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".
Reichskrieg
During the First Silesian War (1740–42), the Emperor Charles VII had sought a "Reichsexekution" against Prussia, but the diet refused. The war over Silesia was regarded as a dynastic conflict between Prussia and Austria in which the empire itself should not intervene. During his brief reign, the Emperor Charles VII (1742–45) sought a declaration of "Reichskrieg" against Austria, although the latter had not breached imperial law and there was therefore no justification. The pro-Austrian elector of Mainz, Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein, tabled a formal protest in the Imperial Diet on 23 September 1743 alleging that the election of Charles VII had been irregular. In such a situation, there was no chance of the diet agreeing to the emperor's proposal for a "Reichskrieg" against Austria. The Second Silesian War (1744–45) thus also went by without any imperial action. The Third Silesian War (1756–63), however, became wrapped in a global war of great power politics, the Seven Years' War, and Prussia could not escape an imperial action.