To a certain extent, Austria had played the role of the shit-stirrer this time. Under normal circumstances, this was usually the sort of thing the British did.
But the British had a guilty conscience. They feared that after selling off large numbers of warships, they would no longer be able to suppress the challenges from the European powers.
For a sea power, its navy was the core. Once the Royal Navy showed weakness, challengers would pounce.
Don't be fooled by the fact that France was currently governed by a pro-British faction. Once the opportunity arose, the French would absolutely not mind taking Britain's place. That was also why the world's number one usually suppressed number two.
Historically, the British had supported the Southern Government, but most of the warships they sold were outdated vessels. They had never put the Royal Navy's core warships on the market.
Franz had far more of a conscience. Though he had also mixed in plenty of old warships, those ironclads were masterpieces of Austria's modern industrial technology. He had not played around with stripped-down versions.
Technologically speaking, they were at least ten years ahead of the Americans. Two warships firing at each other from only a few hundred meters away, exhausting all their ammunition without scoring a single hit—only the American navy could pull that off.
Of course, the human factor was also a major reason. Nothing could be expected from two rookie navies. But inadequate artillery technology was an important factor as well.
Austria was not a sea power. Even if the Southern Government reverse-engineered the warship technology, it would not matter much. Without sufficient industrial strength, even copying them would be difficult.
As for devising corresponding countermeasures based on the warships' design, that was overthinking it. They were already building new ships—why fear