After the Treaty of Karlowitz, the early eighteenth century was a difficult time for the Serbs in their northern lands (particularly in the region now called Vojvodina) under the new yoke of the Habsburg monarchy.

The principle Cuius regio, eius religio was still in force throughout central Europe, though now pointing at members of the Eastern Orthodox Church instead of the Protestants.

Judicial torture and cruel methods of execution were part of the legal process in the Holy Roman Empire until at least the nineteenth century.

Despite the hardships and uncertainty of Ottoman rule, it is doubtful whether the many Serbs in Turkish-occupied Serbia would have preferred the life of millions of their Eastern Orthodox faithful who lived as serfs or feudal tenants in the Austrian Empire.

Many Serbian families in the 1740s left for Imperial Russia to settle and start a new life among neighboring Zaporozhian Cossacks by founding New Serbia (historical province) and Slavo-Serbia.

According to Jovan Skerlić's Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti (Belgrade, 1921, pages 19–20), the school's first organizer and teacher was Maksim Suvorov, a Russian scholar and educator, sent by Empress Catherine I of Russia in 1725 to open the Latin Gymnasium (Latinska Škola) a year later in Karlovci.

It was due to the efforts of Metropolitan Mojsije Petrović of Karlovci who wrote a telling letter to the Tsar: I don't ask for material amenities, but spiritual.

Blagodjejanije, one of a class of students at the gymnasium, who, being persons of 'limited' means, were received for lower fees, and obtained free commons, lodgings and other assistance towards their education during their terms of residence.