Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 473 Preparing for War
Although Spain has not announced its own super dreadnought construction plan, this has not prevented other European countries from starting to build battleships of even larger tonnage.

The British government has repeatedly stated that it is willing to spend the last pound of its budget on the construction of warships and is willing to pay any price to maintain the strength of the British Navy.

Compared to Spain's somewhat clandestine construction of new battleships, Britain's construction of new battleships was clearly aboveboard.

It's not that the British didn't want to keep the super-dreadnoughts a secret; the main reason was that the previous naval defeats had severely damaged the reputation of the British Navy, and the British government needed to disclose some of its naval construction plans to restore public hope for the British Navy.

Britain's new battleships were named the Orion-class battleships, and it was planned that at least four battleships would be built over three years, from 1909 to 1911, to counter the pressure from Spain.

According to information gathered by Spanish intelligence, the so-called Orion-class battleships of the British had a conventional displacement of at least 2.2 tons and a full-load displacement of between 2.5 and 2.6 tons.

In terms of tonnage, the British Orion-class battleships and the Spanish Victory-class battleships were in the same class.

However, Carlo was still very confident in Spain's Victory-class battleships. Even if Britain had battleships of the same class, Spain was definitely capable of competing with Britain.

In addition to the UK choosing to follow suit with its super dreadnought, Germany and France have also announced their own super dreadnought construction plans.

Originally, Germany and France were building battleships of around 2 tons. However, as Spain and Britain chose to build battleships of even larger tonnage, Germany and France had to modify their naval construction plans and focus some of their attention on larger super-dreadnoughts.

While tonnage doesn't tell the whole story, the battleships that Spain and Britain were willing to build with such fanfare must have been more than just larger than ordinary dreadnoughts.

Falling behind in the construction of super-dreadnoughts would be tantamount to losing the initiative in the naval arms race, which would be completely unacceptable to Germany.

Although neither Spain nor Britain is currently Germany's enemy, in order to strengthen itself, Germany still chooses to compete with these two countries in the naval arena, ensuring that it has a sufficient naval advantage over France.

France's decision to build super-dreadnoughts is purely for competition and confrontation with Germany. Despite the French government announcing its own plans to build massive battleships, France has only recently received its first dreadnought from Spain, and building super-dreadnoughts remains a long way off for the country.

Apart from the four major superpowers of Britain, France, Germany, and Spain, the remaining European powers all tacitly chose to abandon the development of super dreadnoughts and instead focus their attention on the expansion of their armies.

Unfortunately, with the advent of dreadnoughts and the development of super dreadnoughts, the cost of building a main battleship is now close to £200 million, several times that of the original ironclad era.

At present, the major powers are building dreadnoughts at a very fast pace. Spain can build an average of 1.5 dreadnoughts per year, and the British can build two dreadnoughts per year.

This also means that Spain and the United Kingdom spend nearly £300 million, or 7500 million pesetas, annually on building warships.

Don't be fooled by the seemingly small amount of money; this only covers the cost of building the main battleships. Add to that the construction costs of other smaller warships and the maintenance expenses of other vessels, and the navy's expenditures alone approach 1.5 million pesetas—a sum that many smaller nations cannot afford.

Let alone small countries, even relatively weak powers like Italy and Austria-Hungary could not sustain such enormous military expenditures for an extended period.

Italy has just invested a large sum of money in dreadnoughts, and they are simply not in a position to continue building super dreadnoughts.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, needless to say, had essentially abandoned the development of its navy since the beginning of the 20th century, instead focusing on expanding its army.

The German government was perhaps aware of the financial capabilities of Austria-Hungary and Italy, and thus fully assumed the obligation of building up the Allied navy, allowing its two allies to focus all their energy on expanding their army.

With the support of the German government, the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy embarked on a new round of expansion.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's standing army, which originally numbered just over 40, had exceeded 55 by the beginning of 1909, and planned to further expand to over 70 in the next two years.

The Italian army also saw its numbers steadily increase, exceeding 40 in early 1909, and was projected to expand to over 50 within the next two years.

This also means that around 1911, Austria-Hungary and Italy alone could provide the Central Powers with nearly 120 million troops, and the combined military strength of these two countries would exceed the number of Russia's standing army.

If the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy could hold off the Russian army, it would mean that the main battlefield in Europe would become a one-on-one duel between Germany and France.

Germany is delighted with this development. They had previously announced an expansion of their military by 15 personnel, bringing the current standing army to over 75, and they are steadily working towards the goal of 80.

As for the French army, although it has long reached a size of 75, the French government does not seem to have any intention of further expanding the size of the army.

A 75-strong army is already a huge military expenditure for the French government. In addition, the French government also needs to support its ally Russia, which makes the funds available to the French government actually pale in comparison.

Germany doesn't care about that. The German government would love for the French army to remain at around 75 men. Once Germany gains a numerical advantage, it will end the war quickly.

No one doubts the fighting power of the German army, just as no one doubts the fighting power of the Spanish navy today.

In order to further enhance their advantages, Germany and Austria-Hungary also courted Bulgaria, which had been defeated in the Balkan Wars, promising it various benefits and persuading it to join the Central Powers.

Although Bulgaria was far smaller than the other three Central Powers, it had an advantage that neither Austria-Hungary nor Italy possessed: a powerful army.

The German government had a deep understanding of the two Balkan wars. The Bulgarian army's performance in both wars could only be described as outstanding; the nickname "Balkan Prussia" was very fitting for them.

This is precisely why the German government had the idea of ​​winning over Bulgaria. Although Bulgaria could only mobilize a few hundred thousand troops, the fighting power of these troops was at least comparable to the Austro-Hungarian army of over 30 and the Italian army of over 50.

The German government's aim in courting Bulgaria was not to secure Bulgarian military support on the main battlefields, but rather to support Bulgaria's control of the Balkans, thereby connecting with the Ottoman Empire, which was on friendly terms with Germany, and forming a supply line spanning Europe and Asia. The German government itself was also quite aware of its own strengths and weaknesses.

Germany's overall strength did indeed surpass that of France or Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy combined could indeed hold one of them back, or at least help Germany share a significant portion of the pressure.

The problem is that with a two-front war, Germany could hardly guarantee a swift defeat of either enemy. If the war became a protracted conflict, France, with its vast colonies, and Russia, with its expansive homeland, could provide significant support.

Germany, along with its two allies Austria-Hungary and Italy, were typical countries with small territories and few colonies.

Germany was indeed prosperous and had a very strong industrial base. However, under the circumstances of a super war, the logistical resources that Germany could provide were limited.

Once Germany's resources are exhausted, even if the German army has extremely strong combat capabilities, it will be at the mercy of others without logistical support.

To prevent this fatal flaw, the German government, in conjunction with the Austro-Hungarian government, formulated the Eurasian supply line plan.

The so-called Eurasian supply line plan was actually a long supply line connecting Germany to Austria-Hungary, Austria-Hungary to the Balkans, and the Balkans to the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire.

If this supply line could be fully opened, the allied powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy would not only be able to obtain supplies from the Balkans, but also from the Anatolian Peninsula and the Middle East.

Through the Ottoman Empire's territories in the Middle East, Germany and its allies could also obtain supplies from Asia and Africa.

While this wouldn't fully bridge the gap with France and Russia, it would certainly allow Germany to prolong the war.

As long as the rear supply lines remain relatively secure, the German government is confident that it can defeat either France or Russia on the main battlefield.

Even if it takes time and effort, as long as one side can be defeated, the rest of the war becomes much simpler.

This is also why Germany courted Bulgaria, because Bulgaria happened to be on this supply line and could also help Austria-Hungary deal with enemies on the supply line, such as Serbia.

Serbia was not a big problem for Germany, but it was a problem for Austria-Hungary.

Like Bulgaria, Serbia has a small territory and population, but its military is quite formidable.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was ahead of Serbia in terms of territory, industry, economy and population, it could not easily crush Serbia militarily.

Of course, there is a prerequisite: the main force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire needs to help Germany tie down the Russian army.

It is undeniable that the small number of Austrians in the South German army within the Austro-Hungarian Empire were quite formidable, after all, Austrians were also part of the German nation.

However, the number of Austrians within the Austro-Hungarian Empire was limited. Of the hundreds of thousands of troops in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, less than half were Austrians; the rest were mixed troops composed of various ethnic groups.

Leaving aside those ethnic groups with smaller populations, just talking about the larger ethnic groups includes Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians, Slovaks, and Italians, among others.

In addition, there was the Bosnian region occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself contained other ethnic groups such as Croats and Bosniaks.

These ethnic groups have different languages ​​and cultures, and the imperial government was a dual government, making it impossible to achieve linguistic unity.

This also led to a rather chaotic command structure within the Austro-Hungarian army, with officers from different ethnic groups basically only able to command their own ethnic groups' armies, because soldiers from other ethnic groups simply could not understand languages ​​other than their own.

German was theoretically the common language within the empire, but due to the lack of authority of the Austrian imperial government, only a portion of the population learned German, while the majority of the population still only spoke their own national language.

The language barrier alone severely impacted the Austro-Hungarian army. While most officers who had received military training in the military academy system spoke German, the soldiers, who had not received such training, could not.

It's alright now, because nearly half of the Austro-Hungarian army are Austrians, and the remaining soldiers have some exposure to German, so they can understand commands without much trouble.

The real language communication problem didn't arise until the outbreak of war. The Austro-Hungarian Empire carried out a large-scale military expansion within the country, and ethnic minority peasants who had never been exposed to German joined the army. They knew nothing about German, which made the communication problems in the army even more serious.

Besides language barriers, there is always a distinction between closeness and distance between different ethnic groups. It is precisely these distinctions of closeness and distance that further affected the fighting capacity of the Austro-Hungarian army.

Germany had a fairly clear understanding of the situation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and their expectations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were only to tie down a portion of the Russian army, not to place their hopes on the Austro-Hungarian army itself.

If a portion of the Austro-Hungarian army was considered elite, then the fighting ability of most Italian soldiers could only be described as worrisome.

Unfortunately, Italy not only unified relatively late, but also had not experienced any significant wars after unification.

Despite facing two major enemies, France and Austria-Hungary, in the wars of unification, the Italian army actually won by simply following Germany and did not play a significant role.

The best-performing Italian army can be traced back to the expeditionary force led by Garibaldi. This army marched to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and successfully conquered this land for Italy.

However, with Garibaldi's death, the expeditionary force was disbanded. Except for a small number of officers who were given important positions in the Italian government, most officers and soldiers became ordinary people.

(End of this chapter)