WI:Ottomans successfully annex Vienna in 1529

Defeating a military threat and establishing a defined stable frontier. Perhaps vassalage or a "Finlandization"of Hungary (under a surviving king).

And if such a king accepted that he was powerless to defeat the Turks, might he seek Turkish support to take Vienna himself? Iirc an earlier King of Hungary had ruled it.
 
As a matter of fact the key countries for Charles V were Burgundy, the Rhein lands and Italy. Spain is not yet the center of power that will become for Philip II.


Spain as in Lands of the Spanish Habsburgs - I was not clear enough

IIRC Charles had given all of "Austria" to Ferdinand (a bit strange inheritance rules;)) - and kept the rest for himself - but I think Aragon/KAstilia (including the Italian Posessiosn) + Burgundy was the better part ;)
 
The bigger consequences, IMO, are on the shock on European politics. Losing Hungary, meh, okay. That's not Imperial territory. But the sack of a major German city? It will make Charles look weak, even if he's not.
 
The bigger consequences, IMO, are on the shock on European politics. Losing Hungary, meh, okay. That's not Imperial territory. But the sack of a major German city? It will make Charles look weak, even if he's not.

That might also have the effect of shocking the Catholic and Protestant factions into temporarily putting aside their disputes and allying together to fight and defeat their common enemy the Ottomans.
 
I'm not sure if the logistics argument is that clear cut - after all, in 1532 Suleiman was leading a larger army, across harsher and further terrain and against an enemy that had resorted to scorched-earth tactics to stop him, and yet he still managed to capture a lot of what is now Kurdistan, Iraq and Western Iran from Persia. Much better weather than OTL and more luck in Ottoman mining operations and it's not unreasonable to expect the Ottomans to be able to capture Vienna in time to fortify it against any inevitable reprisals, as well as open the Danube (which was navigable by the Ottoman fleet) as a permanent logistics corridor of sorts. Buda, after all, was a key Ottoman base during OTL.

Ever heard about the Danube Iron Gates?
Good luck to get the Ottoman fleet north (or west) of these obstacles. If it were that easy don´t you think some Ottoman ruler would have used it back then?
 
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