The first fifty or so years after the creation of the Austro-Dalmatian monarchy went well, and the country was ruled in two parts: Austria consisted of Austria proper, south Tyrolia, Carinthia, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Galicia, while Dalmatia was made up of those lands of the Dalmatian crown as were not under Turkish occupation. King Agafon abdicated after the union, and Kaiser Rudolf II of the house of Hapsburg became King Rudolf of Dalmatia, ending the nearly 700 year reign of the house of Aurial.
Rudolf died in 1612, to be followed by the short regin of King Mateu (Kaiser Matthias), from 1612 to 1619. Following Mateu's death in 1619, Kaiser Ferdinand II ascended to the Dalmatian throne as King Ferdinand I, and he reigned until his death in 1637, to be followed by Ferdinand II (Kaiser Ferdinand III), who reigned until 1657.
In 1657, after Ferdinand died, Leopold I was crowned Kaiser of Austria and King of Dalmatia. Under his rule the situation deteriorated to the point where Dalmatia was essentially nothing more than a province of the Austrian empire, though nominally it did remain an equal partner in the monarchy. The time of the reign of Ferdinand, his successor Josef I (Yosef I in Dalmatian), who reigned from 1705 to 1711 and his successor Karol I (Kaiser Karl VI) from 1711 to 1740, is commonly regarded as the lowest point in Dalmatian history. During this time, Dalmatian culture, art and literature stagnated.
In 1740, Maria Tereza became Empress and Queen, to be followed by her husband, Fransesk I Stefanu (Franz I Stefan), and though he ruled with an iron hand, he did allow the establishment of various Dalmatian cultural institutions, and permitted the reopening of the University of Raguza , which was established in 1401 but closed in 1666 by a decree of Leopold I.
Fransesk I Stefanu died in 1765, and Yosef II (Kaiser Josef II) ascended to the throne. His reign ended with his death in 1790, and was followed by the two-year reign of Leopold II (Kaiser Leopold II), from 1790 to 1792. After Leopold II's death, Fransesk II (Kaiser Franz II) was crowned.
In the early 1800s a Dalmatian nationalist movement arose under the "leadership" of Radumir Lupicz (he wasn't truly the leader, just the most prominent of Dalmatian nationalists). Initially, the activities of the nationalists were tolerated by the Austrian authorities, but in 1831 the Fransesk II ordered the arrests prominent Dalmatians, including Lupicz. Fransesk II died in 1835 and was followed by Ferdinand III (Kaiser Ferdinand I of Austria). In 1837 eleven leading Dalmatian nationalists, including Radumir Lupicz and Marczelu Yordanicz were executed at Belgrade. The executions prompted riots in Raguza, Agram, Sopiana and Spalatu. The riots lasted for several days, and in the second week of rioting, the Serbian potentate Radovan Djordjevic, voivod of the Serbian province which was under Austrian suzerainty, offered to mobilise an army of volunteers to move against the rebels. This offer was accepted by the crown and the revolution was crushed. As a reward for their loyalty, the Serbs were given the provinces of Batschka and Nord-Bosnia, which were part of the lands of the Dalmatian crown. These lands, together with the Serbian province, were united to form a Serbian entity within the Monarchy.
Ferdinand III died in 1848 - the year of great revolutions all over Europe, and Fransesk Yosef (Kaiser Franz Josef) ascended to the throne. Fransesk Yosef I was the most liberal of all the Kaisers with regard to the Dalmatians, and he granted an autonomy to the Dalmatians. In theory this autonomy included local government, and a parliament was formed, but it was basically just for show, as in reality all this autonomy amounted to was that the trains were inscribed "Biafiarul Dalmaticu" ("Dalmatian Railways") instead of "k.u.k. Staatseisenbahn" ("Imperial and Royal State Railways"). In 1868, twenty years into Fransesk Yosef's reign, the series of wars collectively known as the First Balkan War broke out. The Hungarians, who had been under Turkish rule since the mid 17th century, successfully threw off the Turkish yoke in the latter half of 1869. This was quickly followed by Muntenian independence in 1877, Montenegrin in 1883 and Bulgarian in 1893. In 1890, the old Dalmatian lands of Hercegovina and eastern Bosnia, which had been under Turkish domination, gained independence and the Kingdom of Dalmatian Hercegovina was established, with a member of the house of Aurial, Nikolu Aurialicz, becoming king. Nikolu's desire to liberate the Dalmatian lands under Austrian rule and to rebuild the ancient Dalmatian kingdom was widely known, and Dalmatians everywhere eventually grew to regard him as their true King.
