Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 416 1903
The naval arms race that began at the end of 1902 made the upcoming year 1903 quite tense.

Surprisingly, the first place to erupt into conflict was not in the fiercely contested European region, but rather in East Asia, a region that had remained relatively quiet until now.

As time progressed to 1903, the conflict between Russia and Japan in the Far East intensified.

After years of development, it must be acknowledged that Japan, once a Far Eastern native nation looked down upon by all European countries, now possesses a military force that commands respect.

In fact, no matter how powerful Japan's military is, it is impossible for it to have any impact on European countries.

But who can blame Europe for having a super-empire spanning Eurasia? Although Russia theoretically has no colonies, its territory stretches a terrifying thousands of kilometers from east to west, extending from Europe all the way to the easternmost point of Asia.

It was precisely because of this vast territory that Russia and the newly emerging Japan in the Far East came into contact.

Of course, such a connection was not a good thing for Russia. Because of the Franco-Russian alliance and the Austro-German alliance, Russia had an extremely powerful enemy in Europe: the German Empire, which had once swept across France.

As Japan gradually rose to power, it attempted to gain more influence in the Far East, which led to conflict with Russia, which had already established itself in the region.

Several years ago, the Japanese ambassador had requested an audience with Tsar Nicholas II, hoping that Russia and Japan could reach a compromise on the situation in the Far East, refrain from infringing on each other's interests, and manage the region amicably.

However, they overestimated Japan's standing in the eyes of European countries and also overestimated Tsar Nicholas II's impression of Japan.

More than a decade earlier, on May 11, 1891, Nicholas, then Crown Prince, visited Japan.

Crown Prince Nicholas was originally full of confidence about his diplomatic visit. He thought that the heir to the throne of a powerful country was visiting Japan, a backward country in the Far East. He believed that Japan would do everything it could to please him and that he could easily complete his mission.

Surprisingly, while the Japanese government treated the Russian crown prince with the utmost respect as expected, the Japanese people themselves did not have a particularly good attitude towards this foreign crown prince.

At 1:50 p.m., Japanese police officer Tsuda Sanzo attempted to assassinate the famous European crown prince. Although the assassination failed, the incident caused a huge uproar in Japan and Europe.

This assassination attempt caused Nicholas II's impression of Japan to plummet, and relations between Russia and Japan deteriorated further after he became Tsar.

It is no exaggeration to say that this assassination indirectly led to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Whenever Nicholas II spoke of Japan, this newly rising military power, his face was always filled with rage, wishing he could execute the entire country and all its people to avenge the Japanese assassination attempt on him.

As Japan gradually rose to power and its conflicts with Russia intensified, relations between the two countries plummeted to a freezing point.

If it were another country, Nicholas II might have agreed to divide their respective spheres of influence and not interfere with each other's rule.

However, the proposal came from the Japanese government, which was utterly unacceptable to Tsar Nicholas II.

In Nicholas II's view, these barbaric island monkeys were not qualified to divide spheres of influence with Russia. Although the island nations had undergone decades of reforms and possessed considerable military strength.

But what does such military strength mean to Russia, one of the dominant powers in Europe?

Although island nations may seem to have a military advantage in the Far East, this is because the majority of Russia's army and navy are deployed in Europe, with only a small portion of its military power in the Far East.

On the island nation's side, their army and navy, almost with the full strength of the entire nation, are only able to maintain a slight advantage over the Russian Far East forces.

Under such circumstances, the Russian government downplayed the island nation, believing that even if Russia rejected the island nation's proposal, they would be powerless against Russia.

Is this really the case?

When the island nation's government learned that Russia had explicitly rejected its proposal to divide spheres of influence, almost everyone in the island nation knew that they were left with only one option.

What method? Of course, it's through war to achieve one's goals.

Island nations themselves have significant flaws.

The first drawback is its relatively small land area, consisting of numerous islands of varying sizes. This territorial layout severely limits the development of an island nation, forcing it to focus its attention on the Asian continent if it wants to become stronger.

To some extent, the geographical location of island nations is somewhat similar to that of the United Kingdom. Both are divided into several large islands, and all are located off the mainland.

However, unlike Britain, which led the Industrial Revolution, the island nation completely missed the First Industrial Revolution and barely caught up with the Second Industrial Revolution.

Since their domestic development is insufficient to support an island nation to become a superpower, they can only resort to some extreme methods if they want to make their country stronger.

In the eyes of the island nation's military and some more radical officials, launching a war against Russia may not be the wisest approach, but it is certainly the most promising one.

If they don't fight, island nations will always be trapped in their few islands and will never be able to become world powers.

Moreover, island nations currently have an advantage.

On the one hand, in the current comparison of military strength in the Far East, island nations are in a superior position in terms of both army and navy.

On the other hand, Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway was not yet completed. Russia needed to traverse thousands of kilometers to mobilize resources and troops from Europe to the Far East.

Land transport is extremely difficult without railways, and sea transport requires navigating vast areas, increasing transport distances several times over.

Under such circumstances, even if the island nation cannot gain an advantage on the main battlefield, it can still wage a war of attrition and drag Russia down in the Far East.

So the question arises: how did the island nation's government gain the confidence to wage a war of attrition against the powerful superpower Russia? This inevitably brings us to the infamous troublemaker, Britain.

For Britain, Germany was a major concern and one of its main competitors. Britain had long interfered with Russia's expansion in the Far East through alliances with island nations, and now, in the dispute between island nations and Russia, Britain naturally chose to side with the island nations.

If a war between an island nation and Russia could be waged with just some supplies and funds, Britain would certainly be happy to see it.

In any case, the British government was rolling in money at the time, and providing some supplies and funds to support the island nation was just a drop in the ocean for Britain.

But if we can use this small amount of supplies and funds to cause Russia to suffer a setback, it would be an extremely worthwhile deal.

Regardless of the outcome of this war, it will benefit Britain. If the island nation wins, it will greatly weaken Russia's prestige and damage its influence in East and Central Asia.

If Russia wins the war, the defeated island nation will become even more dependent on British aid. In that case, the island nation will be nothing more than a loyal hound of Britain, and Britain will be able to make it bite whomever it wants.

Because they were in an invincible position regardless of winning or losing, the British government contacted the island nation's government early on, expressing its willingness to support the island nation, even at the cost of war.

It was precisely because of the almost unequivocal support from Britain that the island nation's government was full of confidence and believed that they had a good chance of defeating Russia and showing the world the power of an island nation.

Beginning in March 1903, a major drama unfolded between France and Russia, and between Britain and Japan.

The reason it's called a major drama is mainly because the allies of Russia and the island nation have shown drastically different attitudes in the conflict.

Britain not only provided diplomatic support to the island nation's government, but also publicly offered an interest-free loan, giving the island nation sufficient funds to counter Russia.

France, Russia's ally, remained silent during the conflict. They even rejected Russia's request for an interest-free loan, clearly intending to cause Russia to stumble in the Far East and then obediently turn its attention back to Europe.

Although his ally France was somewhat unethical, Tsar Nicholas II insisted that the island nation had no courage to wage war against Russia, and that Russia had no reason to fear this newly rising Asian country.

This is roughly the mainstream view in the world. Europeans are quite proud and complacent; they always believe that European countries are a level above countries on other continents and look down on the people of those continents.

Even the United States, whose industry and economy have reached the world's number one, is nothing more than a nouveau riche in Europe.

Not to mention island nations with a disastrous industrial and economic situation. Apart from what appears to be a considerable military force, what makes them worthy of attention from European countries and their people? Is it because the men in their countries are less than 1.5 meters tall?
Some countries, as proud and complacent as Russia, have always believed that Russia's approach is correct. They look down on the newly emerging island nation and think that even though Russia's army and navy in the Far East are inferior in size, it is absolutely impossible for it to be defeated by the island nation.

Even island nations wouldn't have the confidence to declare war on Russia. They aren't great powers, so how could they dare to directly challenge a superpower?
For European countries that may have a clearer understanding of the situation, they would also be happy to see Russia stumble in the Far East.

Throughout its long history, Russia has consistently displayed a rather greedy side, and it is also the country that has expanded its territory most dramatically since the colonial era.

The predecessor of Tsarist Russia was the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which initially had an area of ​​only 240 square kilometers.

During the Age of Exploration, the Grand Duchy of Moscow covered only a few hundred thousand square kilometers. Russia is the only country to date to have expanded its territory many times over in the past four hundred years.

For such a greedy and domineering country, those European countries that clearly understand the situation would not mind making the Russians suffer a bit.

Regardless of the type of country, they all share a consensus: that no matter whether Russia suffers a setback, they will win the war.

Even the British only wanted the island nation to deplete Russia's manpower and weaken Russia's influence in the Far East and East Asia.

As for the possibility of an island nation defeating Russia, the British government had considered it, but they all felt that an island nation should not have the capability.

Unfortunately, although Russia's performance in wars in recent decades has not been particularly strong, the title of "European bulldozer" is still deeply ingrained in people's minds.

Let alone island nations that have just risen to prominence and are not yet considered major powers, even established powers like Austria-Hungary and Italy are no match for Russia.

As competition between Russia and the island nation intensified, even attracting the attention of many European countries, Spain's Fearless battleship had quietly entered service with the navy.

This warship, which embodies the hard work of the Spanish Navy and major shipyards, has finally entered official service after more than a year of naval trials.

The Spanish Navy attached great importance to this warship. On the very first day that the Fearless battleship entered service with the Spanish Home Fleet, it replaced the Monarch-class battleship Ferdinand II and became the flagship of the Royal Spanish Navy's Home Fleet.

Although the commissioning of the Fearless battleship was relatively low-key, the news that Spain's latest battleship is about to enter service with the navy is not big news for the Spanish people and other European countries.

At the end of last year, when Spain issued naval construction bonds to build up its navy, European countries were speculating about the types and specific data of Spanish warships.

While detailed information is unavailable, it is certain that the tonnage of this soon-to-be-commissioned battleship is definitely over 1.7 tons, and its full-load displacement may even reach 2 tons.

Because of this news, the British government urgently adjusted the model of the battleship it was building and decided to develop a warship with a full-load displacement of more than 2 tons to compete with the main battleship model that Spain was building.

It's not just Britain; other European countries are also developing giant ships with a full-load displacement of 2 tons.

There was no other way. While other European countries were developing 2-ton warships, if we were still stuck at 1.5 tons or even 1 tons, the combat power of our main battleships would be vastly different.

The difference in battleships will directly affect the fleet's combat effectiveness. If the fleet's combat effectiveness is relatively poor, it is very likely to be at a disadvantage in some important naval battles, which may lead to the defeat of the entire naval battle.

(End of this chapter)