The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867-1918: Navalism, Industrial Development, and the Politics of Dualism (Paperback)

This detailed study charts the uneven growth of the Austrian navy from its high point following Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian's administration and the War of 1866 to its ultimate dissolution after World War I. In following this development, Lawrence Sondhaus not only relates the operational aspects of the Habsburg navy but also traces the growth of popular navalism in Austria-Hungary, the role of naval expansion in stimulating industrial development, and the peculiar difficulties of navy commanders in dealing with the Habsburg nationality problem and the cumbersome politics of Austro-Hungarian dualism.

The Austro-Hungarian navy warrants recognition for the fact that it functioned far better than most organs of the multinational Hapsburg state. Ultimately, in the pre-World War I age of navalism, the fleet provided a unique common cause for a wide variety of nationalities and political parties. Dramatic funding increases fueled the expansion of the fleet and lucrative naval contracts, judiciously distributed, reinforced and further broadened the navy's base of support. Though often criticized by its German ally, the Austro-Hungarian navy succeeded in defending the Adriatic throughout World War I, in the process requiring the constant attention of a significant share of enemy sea power; as late as the spring of 1918, an American admiral characterized the Adriatic as "an Austrian lake." The navy collapsed only when Austria-Hungary as a whole disintegrated, in the last days of the war.