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About twenty years after the establishment of the
settlement, on 12 November 1774, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, by
way of a special charter, formed the Velikokikindski privileged
district – Regio-privilegiatusDistrictusMagnokikindiensis, as a distinct
feudal governmental administrative unit with headquarters in Kikinda. Besides
Kikinda, the district included another nine settlements of the Serb border
military establishments in North and Central Banat: SrpskiKrstur, Jozefovo (today
part of Novi Kneževac), Mokrin, Karlovo (today part of Novo
Miloševo),Bašaid, Vranjevo (today part of Novi Bečej), Melenci, Kumane and Taraš.
During that period, the inhabitants of these places had substantial economic,
and even political privileges within the Habsburg Monarchy. The District
functioned, with some interruptions, until 1876 when it was abolished, and
Kikinda was allocated both organizationally and administratively to the direct
authority of the Torontal County with headquarters in VelikiBečkerek
(today Zrenjanin), which covered most of the territory of present day
Serbian Banat.
In 1848/1849, the famous uprising of the Serbs in Vojvodina took
place. At the beginning, Kikinda's citizens expressed, almost unanimously,
social revolt, while later the riot turned into a national one, and Kikinda
became part of the Serbian Voivodship, a Serb autonomous region
