[6] The regular army was inadequate to protect the country from its more powerful neighbours (Austria and Ottoman Empire), during the crisis of Hungarian Revolution of 1848; Serbia was directly threatened by the Austrian invasion.

[1] In 1858, Prince Miloš Obrenović returned to power in Serbia with the support of France and Russia, who were dissatisfied with the pro-Austrian policy of the Serbian government.

His son and heir, Prince Mihailo (ruled 1860–67), led a very ambitious foreign policy, aimed at the liberation of all the South-Slavic peoples.

Prince Mihailo founded Ministry of War (led by French colonel Hyppolyte Mondain), doubled the size of the Regular Army (to 3,529 men) and declared the foundation of the Serbian National Militia (Serbian: Народна војска, Narodna vojska), which conscripted all the men aged 20–50 for the compulsory military service.

People's Militia was divided into the First (men under the age of 35) and the Second class, organized into territorial battalions (62 in number) and regiments (17, one in each county).