Kvaternik was the leader of the 1871 Rakovica Revolt which was an attempt to create an independent Croatian state, at the time when it was part of Austria-Hungary.

[citation needed] In 1858 Kvaternik decided to leave for the Russian Empire, seeking an ally against the Austrian state.

Kvaternik succeeded to arrange a meeting with them more easily because the Kingdom of Sardinia was just about to ally with Napoleon III of France to attack Austria.

Kvaternik's announcement had a strong impact as the Grenzers were suffering from low morale while fighting in the Battle of Solferino.

After Napoléon refused the crown, he offered it to a Polish noble Władysław Czartoryski, who was a fellow Catholic Slav.

Kvaternik and his Italian and Hungarian allies made a plan to destroy Austria by instigating simultaneous revolts in both the Croatian Military Frontier and in Venice, while Giuseppe Garibaldi would land his troops in the northern Dalmatia.

[6] In March 1860, Kvaternik claimed to Napoléon that Croatia could provide some 250,000 soldiers, explaining that Croats were able to do so when they fought the Hungarians in the 1848 Revolution.

A month later, he stated to the Sardinian ambassador (Costantino Nigra) that Croats still hoped for revolution and could raise some 400,000 men and liberate Venice.

As a member of the Croatian Sabor since 1861, Kvaternik become popular among those who disliked Austria, and at the same time he was still in contact with the Grenzers.

[citation needed] The Czech effort to crush the monarchy were so strong that they overthrown the dualist government of Alfred Potocki.

The main opponents of Hohenwart's policy were Hungarian nationalists, namely Prime Minister of Hungary Gyula Andrássy and his government.

Hohenwarth was dealing with the Czechs, while Friedrich von Beust, the foreign minister and chairman of the joint government, dealt with Andrássy.

Rakijaš obtained a fake passport and moved from Torino to Ancona, waiting for a chance to enter Dalmatia.

[citation needed] Due to the arrest of Rakijaš, Kvaternik realized that their plan for a revolt had failed, so he also returned to Croatia.

Rakijaš soon moved to Karlovac and was employed as a police officer with Kvaternik's help by captain Fabiani, a supporter of the Party of Rights.

Croats were disappointed by creation of the dual monarchy in 1867, and with the Croatian-Hungarian Agreement in 1868, but were pleased with the unification of the Military Frontier with rest of Croatia.

[10] In May 1871, Kvaternik wasn't elected to the Sabor, so in October he abandoned his party's aim of only using political resistance and launched the Rakovica Revolt, just when the Austria-Hungary was in the process of federalization.

Then he planned to move towards Ogulin and Karlovac from where he would go to Zagreb where he would proclaim the liberation for the second time and ask the European countries for their recognition and protection.