Franz vetoed the navy's shipbuilding plan, but the naval budget for 1851 was raised by more than one million shield once again, reaching 12.681 million shields.
The Austrian Government's emphasis on the navy was plain to see. Yet no matter how much importance it attached to it, that could not change Austria's nature as a land power.
Army spending rose even faster in 1851, soaring to 61.2462 million shields. The Great Reserve Strategy was officially launched; under the plan, the reserve force would grow by 200,000 men every year from now on.
The Austrian Empire's total military budget for 1851 was nearly twenty percent higher than in 1850. The footsteps of war were drawing near.
How could the Austrians possibly fail to notice the movements of their Russian neighbors? Not long ago, Nicholas I had levied a war tax under the pretext of expanding into distant lands.
Without the Russo-Austrian Secret Treaty, people might still have harbored doubts and been unable to determine Russia's war aims. But the Austrian Government, knowing the truth, was already ninety-nine percent certain that another Russo-Turkish war was about to break out.
Since that was the case, the Austrian Government naturally had to follow suit as an ally. Without the Russians breaking the deadlock, how could Austria's strategy proceed?
Thanks to the Russians' grand moves, the Austrian Government's increase in military spending caused not the slightest stir. To outsiders, it was a perfectly normal response; with a neighbor like the Russian Bear, no degree of vigilance was excessive.
The situation in Europe had always been such that one tug moved the whole body. Arms races were contagious too. Although neither Russia nor Austria intended to start one, everyone else followed along.
Governments across the continent raised their military expenditures. The United Kingdom was the exception;