The Krivošije uprising of 1869 (Serbo-Croatian : Krivošijski ustanak, Krivošijska buna) was an internal conflict in the far south of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that broke out following the Austro-Hungarian government's decision to extend military conscription to the tribe and region of Krivošije. It lasted from October 1869 until a formal peace accord was signed on 11 January 1870. The rebels managed to defeat the Austro-Hungarian army detachments sent against them and in the end the government conceded on all points of dispute.
In 1869 it was announced that conscription, in accordance with the Wehrgesetz (Defence Act) of 1868, would be extended to the Krivošije, a tribe and its mountainous region in the north of the Kotor district, the southernmost district of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, north of the Bay of Kotor. [1] The region had been under Austrian rule since 1814. The local population was Serb, [2] Orthodox and tribal. Although the men traditionally bore arms and some had volunteered in the Austrian Navy—there being a major naval base at Kotor—they had never been obligated to serve in the army. [3]
Despite the opposition raised by the new order, in his initial reports the Dalmatian governor, Feldmarschalleutnant Johann Ritter von Wagner, insisted that the situation was under control. In September, he ordered the population disarmed and conscription enforced. Immediately fighting broke out between his troops and the tribesmen. On 7 October, so as "not [to] besmirch the honor of our arms or damage the prestige of the government", Wagner asked for reinforcements. [3] With help from their compatriots in independent Montenegro and some bands from Ottoman Herzegovina, the Krivošije rebels defeated the first detachments sent against them. By November, the number of Austro-Hungarian battalions in the field had increased from five to eighteen. Artillery had been brought up and a naval squadron lay offshore. [3] Because the Kotor district was cut off from the rest of the empire by Ottoman Sutorina, and because of the poor state of its roads, the Austro-Hungarian navy had the large task of ferrying all 10,000 reinforcements. [1] The Krivošije rebels were only about 1,000 in number. [3]
The inspector-general, Archduke Albrecht, blamed the "colossal" blunders of Wagner for the failure to subdue the insurgents. [3] In December, a meeting of the Common Ministerial Council (the Austro-Hungarian cabinet) was held to discuss the problem. The Minister of War, Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, downplayed it, believing the troops could "deal with a few hundred bandits", while Feldzeugmeister Gavrilo Rodić and the Chef der Militärkanzlei , Friedrich von Beck-Rzikowsky, urged a compromise with the rebels, support for whom was increasing in other south Slavic areas. [3] Rodić suggested that Wagner be dismissed and that he himself replace him with the discretionary power to grant an amnesty. This was done and, on 11 January 1870, a peace treaty was signed at Knežlaz. The rebels surrendered to General Rodić and were allowed to keep their weapons. Conscription was abandoned and a general pardon was granted to all insurgents. [3]
The result of the uprising was an embarrassing setback for the Austro-Hungarian government. The Compromise of 1867 with the Hungarians was "widely considered as a sell-out of the South Slavs" and the Krivošije revolt engendered sympathy among the empire's Croats. [3] Beck was convinced that the rebels were encouraged by foreign elements. [4] Friedrich von Beust, Chairman of the Ministerial Council, blamed the Italians for smuggling arms to the rebels, although no evidence of such trans-Adriatic shipments was ever found. During the uprising, an article was published in Italy urging the annexation of Albania, which did little to allay Austria-Hungary's concerns. [1]
In 1881, after the incorporation of Bosnia and Herzegovina into Austria-Hungary in 1878, the government introduced conscription into the new provinces and renewed its claims in Krivošije. This provoked a new uprising which quickly spilled over into the new provinces. This was perhaps the intention: to create an opportunity to remove the stain of the defeat of 1869. [5]
The Bay of Kotor, also known as the Boka, is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated around the bay. It is also the southernmost part of the historical region of Dalmatia. The bay has been inhabited since antiquity. Its well-preserved medieval towns of Kotor, Risan, Tivat, Perast, Prčanj and Herceg Novi, along with their natural surroundings, are major tourist attractions. The Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Its numerous Orthodox and Catholic churches and monasteries attract numerous religious pilgrims and other visitors.
The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated SMS, for Seiner Majestät Schiff. The k.u.k. Kriegsmarine came into being after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, and ceased to exist in 1918 upon the Empire's defeat and subsequent collapse at the end of World War I.
The Kingdom of Dalmatia was a crown land of the Austrian Empire (1815–1867) and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). It encompassed the entirety of the region of Dalmatia, with its capital at Zadar.
Krivošije are a historical tribe and microregion in southwestern Montenegro, located on a high plateau belonging to the Orjen mountain range, north of the Bay of Kotor. Krivošije was historically located at a tripoint between the Principality of Montenegro, Austro-Hungarian Bay of Kotor and Ottoman Sanjak of Herzegovina.
Stjepan Freiherr Sarkotić von Lovćen was an Austro-Hungarian Army generaloberst of Croatian descent who served as Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina and military commander of Dalmatia and Montenegro during the First World War.
Gavrilo or Gabriel Rodić, Freiherr (Baron) von Rodich, was an Austro-Hungarian general in the Imperial Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Army.
Stjepan Jovanović was a military commander of the Austrian Empire from the Military Frontier.
Crkvice is a village in Krivošije, on the outskirts of Mount Orjen in Montenegro, and the wettest inhabited place in Europe. Nowadays virtually uninhabited, Crkvice was most notable as the location of a large Austro-Hungarian military base which was active until the end of World War I, when Montenegro regained control of the area.
The M1867 Werndl–Holub was a single-shot breechloading rifle adopted by the Austro-Hungarian army on 28 July 1867. It replaced the Wänzl breechloader conversion of the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifle. Josef Werndl (1831–1889) and Karel Holub (1830–1903) designed and patented their rifle; Werndl later bought out all the rights, but was involved in name only.
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Adriatic question or Adriatic problem concerned the fate of the territories along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea that formerly belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The roots of the dispute lay in the secret Treaty of London, signed during the war, and in growing nationalism, especially Italian irredentism and Yugoslavism, which led ultimately to the creation of Yugoslavia. The question was a major barrier to agreement at the Paris Peace Conference, but was partially resolved by the Treaty of Rapallo between Italy and Yugoslavia on 12 November 1920.
The Toplica Uprising was a mass uprising against Bulgarian occupation force, that took place in Bulgarian occupied Serbia during the First World War. The rebels were motivated by grievances against the Bulgarian authorities for ordering conscription of local Serbs in the Bulgarian army, forced labour and the denationalisation policy imposed on the indigenous population. The revolt was supported by Serbian guerrilla fighters known as Chetniks.
The campaign to establish Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina lasted from 29 July to 20 October 1878 against the local resistance fighters supported by the Ottoman Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Army entered the country in two large movements: one from the north into Bosnia, and another from the south into Herzegovina. A series of battles in August culminated in the fall of Sarajevo on the 19th after a day of street-to-street fighting. In the hilly countryside a guerrilla campaign continued until the last rebel stronghold fell after their leader was captured.
The Drache-class ironclads were a pair of wooden-hulled armored frigates built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1860s, the first ironclads built for Austria-Hungary. Ordered in response to a pair of Italian ironclads in 1860, Drache and Salamander were laid down in early 1861, launched later that year, and completed in 1862. They participated in the Austrian victory over the Italians in the Battle of Lissa, where Drache destroyed the coastal defense ship Palestro, one of two Italian ships sunk in the action. Both ships were withdrawn from front-line service in 1875. Drache's hull was in poor condition, so she was discarded and eventually broken up in 1883, and Salamander became a harbor guard ship. She was hulked in 1883 and converted into floating storage for naval mines before being scrapped in 1895–1896.
Fort Vrmac is a former fortification of the Austro-Hungarian Empire located on the southern end of the Vrmac ridge near Tivat in Montenegro. Established in 1860, the present structure was built between 1894 and 1897, and saw action during the First World War, when it was heavily bombarded by the Montenegrins. It was repaired and disarmed before the end of the war and was abandoned after a period of occupation by Yugoslav troops. Today it is one of the best preserved Austro-Hungarian fortifications in the Bay of Kotor area.
Friedrich von Pöck was an Austro-Hungarian admiral and commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In this role, he held the positions as Marinekommandant and Chief of the Marinesektion from 1871 to his retirement in 1883. He had previously commanded the ship of the line Kaiser during the Second Schleswig War in 1864, though he saw no action. During the Austro-Prussian War, he served as the adjutant to Archduke Albrecht during his campaign to defend Venice from the Italian army. He replaced Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, the popular victor of the Battle of Lissa, who died in 1871. Unlike his predecessor, Pöck was unable to leverage his uneventful naval career to secure funding from the frequently hostile Austro-Hungarian parliament, resulting in more than a decade of stagnation for the fleet. Nevertheless, he did introduce the use of torpedo-armed vessels and began developing tactics to use them. He also sent cruising vessels on numerous voyages abroad, which helped to show the flag overseas. In late 1883, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was forced to retire, ceding his position to Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck in November. Pöck died ten months later, on 25 September 1884.
Josef Ritter von Romako was an Austro-Hungarian naval architect in the 19th century. He was responsible for designing most of the ironclad warships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, from the first vessels of the Drache class in the early 1860s to SMS Tegetthoff, built in the late 1870s and early 1880s. He was also responsible for designing the Zara-class cruisers.
A naval arms race between the Austrian Empire and Italy began in the 1860s when both ordered a series of ironclad warships, steam-propelled vessels protected by iron or steel armor plates and far more powerful than all-wood ships of the line. These ships were constructed to establish control over the Adriatic Sea in the event of a conflict between the two countries.
The Kaiser Franz Joseph I class was a class of two protected cruisers built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I, the class comprised SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I and SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth. Construction took place throughout the late 1880s, with both ships being laid down in 1888. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, while Kaiserin Elisabeth was built at the Pola Navy Yard in Pola. The Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships were the first protected cruisers constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was the first ship of the class to be commissioned into the fleet in July 1890. She was followed by Kaiserin Elisabeth in November 1892.
SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I was a protected cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for the Austrian emperor and Hungarian king Franz Joseph I, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was the lead ship of her namesake class. Constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, she was laid down in January 1888 and launched in May 1889. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was commissioned into the Navy in June 1890. As the first protected cruiser constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, she was intended to serve as Austria-Hungary's response to the Italian cruisers Giovanni Bausan and Etna. Her design was heavily influenced by the Jeune École, a naval strategy which had gained prominence in the 1880s as a means to combat a larger and more heavily armored navy of battleships through the use of torpedo flotillas.