“Austria Amnestied”. The Insurrection in the Boka kotorska 1869/70
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59412/hz.78.1.3Keywords:
draft riots; Boka kotorska; amnesty; peace of Knežlaz; General Gabrijel Rodić; Colonel Friedrich Beck; Captain Gustav ThömmelAbstract
In 1869, a misunderstanding about the terms of the new Army Law provoked draft riots in the Boka kotorska. The insurgents actually forced the Austrian army to leave the Krivošije in their hands when winter put a stop to operations. Emperor Franz Joseph had originally insisted on a speedy submission of the rebels. The Liberal Minister of War and the governor of Dalmatia had tried to implement such a military solution. But at the same time the head of the Emperor’s Military Chancellery, Colonel Friedrich Beck, sent a lowly subordinate, Captain Gustav Thömmel, on a “fact-finding mission” to the Boka. Thömmel leap-frogged the chain of command. His reports prompted the Emperor to make a U-turn. He entrusted General Gabrijel Rodić with a mission to persuade – and bribe – the rebels to make peace. Rodić’s initiative ended with the Peace of Knežlaz (11 January 1870). A Liberal MP commented, it was not Austria that had amnestied the rebels but the rebels who had amnestied Austria.
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