SMS Szent István
Montecuccoli's plans for the construction of "Szent István" and her sister ships earned the approval of Emperor Franz Joseph I in January 1909, and by April plans for the design, construction, and financing for the battleships had been laid out. For a full year, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to keep the looming construction of the first two battleships a state secret. This did not prevent rumors from circulating across Europe of two dreadnought battleships being constructed in Austria-Hungary. The French Naval Attaché in Vienna complained to Paris in 1910 of extensive secrecy within the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which manifested itself in several ways. Among these were a ban on photography in the Pola, future home port of "Szent István", and near-constant observation by the Austro-Hungarian police.
Hungarian–Romanian War
In 1918 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy politically collapsed and disintegrated as a result of a defeat in the Italian Front (World War I). During the war Count Mihály Károlyi led a small but very active pacifist anti-war maverick fraction in the Hungarian parliament. He even organized covert contacts with British and French diplomats in Switzerland during the war. On 31 October 1918 the Aster Revolution in Budapest brought Hungarian liberal aristocrat Mihály Károlyi, a supporter of the Entente (Allied nations), to power. The huge Hungarian Royal Honvéd army still had more than 1.400.000 soldiers when Mihály Károlyi was announced as prime minister of Hungary. After World War I Károlyi yielded to Woodrow Wilson's (US) demand for pacifism by ordering the disarmament of the Hungarian army. This happened under the direction of Béla Linder, minister of war in the Károlyi government. Due to the full disarmament of its army, Hungary remained without a national defence at a time of particular vulnerability.