Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 415 Naval Arms Race
Compared to the somewhat overreaction of the British government, the reactions of other European countries were much more moderate.

This is actually quite normal, since other European countries don't rely on naval power for survival. France, with the most powerful navy besides Britain, actually established itself on the European continent through its army.

Countries like Germany and Russia, needless to say, built their formidable reputations on their armies. Only Great Britain today, without the support of its navy, could never have maintained its position as a global superpower.

To become a world hegemon, one must achieve three hegemonic powers: diplomatic hegemony, economic hegemony, and military hegemony.

Economic hegemony and military hegemony are easy to understand; they are about establishing one's dominant position in a certain region through economic or military actions.

Diplomatic hegemony, economic hegemony, and military hegemony are mutually reinforcing. Diplomatic hegemony becomes multifaceted only when supported by economic and military hegemony.

For Britain today, it faces considerable challenges in all aspects. In terms of economic hegemony, the newly emerging United States and Germany, as more powerful industrial nations, have had a tremendous impact on Britain's original industrial system.

In terms of military hegemony, European countries are continuously building up their navies, with Spain investing a staggering £2000 million.

With its economic and military hegemony challenged, Britain's diplomatic hegemony could not continue to be maintained.

In terms of land forces, Britain was clearly no match for land powers like France and Germany. The only way for Britain to maintain its military dominance was through its navy, which dominated Europe and even the world.

This is why Britain is extremely sensitive to the naval development of various countries. Even if Spain has no other intentions, responding to Spain's naval construction plan is still very necessary for the British government.

For the British government, any provocation regarding British naval dominance will be met with an extremely strong response.

Regardless of whether such provocations are intentional or unintentional, Britain will never allow any country or force to challenge it, and will certainly go all out to respond and crush any country that dares to challenge it.

Carlo was somewhat surprised when he learned that the British government had responded to his naval construction plan by spending £5000 million.

Although he had anticipated that Britain would respond to Spain's naval construction plan, he did not expect the British response to be so forceful.

That's £5000 million, almost the entire annual revenue of the Spanish government. If all this money were given to Spain, it would greatly stimulate its industry and economy, and the army and navy would receive more funding to expand.

Although somewhat surprised by the British's extravagant spending, Carlo had no concern whatsoever about Britain's large-scale construction of battleships.

First and foremost, it's certain that the HMS Dreadnought, which historically propelled the development of navies worldwide, had not yet been built. The British Navy had its own ideas for improving battleships, but at this time, there was no clearly defined warship design, as it was only the end of 1902.

Spain's early development of the Fearless battleship was due not only to its years of efforts in naval and technological industries, but also to Carlos's ideas about the Spanish Navy.

Although Carlo knew nothing about warship design, he did have some impression of what some historical warships looked like and what changes dreadnoughts made compared to battleships.

These impressions may not have helped Spain quickly design a world-changing battleship, but they did give the warship design experts at Spain's major shipyards a clear direction.

In most cases, having a fairly clear research and development strategy is essential. Europe at that time was a breeding ground for talent, and some scientists who remained unknown were not due to a lack of ability, but rather because they chose the wrong direction in their research, ultimately spending their entire lives without achieving any significant research results.

Such people are not few and far between. Sometimes, the difference between scientists who go down in history and those who remain unknown is just a tiny bit of inspiration.

Carlo provided a bit of inspiration to a group of Spanish warship design experts, which ultimately did indeed drive the development of the Spanish Navy.

Furthermore, Carlo has consistently invested heavily in major shipyards. With a clear research direction and sufficient R&D funding, it was only natural for Carlo to develop the dreadnought ahead of history, and he was not surprised.

Before Spain successfully developed the HMS Dreadnought, Britain's battleship development progress remained largely unchanged. Under these circumstances, the British Dreadnought was unlikely to be developed any earlier than expected.

This is also why Carlo was not worried about Britain's large-scale construction of battleships, because the performance of the battleships built by Britain at this time could never reach the level of the Spanish Dreadnought.

This also means that the British warships, which cost 5000 million pounds to build, were nothing more than a pile of scrap metal that could barely be considered warships in the face of the Spanish battleship HMS Dreadnought.

Based on the previous cost of building battleships, the £5000 million invested by Britain could build approximately 20 to 30 battleships, a scale that far exceeds the number of battleships possessed by other European countries.

However, in the realm of battleships, quantitative changes do not necessarily lead to qualitative changes. Whether Britain builds 20 or 30 new battleships, as long as their technological level does not reach that of the Dreadnought, they will never pose a threat to Spain's newly built Dreadnought.

This means that almost all the money Britain spent was wasted. After Britain's own Dreadnought battleship is built, these warships, which were rushed into production in a short period of time, will eventually become a pile of scrap metal.

Surprisingly, in this respect, countries with insufficient capital actually have an advantage.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was the first country to abandon naval competition. They merely expressed concern about the large-scale naval construction by Spain and Britain, but did not intend to join the ranks of those undertaking large-scale naval construction themselves.

This was actually a good thing for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, at least there was no loss without investment.

Compared to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy's approach seemed somewhat unwise.

When the Italian government learned of Spain's and Britain's successive large-scale naval buildups, instead of wisely choosing to give up the competition, they decided to take this opportunity to further improve Spain's naval ranking.

At this time, the King of Italy had become Carlo's nephew, Vittorio Emanuele III, who shared the same name as Carlo's father.

As for Carlona's ambitious brother, Umberto I, he was assassinated by an anarchist in 1900, leaving his throne far too early.

It's hard to say whether it was a problem with Vittorio Emanuele II's genes or just that the Italian royal family was generally unlucky.

In any case, as of now, Vittorio Emanuele's only son is Carlo. His daughters are still alive, but they no longer have much connection with the Italian royal family.

Of course, according to the rules of succession to the European throne, even though Carlo's two older brothers had passed away, the Italian throne was still quite far away from Carlo.

In Europe, succession to the throne generally follows primogeniture, where the eldest son's descendants have a higher priority in the line of succession than the second son and his descendants.

This also means that even if the current King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy has no descendants, his throne will be inherited by the children of Carlo's brother, the Duke of Amadeo.

Of course, the Italian throne strictly follows male-only succession, which disqualifies Italian princesses from inheriting the throne, but Carlo is still far from the Italian throne.

Because Carlo's brother, Duke Amadeo, was very fertile, and all his children were sons. Duke Amadeo and his two wives had a total of four sons. Although only the three sons born to his first wife had the right to inherit the throne, these three sons still made Carlo's chances of becoming king of Italy seem extremely slim.

Unless something unexpected happens that affects these members of the Italian royal family, Carlo will have no connection with the Italian throne in his entire life.

Of course, Carlo truly had no ambition for the Italian throne. After all, his father, Vittorio Emanuele II, had treated him quite well, and he and his two brothers were on good terms. Carlo would not intentionally do anything to harm the interests of the Italian royal family.

Regardless of whether Spain and Italy stand on opposite sides in the future, Carlo will do everything he can to preserve the Italian monarchy after the war.

For Carlo, the more monarchies there were in Europe, the more stable the Spanish monarchy would be.

Whether the kings of these monarchies actually held power was not Carlo's concern. Whether a king held real power or was merely a figurehead, as long as they could maintain the facade of the monarchy, they could help it continue to exist in countries around the world.

If these European monarchies were to perish, Spain, if it were to continue as a monarchy, would inevitably become a target of public criticism.

Although Carlo knew that Italy's massive investment in building a navy would ultimately fail, he did not proactively remind the Italian government.

On the one hand, if Carlo were to remind the Italian government, it would inevitably raise the alarm of the British government as well.

On the other hand, the Italian government's losses have nothing to do with the Italian royal family, and Carlo has no reason to undermine his strategic plans for the sake of Italy's interests.

In any case, no matter how much Italy loses, it won't be as much as the British. Making the Italian government suffer a setback will also make them understand the gap between Italy and the top powers, so that they won't make some confusing choices.

If Italy's decision to build a navy was considered reckless and arrogant, then Germany and France's decision to follow suit simply meant they were not afraid of the British.

Like the British, the German and French governments also held meetings to discuss the matter after learning of Spain's large-scale naval buildup.

The French government was the most vocal in its reaction.

The reason is simple: Germany is not a Mediterranean country, while France is, and it is right next to Spain.

The strength of the Spanish navy was not important to Germany; with the British in the way, the Spanish navy could not possibly cross most of Europe to threaten the German coast in the Baltic Sea. However, for the French, the expansion of the Spanish navy was a threat that could not be ignored.

Although Spain and France have established many connections for various reasons, as long as Spain does not explicitly ally with France, France must be wary of Spain's powerful military strength.

Moreover, Spain's geographical location also poses a significant threat to France. If France and Germany didn't have such a hostile relationship, France wouldn't be so wary of Spain.

For France, a Spain that could potentially stab itself in the back at any time after the outbreak of war posed a threat no less significant than that of a powerful Germany.

France has tried to bring Spain into its camp over this long period of time, but so far the results have been minimal.

The good news is that Spain has not explicitly sided with France, nor has it explicitly sided with Germany.

Even when comparing the two sides, Spain leans far more towards France than towards Germany.

The problem is that Britain and Germany have been moving closer in recent years. If Britain and Germany were to form an alliance, even if Spain sided with France, the Franco-Russian-Spanish alliance might not be a match for the Anglo-German-Austrian alliance.

If Spain's naval buildup only served to scare the French government, then the British government's high-profile response forced France to increase its investment in the navy.

Unfortunately, Spain could only potentially betray France, while Britain clearly harbored hatred towards France.

Although the Anglo-French hatred was not as intense as the Franco-German hatred at this time, the historical grievances were there, and without external interference, they could not be forgotten so quickly.

If France remains indifferent to Britain's ambitious naval buildup, its future situation in the Mediterranean and even throughout Europe will become increasingly passive.

If Britain, with its more powerful navy, were to side with Germany, and France were unable to possess a fleet of equal size to counter the Royal Navy, France would suffer a fatal blow on both its land and sea forces, and could very well face consequences even more severe than those of the Franco-Prussian War.

In order to avoid being put in a passive position, the French government decided to follow the warship construction plans of Britain and Spain.

Fortunately, the French government was still quite wealthy at the time. The glorious past of raising 50 billion francs in reparations in just a few years was still fresh in everyone's mind. For France at that time, it was not an exaggeration to spend several hundred million francs to develop the navy.

Like the French government, the German government initially only expressed concern about Spain's large-scale naval construction.

But as Britain aggressively followed suit with its own naval construction program, and the French government also announced its own naval construction plans, the German government realized that a naval competition sweeping across Europe had begun.

If this had happened in the 19th century, no matter how many European countries were involved in this naval arms race, Germany would most likely not have chosen to participate.

However, by this time it had entered the 20th century, and Germany's military development was no longer limited to the army. Instead, it turned its attention to the navy, deciding to build a powerful navy while developing the army.

Since Spain, Britain, and France had successively announced their warship construction plans, the Germans naturally could not remain indifferent.

After a period of discussion, Kaiser Wilhelm II made a grand gesture and formulated a rather ambitious naval construction plan for Germany.

Because Germany's industry and economy had developed significantly compared to the Franco-Prussian War period, Germany could be considered wealthy at this time.

Given that Spain, Britain, and France have all invested considerable sums, Germany will certainly not skimp on naval development.

Wilhelm II decided to invest 500 million marks in the development of the German Navy, aiming to bring its total tonnage to the level of Russia's within the next five years.

Within the next 10 years, the German Navy aims to reach the total tonnage of France and the number of major warships of the United Kingdom.

Currently, among all countries in the world, the United Kingdom is undoubtedly the strongest naval power, firmly holding the top spot in both the total tonnage and naval strength rankings.

According to intelligence data from various European countries, the total tonnage of the British Navy has reached 110 million tons, with nearly 30 battleships and hundreds of cruisers of various types.

France's navy ranks second, with a total tonnage of approximately 55 tons, and possesses 24 battleships and nearly 50 cruisers of various types.

Spain's navy ranks third, with a total tonnage of around 40 tons, and possesses 20 battleships and nearly 40 cruisers of various types.

Next is Russia, whose total naval tonnage is the same as Spain's at 40 tons, but it can only muster a maximum of 15 battleships and a mere 30 cruisers.

After several years of development, the German Navy now ranks fifth in the world, with a total tonnage of around 30 tons. Germany possesses 14 battleships and over 40 cruisers. While its total tonnage lags behind the Russian Navy, in terms of the number of capital ships and cruisers, Germany is actually comparable to the Russian Navy.

This is why Wilhelm II set his sights on surpassing Russia's total naval tonnage, rather than surpassing Russia's naval strength.

Since the Russian and German navies are currently at roughly the same level, it's really uncertain which side would emerge victorious in a naval battle between the two.

The US and Italian navies were then at the same level, with a total tonnage of around 30 tons, but each had only 10 or fewer main warships and 20 cruisers.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was ranked last in terms of naval strength, which is why it is said that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had abandoned naval development.

To date, the Austro-Hungarian navy has a total tonnage of less than 150,000 tons, with only 7 battleships and 15 cruisers. The latest battleship model is the Spanish Monarch-class battleship, which officially entered service in April 1897. It has been almost five years since any new battleships were built.

There were reasons why the Austro-Hungarian Empire abandoned naval development.

On the one hand, even with further development of its navy, Austria-Hungary's naval strength still couldn't match that of its allies, Germany and Italy.

Moreover, developing a navy is extremely expensive. For the Austro-Hungarian Empire's finances, it would be better to use the funds for other areas, such as the development of the army, rather than spending money on the navy, which is not that important.

This is also another point, namely the need of Germany and Italy for the Austro-Hungarian army.

Although the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy was no secret at this time, countries such as Britain, France, and Russia generally referred to the Triple Alliance as the "German-Austrian Alliance" when referring to the military bloc to which Germany belonged.

The reason is simple: Italy's army was simply too weak. The French government was wary of Germany's army and also worried that the Austro-Hungarian and German armies might delay the Russian advance.

But the French never worried about the Italian army, and were completely indifferent to its movements during the war.

Even if the entire Italian army attacked France during the war, the French government would not be afraid in the slightest.

Despite Italy's current military strength of several hundred thousand, which could expand to over a million after the outbreak of war, France actually only needed around 10 troops to keep Italy at bay on its borders, and only 20 to easily defeat it.

This is something that not only countries like Britain, France, and Russia, but also Germany is well aware of.

During the Tripartite Pact conference, Germany also offered some advice to Austria-Hungary and Italy.

Germany hoped that Italy would develop its navy as much as possible and form a joint fleet with Germany during the war to counter the enemy's naval threat.

As for Austria-Hungary, Germany hoped that it would develop its army as much as possible to help Germany resist the Russian invasion from the east.

If Austria-Hungary could withstand half of the Russian army for Germany, Germany could easily handle the remaining half.

Meanwhile, most of the main German forces could be deployed on the western front to launch a devastating offensive against France in the west.

If the French could be easily dealt with, and then the guns turned to Russia, the allied forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy could quickly capture St. Petersburg, thus ending the war.

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy had conducted numerous simulations regarding how to deal with the Franco-Russian alliance. Germany placed high hopes on the Italian navy and the Austro-Hungarian army, believing that as long as Britain and Spain did not interfere in the struggle between the two military blocs, the German-Austrian-Italian alliance should be able to easily win the war and emerge as the ultimate victor.

When news reached Spain that France and Germany were also building large-scale navies, Carlo immediately realized that his naval construction had sparked a naval arms race across Europe.

This was not bad news for Carlo, since Spain was building the Dreadnought-class battleships at the time, while other European countries were building outdated conventional battleships.

The difference between dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts is self-evident. If European countries were to invest all their funds in the construction of pre-dreadnoughts, then no matter how much money they invested in naval construction, or how exaggerated their naval tonnage could reach, it would be irrelevant to Carlo.

(End of this chapter)