Shaken by the revolutionary years 1848–1849, the Austrian Empire founded the Evidenzbureau in 1850 as the first permanent military intelligence service. It was first used in the 1859 Austro-Sardinian war and the 1866 campaign against Prussia, albeit with little success. The bureau collected intelligence of military relevance from various sources into daily reports to the Chief of Staff "(Generalstabschef)" and weekly reports to Emperor Franz Joseph. Sections of the Evidenzbureau were assigned different regions; the most important one was aimed against Russia.