Treaty of Sistova
The Treaty of Sistova ended the last Austro-Turkish war. Brokered by Great Britain and the Netherlands, it was signed in Sistova in present-day Bulgaria on 4 August 1791; the treaty was written in Turkish. Austria had been pushed back in the first year of the war, but had conquered Belgrade, gained another victory near Calafat in 1790. Austria's ally Russia had been successful, but Austria was threatened with invasion by Prussia. Under this pressure, Austria accepted only meagre gains from the war: only the town of Orşova and two small places on the Croatian frontier were ceded to Austria; this treaty ended the Austro-Ottoman Wars. Austria did not participate in the Russian-led wars against the Ottomans during the 19th and 20th centuries. With the Turkish war ended, Austria joined with Prussia in the Declaration of Pillnitz on August 27. Austria renounced any expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. In return Prussia promised not not to support the Brabant Revolution. Both countries pledged to intervene in France if the various powers of Europe all agreed it was necessary.
Habsburg-occupied Serbia Ćirković, Sima. The Serbs. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 1. Cambridge University Press
Kladovo
Kladovo is a town and municipality located in the Bor District of eastern Serbia. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube river; the population of the town is 8,913, while the population of the municipality is 20,635. In Serbian, the town is known as Kladovo, in Romanian Cladova, in German as Kladowo or Kladovo and in Latin and Romanised Greek as Zanes. In the time of the Roman Empire, the name of the town was Zanes while the fortifications was known as Diana and Pontes. Emperor Trajan had a number of fortications constructed in the area during the Roman times, such as the well-known Trajan's Bridge. Slavs founded a settlement, named Novi Grad, while Ottomans built a fortress here and called it Fethülislam; the present-day name of Kladovo is first recorded in 1596 in an Austrian military document. There are several theories about the origin of the current name of the town: According to one theory, name of the town derived from Celtic word "kladiff" meaning "cemetery" in English. According to another theory, the name derived from the word "klad".
A third theory has it that the name derives from the Slavic word "kladenac" meaning "a well" in English or from the Slavic word "klada" meaning " stump". There is a theory that the name goes back to the Bulgarian duke Glad, who ruled over this region in the 9th century. There is a settlement with the same name in Russia near Moscow and it is believed that this settlement was founded by Serbs who moved there from Serbian Kladovo in the 18th century. One of the suburbs of Berlin has this name, which originates from the Slavic Lusatian Serbs who live in eastern Germany; the name is found in the Arad and Timiș counties of Romania, Cladova, in Arad county Cladova, Cladova in Timiș county Cladova, Timiș East of the town are the sandy region of Kladovski Peščar, black locust forests and a marshy area of Kladovski Rit which used to be a large fish pond. It is home for 140 species of birds. There are mixed colonies of pygmy cormorants and herons, while other birds include swans, white-tailed eagles, European bee-eaters, numerous ducks, etc.
Surrounding area is a hunting ground for wild boars. Neighboring geographical localities, like Osojna and Lolićeva Česma, are popular local excursion areas. Early Bronze Age pottery of the Kostolac-Kocofeni culture was found in Donje Butorke, Kladovo, as well as several miniature duck-shaped vases of 14th century BC in Mala Vrbica and Korbovo. Bronze Age necropolis with rituals and other significant archaeological items were found in Korbovo. In ancient times, a fortification near Trajan's bridge named Zanes/Pontes existed at this location, the area was governed by the Dacian Albocense tribe. In the Middle Ages, the Slavs founded here new town named Novi Grad, but it was razed by the Hungarians in 1502, it received new name: Fethi Islam. According to Ottoman traveler, Evliya Chelebi, who visited the town in 1666, most of its inhabitants spoke local Slavic language and Turkish language, while some spoke Vlach. In 1784, the population of Kladovo numbered 140 Muslim and 50 Christian houses. From 1929 to 1941, Kladovo was part of the Morava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Aside from the town of Kladovo, the municipality includes the following settlements: TownsKladovo Brza PalankaVillages According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 20,635 inhabitants. The ethnic composition of the municipality: The main business are the hydro-electric power plants of Đerdap: Iron Gate I and Iron Gate II. Other businesses began to support the building and operation of the power plant, the local folk; the population of the villages around Kladovo is supported by the family members who work as guest-workers in the countries of western Europe, agriculture is a side activity more than an income-generating one. The following table gives a preview of total number of employed people per their core activity: Kladovo has one hospital, two daycare and kindergarten centers, one elementary school, one high school and several vocational schools. Though the river Danube is polluted by international standards, many people still fish in it. Before the power plant was built, sturgeon caviar from this area was popular and was exported as a delicacy to the western Europe and the United States.
In the 1960s, up to 3 tons of caviar yearly was exported from Kladovo. Record catch from that period is a 188 kg heavy sturgeon with 20 kg of the roe in it. However, the records from the past, dated in 1793, report of the sturgeon; the specificity of the Kladovo's caviar was that the roe gets "ripe" enough during the 850 km long journey of the fish from the Black Sea upstream the Danube. Roe was turned into the caviar using the dry method; the nearby archeological sites include the remnants of Roman Emperor Trajan's bridge, one of many Trajan's tables, remnants of Trajan's road through the Danube's Iron Gates, the Roman fortress Diana. The Trajan's Bridge is located 5 km downstream from Kladovo, it was 1,200 m long. Trajan's successor Hadrian demolished it to prevent the raids of the Dacians and the bridge was neglected; the bridge is depicted in a relief on the Trajan's Column in Rome. Until the 16th century, it was the largest bridge built; the 20 pillars were still visi
Siege of Belgrade (1789)
In the Siege of Belgrade a Habsburg Austrian army led by Feldmarschall Ernst Gideon von Laudon besieged an Ottoman Turkish force under Osman Pasha in the fortress of Belgrade. After a three-week leaguer, the Austrians forced the surrender of the fortress. During the campaign, part of the Austro-Turkish War, the Austrian army was hampered by illness. Austria held the city until 1791 when it handed Belgrade back to the Ottomans according to the terms of the peace treaty. Several Austrian soldiers who distinguished themselves during the siege held important commands in the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Belgrade is the capital of modern Serbia. At the urging of Russian Empress Catherine the Great, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor committed the Habsburg Monarchy to a war against Ottoman Turkey. In 1788, the Austrians captured one fortress and seized some territory but most of their efforts were thwarted. In August 1788, Joseph appointed Laudon commander in Croatia where that general enjoyed some successes.
After the commander of the main army became ill, Joseph replaced him with Laudon at the end of July 1789 and ordered his new commander to capture Belgrade. In mid-September, Laudon's army crossed the Sava River and laid siege to Belgrade with 120,000 soldiers and over 200 cannons. At the end of the month the Austrians cleared the Ottomans from the suburbs. In the face of a destructive bombardment, Osman Pasha negotiated the surrender of the city on 7 October in exchange for allowing the garrison free passage to a Turkish fortress. Emperor Joseph II traveled to the Russian Empire where he met Catherine the Great at Kherson on 14 May 1787; as the two sovereigns toured the Crimea, Catherine talked Joseph into joining her in a war against the Ottoman Empire. Russia provoked the war with the Ottomans in 1787 by insisting that Turkey recognize a Russian protectorate over Georgia. For their part, the Ottomans instigated a revolt among the Tatars in the Crimea; when war broke out, Austrian was bound to support Russia by a secret treaty.
In 1788, Emperor Joseph led the main Austrian army, advised by Feldmarschall Franz Moritz von Lacy, in a campaign in the valley of the Sava River. One independent corps led by Prince Karl Borromäus of Liechtenstein operated in Croatia, a second corps under Wilhelm von Wartensleben in the Banat, a third corps under Fabris in Transylvania. A fourth corps commanded by Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld joined the Russian army in Moldavia; that year the emperor's army captured Šabac while Saxe-Coburg and Russian General Alexander Suvorov overran Moldavia. However, Liechtenstein was defeated by the Turks at Dubica and the other two Austrian corps were unsuccessful. Joseph summoned Field Marshal Laudon out of retirement and appointed him to lead the corps in Croatia. By the time Laudon reached his command on 18 August 1788, his lieutenants Joseph Nikolaus De Vins and Joseph Anton Brentano had overrun the Turkish entrenched camp near Dubica on the Una River. On 20 August 1788, Laudon's corps repulsed an attack by the Pasha of Travnik, inflicting 700 casualties on the Ottomans.
The garrison of Dubica surrendered to the Austrians on 26 August. With the help of a flanking column under Joseph Anton Franz von Mittrowsky, the Pasha of Travnik was maneuvered out of his entrenched camp at Donji Jelovac; this allowed Laudon to move against the fortress of Novi Grad on the Una. The siege of Novi Grad began on 10 September. After repulsing a Turkish relief column on 20 September, Laudon ordered an assault the next day; this failed with 80 killed and 210 wounded. The Austrians suffered losses of 220 killed and 353 wounded while total Turkish casualties during the siege were 400. After the armies went into winter quarters, Emperor Joseph fell ill and transferred command of the main army to Marshal András Hadik. On 14 May 1789, Laudon returned to command the corps in Croatia which numbered 34,500 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Colonel Andreas von Neu was Laudon's chief of staff. On 23 June, Laudon began operations against the fortress of Gradiška on the Sava with 15,900 infantry and gunners and 300 cavalry.
The Austrians crossed the Sava above and below Gradiška and began building trenches that approached the fortress. Before the place was invested, the Turkish garrison slipped away on the night of 8 July; the Turks left behind a single man, supposed to blow up the powder magazine, but this individual did not carry out the plan. Austrian losses for the siege were 120 wounded. In Moldavia, the Austro-Russian army under Suvorov and Saxe-Coburg soundly defeated the Turks at the Battle of Focșani on 1 August 1789. Charles-Joseph, 7th Prince of Ligne arrived in May to assume command of Semlin, now part of Belgrade but was a separate town in 1789. Ligne noted that there was a truce in force at the time and that of his corps of 30,000 soldiers, only 15,000 were fit for duty because of sickness. Ligne complained in a letter that the truce allowed the Ottomans to bring food supplies into Belgrade. Marshal Hadik with the main army became ill and had to be relieved of command. Emperor Joseph appointed Laudon to replace Hadik on 28 July.
At this time the emperor wrote to Loudon, "Cost. I want you to take Belgrade". Loudon arrived at Semlin on 14 August, met with the outgoing commander Hadik on the 16th, conferred with the temporary commander François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt at Mehadia soon afterward. On 28 August the Ottomans were driven off by Clerfayt. On 30 August 1789, Laudon gave orders for his army to concentrate at Novi Banovci, northwest of Belgrade and Semlin, his plan was cross the Sava on 13 September, but
Freikorps
Freikorps were German military volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, which fought as mercenary or private armies, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries, the first so-called Freikorps were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades and deserters; these sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry, sometimes in just company strength, sometimes in formations up to several thousand strong. The Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger and hussars; the French Volontaires de Saxe combined dragoons. In the aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19, Freikorps consisting of World War I veterans were raised as right-wing paramilitary militias, ostensibly to fight on behalf of the government against the Soviet-backed German Communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic. However, the Freikorps largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters.
The first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of volunteer hussars to be attached to the 1st Regiment of Hussars, he entrusted the command of this new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron was raised in Dresden and consisted of Hungarian deserters; this squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first four squadrons of dragoons of the Freikorps were organised, they consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg and Leipzig, but recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used as sentries and for minor duties; these early Freikorps appeared during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, when France and the Habsburg Monarchy embarked on an escalation of petty warfare while conserving their regular regiments. During the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, Freikorp formations were formed in 1778.
Germans, Poles and South Slavs, as well as Turks and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained as the ethnic origin was described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs were referred to as "Hungarians" or just "Croats", Muslim recruits as "Turks". For Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Croats and Serbs, were a clear model for the organization of such "free" troops. Frederick the Great created 14 "free infantry" units between 1756 and 1758, which were intended to be attractive to those soldiers who wanted military "adventure", but did not want to have to do military drill. A distinction should be made between the Freikorps formed up to 1759 for the final years of the war, which operated independently and disrupted the enemy with surprise attacks and the free infantry which consisted of various military branches and were used in combination, they were used to ward off Maria Theresa's Pandurs.
In the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost and reconnaissance duties. During the war, eight such volunteer corps were set up: Trümbach's Freikorps Kleist's Freikorps Glasenapp's Free Dragoons Schony's Freikorps Gschray's Freikorps Bauer's Free Hussars Légion Britannique Volontaires Auxiliaires. Because, with some exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard and garrison duties. In the so-called "petty wars", the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare. In the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as "vermin", were disbanded, their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments. In France, many corps continued to exist until 1776, they were attached to regular dragoon regiments as jäger squadrons. During the Napoleonic Wars, Austria recruited various Freikorps of Slavic origin.
The Slavonic Wurmser Freikorps fought in Alsace. The combat effectiveness of the six Viennese Freikorps, was low. An exception were the border regiments of Croats and Serbs who served permanently on the Austro-Ottoman border. Freikorps in the modern sense emerged in Germany during the course of the Napoleonic Wars, they fought not so much for money but rather out of patriotic motives, seeking to shake off the French Confederation of the Rhine. After the French under Emperor Napoleon had either conquered the German states or forced them to collaborate, remnants of the defeated armies continued to fight on in this fashion. Famous formations included the King's German Legion, who had fought for Britain in French-occupied Spain and were recruited from Hanoverians, the Lützow Free Corps and the Black Brunswickers; the Freikorps attracted students. Freikorps commanders such as Ferdinand von Schill, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow or Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, known as the "Black Duke", led their own attacks on Napoleonic occupa
Dahije
The Dahije or Dahijas were the renegade Janissary officers who took power in the Sanjak of Smederevo, after murdering the Vizier Hadži Mustafa Pasha of Belgrade on 15 December 1801. The four supreme dahije leaders were Kučuk Alija, Mula Jusuf and Mehmed-aga Fočić. Rebels against the Ottoman sultan, they were defeated by the Serbs in the initial phase of the First Serbian Uprising, called "Uprising against the Dahije"; the renegade janissary leaders were called dahije, from Ottoman Turkish dayı, meaning "uncle". The lesser janissary commanders were called kabadahije, referring to the Turkish phrase "kabadayı", a colloquial phrase for bullies. In 1788, during the Austro-Turkish War, Koča's frontier rebellion saw eastern Šumadija occupied by Austrian Serbian Free Corps and hajduks, subsequently, most of the Sanjak of Smederevo was occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy; the Siege of Belgrade from 15 September to 8 October 1789, a Habsburg Austrian force besieged the fortress of Belgrade. The Austrians held the city until 1791 when it handed Belgrade back to the Ottomans according to the terms of the Treaty of Sistova.
With the return of the sanjak to the Ottoman Empire the Serbs expected reprisals from the Turks due to their support to the Austrians. Sultan Selim III had given complete command of the Sanjak of Smederevo and Belgrade to battle-hardened Janissaries that had fought Christian forces during the Austro-Turkish War and many other conflicts. Although Selim III granted authority to the peaceful Hadži Mustafa Pasha, tensions between the Serbs and the Janissary command did not subside. In 1793 and 1796 Sultan Selim III proclaimed firmans. Among other things, taxes were to be collected by the obor-knez. Selim III decreed that some unpopular janissaries were to leave the Belgrade Pashaluk as he saw them as a threat to the central authority of Hadži Mustafa Pasha. Many of those janissaries were employed by or found refuge with Osman Pazvantoğlu, a renegade opponent of Sultan Selim III in the Sanjak of Vidin. Fearing the dissolution of the Janissary command in the Sanjak of Smederevo, Osman Pazvantoğlu launched a series of raids against Serbians without the permission of Sultan Selim III, causing much volatility and fear in the region.
Pazvantoğlu was defeated in 1793 by the Serbs at the Battle of Kolari. In the summer of 1797 the sultan appointed Mustafa Pasha on position of beglerbeg of Rumelia Eyalet and he left Serbia for Plovdiv to fight against the Vidin rebels of Pazvantoğlu. During the absence of Mustafa Pasha, the forces of Pazvantoğlu captured Požarevac and besieged the Belgrade fortress. At the end of November 1797 obor-knezes Aleksa Nenadović, Ilija Birčanin and Nikola Grbović from Valjevo brought their forces to Belgrade and forced the besieging janissary forces to retreat to Smederevo. By 1799, the janissary corps had returned to the sanjak, as they were pardoned by the Sultan's decree. On 15 December 1801 Vizier Hadži Mustafa Pasha of Belgrade was killed by Kučuk-Alija, one of the four leading dahije; this resulted in the Sanjak of Smederevo being ruled by these renegade janissaries independently from the Ottoman government, in defiance to the Sultan. The janissaries imposed "a system of arbitrary abuse, unmatched by anything similar in the entire history of Ottoman misrule in the Balkans".
The leaders divided the sanjak into pashaluks. They suspended the Serbian autonomy and drastically increased taxes, land was seized, forced labour was introduced, many Serbs fled the janissaries in fear; some Ottoman sipahi and Mustafa Pasha's men plotted, agreed with Serbian knezes to rise against the Dahije, on a given day. Ammunition was smuggled from the Habsburg Monarchy, some given out to the Serbs, some hid on the Avala; this first attempt to remove the Dahije, erupting a day early in 1802 in Požarevac, was stopped, the Dahije continued ruling the pashalik. The tyranny endured by the Serbs caused them to send a petition to the Sultan, which the dahije learnt of; the dahije started to fear. To forestall this they decided to execute leading Serbs throughout the sanjak, in the event known as the "Slaughter of the Knezes", which took place in late January 1804. According to contemporary sources from Valjevo, the severed heads of the murdered leaders were put on public display in the central square to serve as an example to those who might plot against the rule of the dahije.
This enraged the Serbs, who led their families into the woods and started murdering the subaşi, employed by the dahije, attacking Ottoman forces. The dahije sent out the most diplomatic, with a strong force to frighten and calm them down, in order to avoid escalation into armed conflict which would be hard for the janissaries to manage, but to no avail. On 14 February 1804, in the small village of Orašac near Aranđelovac, leading Serbs gathered and decided to undertake an uprising, choosing Karađorđe Petrović as their leader; the Serbs, at first technically fighting on the behalf of the Sultan against the janissaries, were encouraged and aided by a certain Ottoman official and the sipahi. For their small numbers, the Serbs had great military successes, having taken Požarevac, Šabac, charged Smederevo and Belgrade, in a quick succession; the Sultan, who feared that the Serb movement might get out of hand, sent the former pasha of Belgrade, now Vizier of Bosnia, Bekir Pasha, to assist the Serbs, but in reality to keep them under control.
Alija Gušanac
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy – Habsburg Empire, Austrian Monarchy or Danube Monarchy – is an unofficial umbrella term among historians for the countries and provinces that were ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg between 1526 and 1780 and by the successor branch of Habsburg-Lorraine until 1918. The Monarchy was a typical composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch; the dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611. From 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the head of the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg was elected Holy Roman Emperor: from 1452 until the Empire's dissolution in 1806, Charles VII of Bavaria was the only Holy Roman Emperor, not Habsburg ruler of Austria. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, most of the Empire was ruled by other dynasties.
This Austrian Habsburg Monarchy must not be confused with the House of Habsburg, existing since the 11th century, whose vast domains were split up in 1521 between this "junior" Austrian branch and the "senior" Spanish branch. The monarchy had no official name. Instead, various names included: Habsburg Monarchy Habsburg Empire Habsburg/Austrian Hereditary Lands Austrian Monarchy Danubian Monarchy The Habsburg family originated with the Habsburg Castle in modern Switzerland, after 1279 came to rule in Austria; the Habsburg family grew to European prominence with the marriage and adoption treaty by Emperor Maximilian I at the First Congress of Vienna in 1515, the subsequent death of adopted Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in 1526. Following the death of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the Battle of Mohács against the Turks, his brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was elected the next King of Bohemia and Hungary. Names of the territory that became Austria-Hungary: Habsburg monarchy: This was an unofficial umbrella term, but frequent, name during that time.
The entity had no official name. Austrian Empire: This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i.e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, not just to a "widespreading domain". Austria-Hungary: This name was used in the international relations, though the official name was Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler. Crownlands or crown lands: This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on; the Kingdom of Hungary was not considered a "crownland" after the establishment of Austria-Hungary 1867, so that the "crownlands" became identical with what was called the Kingdoms and Lands represented in the Imperial Council. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called "Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen" or "Lands of Holy Stephen's Crown"; the Bohemian Lands were called "Lands of the St. Wenceslaus' Crown".
Names of some smaller territories: Austrian lands or "Archduchies of Austria" – Lands up and below the Enns: This is the historical name of the parts of the Archduchy of Austria that became the present-day Republic of Austria on 12 November 1918. Modern day Austria is a semi-federal republic of nine states that are: Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Burgenland and the Capital of Vienna, a state of its own. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary. Salzburg became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austria's capital became a state 1 January 1922, after being residence and capital of the Austrian Empire for the Habsburg monarchs for centuries. Upper and Lower Austria were split into "Austria above the Enns" and "Austria below the Enns". Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the "War of the Bavarian Succession" by the so-called Innviertel part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands: In a narrower sense these were the "original" Habsburg Austrian territories, i.e. the Austrian lands and Carniola.
In a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term "Crownlands" in the 1849 March Constitution, but it was used afterwards; the Er
Osman Pazvantoğlu
Osman Pazvantoğlu was an Ottoman soldier, a governor of the Vidin district after 1794, a rebel against Ottoman rule. He is remembered as the friend of Rigas Feraios, a Greek revolutionary poet, whom he tried to rescue from the Ottoman authorities in Belgrade, his grandfather was from the Eyalet of Bosnia, part of the guards of the city of Sofia, hence Osman's name: pasban-oğlu, "son of the guard". A mercenary in service to the Wallachian prince Nicholas Mavrogenes, Osman Pazvantoğlu disobeyed the latter on one occasion, was saved from reprisals through Feraios' intervention. Having gathered a large army of mercenaries, he rebelled against the Ottoman sultan Selim III, acting as an independent ruler, he minted his own coins and had diplomatic relations with foreign states. In 1798, he held territories which spread from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains and from Belgrade to Varna. In 1793, he undertook a military expedition to the Pashaluk of Belgrade but was soundly defeated by the Serbs in Ottoman service at the Battle of Kolari.
The 1797 military expedition of Hüseyin Küçük failed in its goal to conquer Vidin and capture Pazvantoğlu, indirectly resulted in the fall and execution of Prince Constantine Hangerli, after Küçük accused him of not having provided the Ottoman Army with enough funds. He attempted to annex the Sanjak of Smederevo but was stopped by Stanko Arambašić and his 16,000 Serbian soldiers in Ottoman service. In 1799, the Ottoman sultan agreed to make him a pasha. Pazvantoğlu made violent raids in Wallachia, where he set on fire the cities which he plundered. In 1800, his troops, colloquially known as pasvangii, set on fire a large portion of the city of Craiova: out of 7,000 houses, only around 300 were still standing after the fire stopped; this caused Prince Alexander Mourousis to hand in his resignation to Sultan Selim, a rare statement of defeat in the context of Phanariote reigns. In late January 1802, Bucharest was gripped by panic after rumors spread that the pasha had sent his army in its direction.
Prince Michael Soutzos left the city and ordered its defense by the remaining garrison of Albanians, but disagreements over payment owed led the troops themselves to discard the place. In 1809, retaliation campaign of Oltenian hajduks led by Iancu Jianu culminated in the attack and partial destruction of Turnu Măgurele. Pazvantoğlu's incursions soon became infamous in all of Wallachia; the expression "as in the time of Pazvante Chioru' ", rather common in Romanian, was meant to indicate a time of trouble and ill-government. In Vidin, the capital of Pazvantoğlu's domain, there are several landmarks built during his rule that still stand today; these include a library dedicated to the pasha's father. Both are classed as monuments of culture; the complex is thought to have included a madrasah and a small Muslim cloister, both of which have not survived until today. Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient și Occident. Țările române la începutul epocii moderne, Bucharest, 1995 Ștefan Ionescu, Bucureștii în vremea fanarioților, Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1974 Povestea lui Pazvante Chioru
