It was set up in 1868 with responsibility for the armed forces and militia in the Cisleithanian half of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
It was succeeded in 1918 by the Ministry of Defence of the First Austrian Republic.
After the defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, Emperor Franz Joseph I was forced in 1866/1867 to concede partial sovereignty to Hungary, which had been engaged in passive resistance since the failed secession attempt in 1849, with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, and to reorganize the monarchy, which had until then been administered on a unitary basis, into the Dual-Monarchy.
The new position of Hungary as a part of the monarchy equal with Austria comprised the right of the Hungarian part to establish their own territorial armed forces after 1867, the k.u.
In consequence, the Cisleithanian government also began to set up a territorial army - the k.k.