Battle of Zenta

The Battle of Zenta, also known as the Battle of Senta, was fought on 11 September 1697, near Zenta, Kingdom of Hungary (occupied by the Ottoman Empire and now modern-day Senta, Serbia), between Ottoman and Holy League armies during the Great Turkish War. The battle was the most decisive engagement of the war, and it saw the Ottomans suffer an overwhelming defeat by an Imperial force half as large sent by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1697 a last major Ottoman attempt to reconquer Hungary was made; Sultan Mustafa II personally led the invasion force. In a surprise attack, Habsburg Imperial forces commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy engaged the Turkish army while it was halfway through crossing the Tisza river at Zenta, 80 miles northwest of Belgrade. The Habsburg forces inflicted thousands of casualties, including the Grand Vizier, dispersed the remainder, captured the Ottoman treasury, and came away with such emblems of high Ottoman authority as the Seal of the Empire which had never been captured before. The European coalition's losses, on the other hand, were exceptionally light.

As an immediate consequence, the Ottoman Empire lost control over the Banat. Eugene followed up this victory by raiding deep into Ottoman Bosnia. Zenta was one of the Ottoman Empire's worst defeats, after which it was forced to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), ceding parts of Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia to Habsburg Austria, which marked the end of Ottoman dominance in central Europe.