[1] They assumed direct control over all of south-eastern Europe, and multiple free states such as Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia had become eyalet vassals of the empire.

[3] The culmination of Ottoman advances was the establishment of a military corridor from Constantinople, through Turkish-controlled Moravia and Belgrade, to the once-Habsburg fortress Érsekújvar in Royal Hungary.

[4][5] In the wake of this corridor was an inflow of Ottoman culture, including the construction of new schools, Turkish baths, and mosques, in what Geoffrey Treasure has called a "Muslim penetration" into Europe.

This was heightened following the Treaty of Vasvár in 1664, when the Habsburgs refused to pursue retreating Ottoman forces beyond the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, which enabled them to set up garrison in Hungary.

This culminated in an attempt at communication with the Turkish Grand Vizier,[9] which was only halted by the discovery of the conspiracy and the subsequent execution of the main conspirators,[10] putting pressure on the Habsburgs to push back against the Ottoman presence in their western territory.

[12] This backing included a papal subsidy of 200,000 imperial thalers to Poland, the mobilisation of 60,000 Holy Roman troops, and the appointment of a Cardinal Protector for Sobieski III.

Following the end of the siege and the liberation of the city by Polish forces, Sobieski wrote to Pope Innocent XI giving him his “unextinguished zeal in propagating the Christian faith”.

[16] It was signed into effect on 5 March 1684 at Linz by representatives of the Holy Roman Empire under the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Venetian Republic; all other Christian nations were invited to join as well.

[22] Innocent XI had similar intentions, sending an envoy to Moscow in April, and in the following month he gifted money to the Cossacks under the pretense that more would be given if Russia were to join the League.

These attempts at diplomacy culminated in the Pope’s personal invitation in August to Tsarine Sophia, calling on Russia to join the Holy League; this was eventually accepted on 26 April 1686 after a peace treaty with Poland was made.

[23] Russia joined the League on the stipulation that they were to keep Kiev from the Polish in exchange for 1.5 million florins, with the requirement that they were to begin war with the Ottomans before the end of 1686.

[24] Prior to the Treaty of Warsaw, King Louis XIV exerted control over the Polish diet through a paid French minority, which sought to stall Sobieski III's attempts at joining in an alliance with Leopold I.

[29] Despite not being a Christian nation, the League had allied with Persia and sought to invite them to join on multiple occasions, seeking to leverage the primarily Shiite Persians' history of opposition to the Sunni Ottomans.

[32] In response, Suleiman prepared 30,000 troops to march against the Ottoman Empire, claiming he “would take advantage of so favourable an opportunity.” He did not bring Persia to join the League, however.

[35] With their advantageous position, the Habsburgs put forward ambitious peace terms, centred around retaining territorial gains and the handover of Hungary's Emeric Thököly, leader of the nation's secessionist movements.

[43] Peace was officially made between the founding three members of the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire on January 26, 1699, through the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz.

[47] This is echoed by Abou-El-Haj, who notes that the Ottoman Empire had little in the way of formal diplomatic procedures and relied upon continual military victories as foreign relations.