The Ottomans at the Gates of Vienna

For three centuries the Ottoman Empire had been the terror and the envy of Europe — richer, better organized, and more tolerant of its minorities than most Christian kingdoms. In 1683 its army reached the walls of Vienna, the deepest it would ever penetrate, and was broken there by a relief force. From that day the empire never expanded again, and slowly slid from feared superpower to what European diplomats would cruelly call 'the sick man of Europe.' High-water marks are only visible afterward.