| Austria's acquisition of the former lands of the Venetian Republic increased her littoral territory and added a new dimension to her strategic horizons, both military and commercial. Over the three quarters of a century following 1797, the Habsburg Empire, a traditional land power, gradually came to terms with the sea. Austria's leaders slowly realized that, for defensive purposes, she must have the means to control and dominate the Adriatic Sea and be able at least to show the flag outside it, to encourage overseas commerce and represent the empire in the dawning era of "gunboat diplomacy".; Little was done to take advantage of the original Venetian inheritance, but the Habsburg Empire got a second chance to become a naval power in 1814, when it reacquired a strong position on the Adriatic and the fleet of the short-lived Napoleonic kingdom of Italy. In the postwar years the Austrians did not attempt to change the Italian character of their navy, and after two-thirds of its personnel deserted during the Venetian revolution of 1848, the Habsburg fleet had to be rebuilt virtually from scratch.; Archduke Ferdinand Max, later Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, served as commander of the Austrian navy from 1854 to 1864 and was responsible for the construction of a modern battle fleet. In the face of stiff domestic opposition, he employed many of the same arguments used in later years by Germany's Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz to justify the creation of a naval force worthy of a great power. Admiral Wihelm von Tegetthoff subsequently led the navy to victory against Denmark in 1864 and Italy in 1866, the latter triumph securing a domination over the Adriatic that would last until the end of the First World War. The Austrian Lloyd, since 1851 the largest steamship line in the Mediterranean, then took advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal to extend its service to the Indian Ocean and, by the end of the 1870's, the Far East. The Habsburg Empire thus established its regional naval hegemony and entered the ranks of the world's maritime trading powers. |
