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.
History of Hungary
Defense against Ottoman expansion shifted to Habsburg Austria, and the remainder of the Hungarian kingdom came under the rule of the Habsburg emperors. 
The lost territory was recovered with the conclusion of the Great Turkish War, thus the whole of Hungary became part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the nationalist uprisings of 1848, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 elevated Hungary's status by the creation of a joint monarchy with the Austrian Empire, ruled in personal union as Austria-Hungary by the Austrian emperors during 1867–1918. The territory grouped under the Habsburg "Archiregnum Hungaricum" was much larger than modern Hungary, following the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868 with settled the political status of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen.