After a series of indecisive engagements Venice broke from the league and, under the mediation of France, concluded a treaty with the Porte practically on the basis of uti possidetis (March 7, 1 573).
During the six following years the sultan still further improved his position, capturing, amongst many other places, Pecs, and the primatial city of Esztergom; but, in 1547, the exigencies of the Persian war induced him to sell a truce of five years to Ferdinand for £100,000, on a uti possidetis basis, Ferdinand holding thirty-five counties (including Croatia and Slavonia) for which he was to pay an annual tribute of £60,000; John Sigismund retaining Transylvania and sixteen adjacent counties with the title of prince, while the rest of the land, comprising most of the central counties, was annexed to the Turkish empire.
Nominally a truce for 25 years on the uti possidetis basis, the peace of Karlowitz left in the emperor's hands the lying between the rivers Maros, Theiss, Danube and the mountains of Transylvania, the so-called TemeskOz, or about one-eleventh of the modern kingdom.
The uti possidetis as regards territorial possession was recog nized.
The United Provinces were recognized as free and independent, and Spain dropped all her claims; the uti possidetis basis was adopted in respect to all conquests; the Scheldt was declared entirely closed - a clause which meant the ruin of Antwerp for the profit of Amsterdam; the right to trade in the East and West Indies was granted, and all the conquests made by the Dutch from the Portuguese were ceded to them; the two contracting parties agreed to respect and keep clear of each other's trading grounds; each was to pay in the ports of the other only such tolls as natives paid.
