1869 uprising in Krivošije

The 1869 uprising in Krivošije (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 region. 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 mountainous region in the north of the Kotor district, the southernmost district of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, north of the Bay of Kotor. The region had been under Austrian rule since 1814. The local population was Serb (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.

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 October 7, in order "not [to] besmirch the honor of our arms or damage the prestige of the government", Wagner asked for reinforcements. 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. 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. The Krivošije rebels were only about 1,000 in number.

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