Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 411 The Anglo-Japanese Alliance
While Spain was secretly launching the battleship Fearless, the world situation was undergoing tremendous changes.

In January 1902, in order to counterbalance the powerful Russia, Britain chose to ally with Japan in East Asia to prevent Russia's continued expansion of power in the Far East.

The reason for the alliance between Britain and Japan was simple: to use Japan as the first line of defense against Russian expansion in the Far East and to tie down the Russians.

Although Japan had undergone reforms at this time, it had not achieved significant results in industry. After all, Japan was an island nation with very limited mineral resources, which were completely insufficient to support the construction of modern industry.

If they wanted to develop industry, they needed the support of European powers. On the one hand, they needed to acquire the relevant technology, and on the other hand, they needed to import large quantities of coal and iron ore from the colonies controlled by European powers in order to support industrial development.

It was precisely for this reason that Japan became a loyal ally of Britain at this time. While Britain wanted to use Japan to counter Russia, Japan also wanted to use British support to acquire more land in East Asia, especially its most scarce mineral resources.

From this perspective alone, Russia and Japan have conflicting interests. Even without the British intervention, Japan and Russia would have inevitably become adversaries sooner or later.

Not to mention that with British support at this time, Japan was already preparing for war against Russia. This was a rather extreme nation; they were not afraid to gamble their national destiny for the development of their country, even if the enemy was a powerful European power.

At this time, the Russians were quite dissatisfied with the alliance between Britain and Japan. Everyone could see that Britain's choice to ally with Japan was aimed at Russia, but Russia was powerless to do anything about it.

After all, Russia had no reason to stop the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and other countries, including Russia's own ally France, also wanted to see Russia's interests in the Far East suffer.

Countries like Germany are willing to see Russia's Far Eastern interests damaged because they want to weaken Russia's vast empire.

For France, it was undesirable for its allies to focus excessively on the Far East. The reason for the French alliance with Russia was to have Russia draw away some of Germany's forces, allowing France to launch a pincer attack on Germany from both the east and west.

However, if Russia deploys too many troops to the Far East, the German forces that can be drawn from Eastern Europe will become limited. In this situation, the Germans will certainly deploy more troops to the border with France, and the French will be the ones to suffer.

Therefore, for their own benefit, the French would love for Russia's expansion in the Far East to fail, so that Russia would obediently turn its attention back to the situation in Europe.

In this situation, Russia had virtually no allies to advocate for it. However, the Russians didn't believe that tiny Japan could defeat them; after all, Japan was one of the powerful European superpowers, possessing over 2000 square kilometers of land, a population of over 100 million, and an industry that ranked among the top in Europe. How could tiny Japan be a match for Russia?

When Carlo learned of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the conflict between Russia and Japan, he understood that war between Japan and Russia was imminent.

This war not only exposed Russia's weakness to European countries, but also propelled Japan, a country that had only undergone reforms for a few decades, to become a major power.

Of course, this list of powers is somewhat exaggerated, and like the United States, it is a rather distorted one.

Apart from Japan and the United States, the other European powers that unified were all countries with strong industries and economies, as well as excellent military strength.

Although the United States possesses only a strong industrial base and economy, it can easily assemble an army of over a million people plus a navy that ranks among the top four in the world if it wants to expand its military.

As for Japan, although they defeated Russia in history, it was only a part of Russia's army and Far East Fleet, just a small part of Russia's military strength.

If Japan's military strength could barely be considered that of a major power, then its industrial level was utterly a mess.

In 1900, when steel production in European countries was generally in the millions of tons, Japan's steel production was a paltry 0.2 million tons.

It's worth noting that even Italy, which ranks last among all the major powers, has a relatively good annual steel production of 11.8 tons. What can Japan's pitiful 0.2 tons of steel production do? It can only be used to build a warship with a displacement of no more than 3000 tons, or to construct a railway of a few dozen kilometers.

Under such circumstances, not only does Russia look down on Japan, but Carlo himself also looks down on Japan at present.

Without British support, winning the war against Russia would not have been so easy for Japan. Even if it had won, subsequent Russian retaliation would have instantly crippled a nation built solely on military strength.

For Carlo, the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War meant nothing.

The important factor is the development of the situation in Russia after the Russo-Japanese War, and the impact of this development on the situation in Europe.

Britain, through the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, positioned itself against Russia, as did Germany. However, this did not mean that Britain and Germany would form an alliance, because since the beginning of the 20th century, Germany had been vigorously developing its navy, and its overall naval strength ranking had been continuously improving.

Under these circumstances, it's impossible for Britain not to be wary of Germany. It's only because France's navy is currently far larger than Germany's, coupled with its conflict with Russia, that Britain has shown a slight inclination towards Germany.

However, the very essence of Britain's founding was maritime supremacy, a principle that no country would tolerate being challenged. As long as Germany intends to continue developing its navy, a rift between Britain and Germany is inevitable.

For Carlo, there are currently many options.

Alternatively, they could accelerate the evolution of the domestic situation in Russia, allowing Russia to withdraw directly from the disputes in Europe, and then join forces with Germany to defeat Britain and France.

France was surrounded by Spain and Germany. If France was defeated, Britain alone could not cause much trouble.

Moreover, Spain has already taken the lead in dreadnoughts. If it can build a few more dreadnoughts in the coming years, it may not necessarily lose a naval battle against Britain in the future, especially when it joins forces with the German navy.

This approach greatly increases the chances of winning the world war, but the downside is that a Germany that defeats Britain and France will become the sole hegemon in Europe. If Spain wants to counterbalance Germany, it can only try to preserve France or support a restructured Russia.

Another approach would be to unite with France and Russia to force Britain to Germany's side, and then join forces with France to launch a naval offensive to counterbalance Britain.

While salvaging Russia as much as possible, a balance of military power would be achieved between France, Russia, and Spain, and between Britain, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. To do this, Spain would need to contribute more troops to help France resist Germany, and also build a navy to fight a decisive battle against the British navy.

If Spain could win the war, it would not only be able to recapture Gibraltar and annex Portugal, but it would also not have to worry about other hegemons threatening it on the European continent.

After all, although France and Russia were victorious nations, their war with Germany would result in heavy losses for them. As defeated nations, Britain and Germany were already fortunate to have retained most of their territory, and naturally, they could no longer threaten Spain's position.

The first option is clearly more conservative, but the second option would bring more benefits to Spain.

It's not that Carlo looks down on France, but any country facing a combined attack from Germany and Spain would only suffer a crushing defeat.

The strength of the German Army needs no introduction; it is undoubtedly the world's number one army. Although the Spanish Army is not as well-known as the German Army, European countries unanimously rank it fourth in the world when ranking armies.

Why is it ranked fourth in the world? In the eyes of European countries, the Spanish army may be inferior to the German army, but it can still compete with the French army.

The French army ranks second in the world because it possesses both strong combat capabilities and a very large size.

The Russian military ranks third in the world, solely due to its massive manpower. Human wave tactics are currently an unbreakable strategy; the only solution is to continuously wear down Russia's manpower until it can no longer sustain casualties. While Spain has caught up in population growth, its population has yet to exceed 3700 million.

In the most extreme case, such a population could mobilize more than 300 million troops, a scale that is only the normal mobilization number of other European countries.

With a population of over 5000 million, Germany can easily mobilize an army of over 500 million. France, with a population of over 4000 million, can also easily mobilize an army of 400 million.

While Spain possessed vast colonies that allowed it to mobilize indigenous armies, Germany and France also had significant African colonies.

The overall combat effectiveness of these indigenous armed forces is relatively low. They might be able to participate in some less important battles, but it is clearly unlikely that they can be expected to fight against the armies of superpowers like Germany and France.

In Carlo's heart, he actually leaned towards the second option. However, the second option was far too risky. While victory would certainly make Spain the dominant power in Europe, whether Spain, France, and the rescued Russia could resist a coalition of Britain and Germany was a question that made Carlo hesitate.

The alliance between Britain and Germany was not so simple. It represented not only the cooperation between the world's leading army and the world's leading navy, but also the cooperation between Europe's leading and second-leading industrial powers.

Although the combined industries of Spain, France, and Russia were not weak, they were still significantly inferior to the total industrial output of Britain and Germany.

More importantly, the ability to save Russia through their own means will be crucial for the second option.

With Russia, France and Russia could resist land pressure from Germany. But without Russia, even if Spain and France fought desperately, they might not have been able to defeat Britain and Germany.

Therefore, Carlo needs to pay close attention to the developments in various European countries before making his own choice.

The situation in Russia was very important, as was the situation in Austria-Hungary. As for Italy, it wasn't really that important to Carlo.

Carlo, born into the Italian royal family, has a relatively good understanding of the actual situation in Italy. Despite Italy's large population of 3300 million, it is capable of arming an army of nearly 300 million.

In reality, the combat effectiveness of these 300 million Italian troops was certainly less than that of the 100 million Spanish troops.

Italy's industry was the weakest among the great powers, offering very limited assistance to its allies. Carlo often disregarded Italy when considering the European situation, because whether Italy was an ally or an enemy, its influence on the European landscape was ultimately minimal.

Historically, Britain and France sought to win over Italy because, without the help of the Italian navy, the Italian and Austro-Hungarian navies would have controlled the Mediterranean situation.

If Britain strengthens its fleet deployment in the Mediterranean, its strength to directly confront the German navy will be reduced. This is also why they are courting Italy, whose navy is one of the few forces that can be considered formidable.

Now that Spain is involved, Italy's influence in this regard can be completely ignored. The Spanish Navy is currently firmly among the top four in the world, and if the dreadnoughts are included, Carlos can confidently declare Spain to be among the top three naval powers in the world.

With the construction of dreadnoughts, Spain's naval position will continue to solidify, and it will only be a matter of time before it surpasses France's navy.

Even though Germany is investing heavily in building its navy, catching up with Spain will not be easy.

After all, Carlo's investment in the navy had lasted for decades. If Germany could surpass Spain's decades-long naval development in just a few years, it would only prove that Carlo's many years of deployment had been completely wasted.

Not only in the navy, but Spain is also far ahead of other European countries in its deployments in electricity, automobiles, engines, aircraft and tanks.

The reason why Royal Mercedes-Benz has become a leading automobile company in the world is not only because of its pioneering sales channels, but also because of its constantly updated and improved related technologies.

Unless these European countries forcibly steal Spain's technological intelligence or shamelessly copy its patents and imitate it, it will take them more than a decade of dedicated research to catch up with Spain's existing automotive technology.

As for important military technologies such as airplanes and tanks, there's no need to elaborate further.

According to intelligence from the Royal Security Intelligence Service, Germany's Zeppelin airship company conducted its first flight test last year, while Spain's airship technology had already achieved initial commercialization. This is the gap caused by Carlo's early deployment.

It is precisely because of its significant lead in so many technological fields that Carlos had enough confidence to confront superpowers like Britain and Germany.

If Spain had made significant breakthroughs in aircraft and tanks, it might have been able to compete with the German army and rival the British army in firepower during World War I.

During the dry dock construction of the Dreadnought battleship, secrecy was maintained remarkably well. However, all warships undergo sea trials, and once the Spanish Navy began conducting various tests at sea, complete secrecy regarding the ships became impossible.

Spain would certainly not allow the Dreadnought to go to sea alone for testing. It was accompanied not only by various experts from the shipyard, but also by other naval vessels, in order to ensure the safety of the naval officers and men on board the Dreadnought.

In this way, although only one warship participated in the naval test, it formed a small fleet with several warships.

The larger the target, the greater the probability of it being discovered by the enemy. Carlo also knew that Spain could not maintain complete secrecy in this regard, so he only required the shipyard and naval department to strictly keep the important data of the Dreadnought battleship confidential, while some less important data could be left undisclosed.

For example, even if information such as the displacement, size, and firepower of the HMS Dreadnought is strictly confidential, other European countries have various ways to find out the specific details.

What needs to be kept strictly confidential are the battleship's armor deployment, the layout of its internal systems, and its actual power configuration.

The first part of the naval trials of the HMS Dreadnought was to test whether the warship's propulsion system could support it to reach a maximum speed of 22 knots.

After nearly half a month of actual measurements, it was finally determined that the maximum speed of the Dreadnought battleship could indeed barely reach about 22 knots.

This was great news for Spain. A speed of 22 knots was unprecedented. It meant that even if the Dreadnought was inferior to the enemy in terms of firepower and armor protection, it could still adopt guerrilla tactics, chasing and running back and forth.

With its superior speed, the enemy can't catch up, while it can easily overtake the enemy. This speed advantage alone ensures that the Dreadnought battleship gains the upper hand in naval battles.

What is certain at present is that even if the British developed a battleship of the same class, their speed would absolutely not exceed 22 knots.

A speed of 22 knots is currently the ceiling for all battleships of all countries, which also means that the design of the Dreadnought battleship is very successful, and all that Spain has put into this warship has not been in vain.

Carlo knew that a warship with a speed of 22 knots had a great advantage in naval warfare, provided that the enemy did not have a warship with the same speed.

To keep the speed of the Dreadnought battleship a secret, Carlo decided to modify its data. The official data showed that the battleship's maximum speed was only 21 knots. This way, even if other countries obtained the intelligence, they would only think that it was a warship with a speed of 21 knots. Newly developed warships would also be designed to match the 21 knots speed on paper, rather than the actual 22 knots speed.

Although the difference is only one knot in speed, the advantages and disadvantages in naval warfare are quite significant. A warship with a speed of 21 knots can never catch up with a warship with a speed of 22 knots, which is why Carlo decided to revise the speed data of the Dreadnought battleship in the official report.

(End of this chapter)