The remainder of 1850 saw two important events in the Federation’s History; the first true interstate agreement and the first international war. Domestically, at least, the second half of 1850 was kinder to Nikolić’s government. Though there was little agreement over the wide range of reforms proposed, at least no crises emerged from them. The Ban on Private Militias Act brought none of the widely expected rioting that its detractors claimed. The Federal Army of the Danube Bill was quickly and cleanly introduced into the Army with the minimum fuss from those displaced.
The greatest domestic triumph of the time, though, had nothing to do with Nikolić or even the Federal system. The Dalmatian Question was finally resolved, after the failure of the Federal attempt at a solution prompted the states themselves to agree to a compromise. On 25th August, the interstate resolution, which was snappily titled the ‘Mutual Agreement towards the Establishment of the Veneto-Croatian Condominium of Istria and the Dalmatian Isles’, was signed into law in the city of Zadar by representatives of both Croatia and Venice.
The final page of the Mutual Agreement showing the signatures of the leaders of both states.
This resolution, however, was taken badly by the de facto Dalmatian state, which officially declared independence from both states the same day as the agreement was signed. The resulting state was short lived, for, with the Naval Guard already in the province, Federal Troops assisted the state militias in suppressing the revolt (The revolt prevented a planned move of the Naval Guard to fight on the Russian front, meaning the Army of the Centre went in its place). The Dalmatian government was captured in Dubrovnik within just four days and forced to renounce any notion of Dalmatian independence before being tried for treason by a joint Veneto-Croatian prosecution and hung. With them died the revolution they had begun and the Condominium gradually became accepted by the populace.
The issue of Krakow, on the other hand, remained unsolved. The declaration of war the Federation passed against Russia came on the 24th August, but little activity on the Front was seen during that time. Opposition to an offensive war from both the Chief of the General Staff and the Minister of War meant that Federal troops set up a defensive line through the forests of Galicia and the Northern Carpathians. Meanwhile, Russia had time to move her armies westward.
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