Venice had held several islands in the Aegean and the Ionian seas, together with strategically positioned forts along the coast of the Greek mainland since the carving up of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade.

The Ottomans, under another Köprülü Grand Vizier, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, regained the initiative and pushed the Austrians back, recovering Niš and Vidin in 1690 and launching raids across the Danube.

[11] According to the reports of the English ambassador to the Porte, Lord Chandos, the Ottomans' position was even worse: on land they were reeling from a succession of defeats, so that the Sultan had to double the pay of his troops and resort to forcible conscription.

[14] At the same time, the Ottoman navy was described by European observers like Chandos, Luigi Ferdinando Marsili and Paul Rycaut as being in a sore state, both numerically and qualitatively; the Moldavian prince Demetrius Cantemir reports that the fleet scarcely had six men-of-war ready for operations, and was about to bring ten further to the Imperial Arsenal to be fitted out for war.

Morosini's political rival, Girolamo Cornaro, tried to preempt him and seize the Castle of Santa Maura, which he believed to be lightly defended, before the arrival of the fleet from Venice.

No definite plans were made after that, with Morosini envisaging an assault on Negroponte (Chalkis) with a view towards gaining a base of operations in the Aegean, or alternatively focusing on capturing the coast of Albania.

At the same time, insurrectionist movements began among the Maniots, who resented the loss of privileges and autonomy, including the establishment of Ottoman garrisons in the fortresses of Zarnata, Kelefa, and Passavas, that they had suffered due to their collaboration with the Venetians in the Cretan War.

In early autumn, an assembly under the presidency of the local bishop, Joachim, decided to approach the Venetians for aid, and on 20 October, a ten-man embassy arrived at Zakynthos to treat with Morosini.

Already in the preceding months they had reinforced their troops in Laconia, and in February the new serasker (Ottoman commander-in-chief) of the Morea, Ismail Pasha, invaded the Mani peninsula with 10,000 men.

[32][35] In the final stage of the siege, 230 Maniots under the Zakynthian noble Pavlos Makris had taken part, and soon the area rose up in revolt again, encouraged by Morosini's presence at Coron.

On 10 September, the Venetians and Maniots obtained the surrender of the fortress of Zarnata, its garrison of 600 being allowed safe passage to Kalamata, but its commander retiring to Venice and a rich pension.

Losses were particularly heavy among the German contingents, which complained about the negligence shown to them by the Venetian authorities, and the often spoiled food they were sent: the Hannoverians alone lost 736 men to disease in the period from April 1685 to January 1686, as opposed to 256 in battle.

[32][38] The Venetian forces were slow to assemble, and Morosini had to await the arrival of reinforcements in the form of 13 galleys from the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, as well as further mercenaries, which raised his army to some 10,000 foot and 1,000 horse, before commencing his advance in late May.

[40][41] The Venetians then, in a lightning move, retired their field army from Messenia and landed it at Tolo between 30 July and 4 August, within striking distance of the capital of the Peloponnese, Nauplia.

Nauplia became the Venetians' major base, while Ismail Pasha withdrew to Vostitsa in the northern Peloponnese after strengthening the garrisons at Corinth, which controlled the passage to Central Greece.

[40] At about the same time, the dissatisfaction among the German mercenaries, due to their losses to disease and the perceived neglect in the sharing of spoils, reached its peak, and many, including the entire Saxon contingent, returned home.

[47] The Venetians followed up this success with the reduction of the last Ottoman bastions in the Peloponnese: Chlemoutsi surrendered to Angelo De Negri from Zakynthos on 27 July, while Königsmarck marched east towards Corinth.

The Venetian position in the Peloponnese could not be secure as long as the Ottomans held onto eastern Central Greece, where Thebes and Negroponte (Chalkis) were significant military strongholds.

The Venetian army set up cannon and mortar batteries on the Pnyx and other heights around the city and began a siege of the Acropolis, which would last six days (23–29 September) and would cause much destruction to the ancient monuments.

Despite the enormous destruction caused by the "miraculous shot", as Morosini called it, the Turks continued to defend the fort until a relief attempt from the Ottoman army from Thebes was repulsed by Königsmarck on 28 September.

Morosini decided to at least take back a few ancient monuments as spoils, but on 19 March the statues of Poseidon and the chariot of Nike fell down and smashed into pieces as they were being removed from the western pediment of the Parthenon.

[54][55] Despite the failure of the Athens expedition, the fortunes of war were still favourable: the Ottomans were reeling from a series of defeats in Hungary and Dalmatia: following the disastrous Battle of Mohács, in November 1687, a mutiny broke out that resulted in the dismissal and execution of the Grand Vizier Sarı Süleyman Pasha and even the deposition of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687), who was replaced by his brother Suleiman II (r. 1687–1691).

The Venetian fleet was unable to fully blockade the city, which allowed Ismail Pasha's forces, across the Euripus Strait, to ferry supplies to the besieged castle.

At the same time, the large swathe of no man's land between the Ottoman strongholds in the east and the Venetian-held territories in the west was increasingly a haven for independent warbands, both Christian and Muslim, who were augmented by Albanian and Dalmatian deserters from the Venetian army.

The local population was thus at the mercy of the Venetians and their Greek and Dalmatian auxiliaries on the one hand, who extracted protection money, the depredations of marauding warbands, and the Ottomans, who still demanded the payment of regular taxes.

The Vizier of Skhoder, Suleyman Bushati, after threatening and pacifying the tribes of Kuči and Kelmendi, gathered an army and marched towards Cetinje, when the Pivljanin and his hajduks, accompanied by Venetian detachment and joined by some Montenegrins decided to make a last stand.

[citation needed] Visarion Borilović, who was elected in the meantime, devised a closer war plan with the Venetians, and sent 1500 Montenegrins under Duke Vučeta Bogdanović from Njeguši in the aid of Girolamo Cornaro during his attack on Herceg Novi.

[77] In an effort to aid the Greeks of Himara, who had rebelled against the Turks, and after some successes in northern Albania and Montenegro, the Venetian fleet launched an attack against the Ottoman port and fortress of Valona.

[78] In 1692, a Venetian fleet comprising 34 galleons and 27 other vessels under Domenico Mocenigo attacked Crete and laid siege to its capital Candia, while at the same time the Greeks of the island rose up against the Ottomans.

[80] There were several naval clashes between the opposing fleets, such as at Lesbos in 1690, at Andros in 1696 and also in September 1697,[81] at Lemnos in July 1697, and at Samothrace in 1698, but they were generally indecisive and failed to shift the balance of forces.