Austria's shipbuilding plan was announced and Europe's public opinion erupted.
Although the Vienna Government repeatedly emphasized that it was not targeting anyone and merely sought to fill the gap left by retired battleships, still nobody was willing to believe it.
Notably, Vienna had already had a plan named "10 battleships in 10 years" before this, and the 3 pre-dreadnoughts currently in service were part of that shipbuilding plan.
Starting construction on one battleship every year was just normal procedure, perfectly maintaining the current main force of the Austrian Navy.
The sudden addition of five more battleships to the plan was clearly a response to the previous Royal Navy's shipbuilding plan.
At this time, many people realized that not long ago the Austrian Government had gifted numerous warships to the Russians, and their navy was in a period of vacancy.
A testament to Russian-Austrian friendship?
