Austro-Italian ironclad arms race
In the years after Ferdinand Max's departure from Austria, the Imperial Austrian Navy suffered under further political and budgetary constraints. In April 1864, it was proposed that the naval ministry, which the former Archduke had helped to establish, be disbanded. In January 1865, Emperor Franz Joseph I dissolved the ministry and the Imperial Austrian Navy was again placed under the jurisdiction of the Austrian Ministry of War. Under the 1865 budget, just 7,100,000 Florins were allocated towards naval expenses, but once more, none of the funds were designated for warship construction. In 1866, the naval budget grew slightly to 7,800,000 Florins, but for the third consecutive year there would be no funds for additional ironclads, or other warships. Thus, when the Seven Weeks War began in June 1866, the Imperial Austrian Navy would possess only ships which had been constructed during Ferdinand Max's tenure as "Oberkommandant der Marine".
History of Austria
Over the next three years Austria, whose foreign policy was now directed by Philipp Stadion, attempted to maintain peace with France, avoiding the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807) but obliged to do France's bidding. The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons in 1808 was deeply disturbing to the Habsburgs, who rather desperately went to war once again in 1809, the War of the Fifth Coalition this time with no continental allies, but the United Kingdom. Stadion's attempts to generate popular uprisings in Germany were unsuccessful, and the Russians honoured their alliance with France, so Austria was once again defeated at the Battle of Wagram, although at greater cost than Napoleon, who had suffered his first battlefield defeat in this war, at Aspern-Essling, had expected. However Napoleon had already re-occupied Vienna. The terms of the subsequent Treaty of Schönbrunn were quite harsh. Austria lost Salzburg to Bavaria, some of its Polish lands to Russia, and its remaining territory on the Adriatic (including much of Carinthia and Styria) to Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces. Austria became a virtual subject state of France.