The Grand Vizier, Rami Mehmed Pasha, sat nervously across from the envoys of the Holy Roman Empire, Poland, and Venice, as the ink dried on the Treaty of Karlowitz. For the first time in history, the mighty Ottoman Empire had been forced to relinquish territory to the Christian powers. The treaty marked a seismic shift in the balance of power, as the Ottomans struggled to recover from years of war and internal strife. The empire's 'sick man of Europe' reputation was cemented, and the seeds of its eventual decline were sown.