire in wars from 1683 to 1699 and 1716 to 1718, in military and political circles of the Monarchy began to consider further conquest ventures and expansions at the expense of the Ottoman territories in the Balkans. In the first place, it was considered the takeover of the westernmost Ottoman province – Bosnian Pashadom. Prince Joseph Hildburghausen was elected for the chief strategist in the attack on Bosnian Pashadom. His main objective was to occupy Banja Luka, so the attack on Bosnian Pashadom started from four sides, and planned attack on Banja Luka from two directions. However, it is obvious that he had underestimated the possibilities of the Bosnian Pasha Ali pasha Hekim-oglu, whose defence strategy of pashadom led to complete defeat of Hildburghauzen’s troupes on all counts of the attack on Bosnian Pashadom, and the hardest defeat is certainly defeat that he inflicted in Banja Luka in 1737, after which Hildburghausen withdrew from the territory of pashadom. Battle of Banja Luka marked the winner in this war on the territory of the Bosnian Pashadom, but also, in some way, according to the sequence of events in the future war, showed the inability of the command staff of the Monarchy. The Treaty of Belgrade marked some kind of turning point in the Ottoman-Austrian relations to the new war from 1788 to 1791 because after 1739 the Monarchy no longer considered the Ottoman Empire as a subordinate, but tried to keep the existing political situation.