During the conflict, Habsburg armies succeeded in taking Belgrade (1789) and liberating much of central Serbia, also capturing several forts in the Pounje region of the Ottoman Bosnia.

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.

[2] In fact, Joseph was facing a serious threat to his rule in a distant portion of his empire, in what is now Belgium; as well as long-term tensions with a powerful northerly neighbor, Prussia.

A Serbian Free Corps of 5,000 soldiers had been established in the Banat, composed of refugees that had fled earlier conflicts in the Ottoman Empire.

The Austrian army also decisively participated in the victories of Focşani and Rymnik de facto under the overall command of Suvorov, and Josias of Saxe-Coburg conquered Bucharest.

[6] Joseph's successor Leopold II was compelled to end the war due to the threat of Prussian intervention in support of the Ottomans.

Rajić writes, The wars of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries instilled in the Serbian consciousness the deep-seated expectation that only Austria could lend a helping hand [i.e., in liberating Serbia from the Ottomans].

This faith was largely shaken after Kočina Krajina and the last Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791), when it became clear that despite the Serbs' merits and heavy casualties in the fight against the Turks, the emperor abandoned them and made peace with the sultan.

Calinger writes: To have the time and financial resources to establish his domestic reforms, Joseph II needed stability in foreign affairs.

[12] Solomon writes that even "the morale of the cultural elite was severely eroded; fears of conscription led many aristocratic families to leave Vienna, and there were widespread feelings of disillusionment with Emperor Joseph, a sense that he had betrayed the promise of an enlightened reform movement.