Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 564 Post-War Situation

Carlo's conjecture was correct; with the main warships of the German High Seas Fleet falling into French hands, Britain did indeed become more wary of France.

British diplomatic representatives even attempted to propose, at the Paris Peace Conference, a plan to limit naval arms development by all nations, hoping to restrict naval spending through a treaty and prevent a repeat of the massive shipbuilding sprees seen in world wars.

During the World Wars, both the Allied and Central Powers invested heavily in military spending. One of the most significant expenditures was on the construction of naval warships.

World War II left countries with enormous debts. Now that the wars are over, there is no need for countries to continue investing such huge sums in military spending to develop their armies and navies.

From this perspective, the proposal put forward by the British representative is quite reasonable. Moreover, on the surface, the British Royal Fleet remains the world's leading navy.

The fact that the world's leading naval power has taken the initiative to restrict naval development demonstrates Britain's sincerity.

After all, if the speed of naval construction by various countries is really restricted, the British Navy's advantage in tonnage and the number of main warships will inevitably be reduced, and it will not be so easy for the Royal Fleet to sail the oceans.

Of course, the British government's motives were certainly not that simple. After all, Britain still had a huge debt to repay, and even without restricting the development of its navy, the annual military spending on naval shipbuilding was limited, compared to countries like France and Spain that were about to receive large war reparations.

If we were to say who would be most affected by Britain's proposal to restrict naval development, it would undoubtedly be France.

This proposal to restrict naval development not only limits the speed at which countries build naval warships, but also includes provisions to limit the total tonnage of each country's navy and the tonnage of its main warships.

The British proposed linking the total tonnage and number of major warships that each country can possess to its comprehensive national strength, ensuring that each country can build its navy within a reasonable range, rather than blindly engaging in a naval arms race.

Comprehensive national strength is assessed by various factors, but it is mainly measured by land area, population, economy, and industrial status.

Even when considering the military strength of each country, France is still at a disadvantage when calculating its overall national strength.

After all, all countries knew that France had suffered heavy losses in the World War. In addition to massive casualties and population loss, France's domestic industry, agriculture, and economy were also severely damaged, and its overall national strength today is far less than it was before the outbreak of the war.

Among countries whose overall national strength ranks ahead of France, Britain is definitely one, and Spain is also quite qualified. The United States also far surpasses France in terms of land area, population, industry, and economy. Even with its military advantage, France cannot bridge the gap in other aspects.

By this calculation, several countries already have naval tonnage exceeding that of France. The French Navy is currently aiming for second place, currently sitting in third. If they were to follow Britain's proposal, maintaining their top-four position would be quite an achievement. This is why Britain's proposal is said to be entirely aimed at France.

The French naturally recognized this as well. After Britain attempted to propose limiting naval armaments, France quickly rejected the proposal, stating that it was not yet time to discuss restricting naval development.

The French also had ample excuses. After the World Wars, most countries indeed lacked the capital to develop their navies.

Only a handful of countries truly have the resources to maintain a navy, which is insufficient to spark a large-scale naval arms race.

In recent years, European countries have focused on restoring domestic industry and economic development, and there is no need to pay attention to aspects that are not so important at the moment.

Compared to Britain, a defeated nation, France wielded considerable influence within the Allied Powers and the League of Nations. Furthermore, given that the conference was held in Paris, and with France having clearly stated its position, other nations were willing to give the French government face.

After the brief incident, the Paris Peace Conference officially came to an end.

This peace negotiation, which attracted worldwide attention, was relatively successful for the victorious nations, including Spain and France.

All countries have basically achieved their goals, acquiring some land and receiving large sums of war reparations, thus not participating in this world war in vain.

The pain caused by the world war was too great. Even if a large amount of war reparations were available for reconstruction in the future, it would still take most of the countries that participated in the world war several years or even more than a decade to catch up with their pre-war development pace.

The good news is that Spain doesn't have this problem.

The World War was devastating for European countries, but not so much for Spain. Spain mobilized only 420 million troops in total, of which fewer than 200 million were home troops.

Spain's population was already as high as 5174 million before the outbreak of World War II. Mobilizing an army of less than 200 million people would not have a serious impact on the country's development.

More importantly, the Spanish army suffered relatively few casualties, further reducing the impact of the war on Spain.

By 1915, Spain's population had not decreased compared to before the war; on the contrary, it had surged.

According to the Spanish government's estimated population figures, by the beginning of 1915, Spain's total population was approximately 5527 million, an increase of about 350 million compared to before the outbreak of World War II, with an average annual net population increase of about 117 million.

The population growth was so rapid because the war was too far from the Spanish mainland, and because of the large-scale population loss in various countries, Spain became one of the main destinations for European immigrants.

It's worth noting that although Spain's geographical location is relatively remote, far from the heart of mainland Europe, this disadvantage actually becomes an advantage during wartime. Its remoteness means that the war is unlikely to reach its homeland, which is very important for people who are tired of war and do not want to be affected by it.

The reason why the United States developed so rapidly during the two world wars was precisely because Europeans were tired of war and chose to go to the United States across the ocean to escape the chaos.

Although the prospects for development in Spain are not as good as in the United States, Spain has an advantage that the United States cannot match: its location in Europe can alleviate the pain of these immigrants leaving their homeland.

In addition to rapid population growth, Spain has also experienced rapid industrial and economic development in recent years.

Spain achieved tremendous success in industry, leaping from a level comparable to France and Russia to a level comparable to Great Britain.

There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is the role Spain played during the World Wars.

During World War II, Spain became a processing plant for the Allied Powers, providing them with large quantities of weapons, ammunition, food, daily necessities, and industrial products.

In addition to earning substantial revenue through the sale of goods, Spain also significantly increased its industrial scale by expanding production.

Currently, whether in light or heavy industry, Spain's industrial scale ranks among the top three in Europe, second only to Germany and the United Kingdom, and far surpassing France and Russia.

In the two years leading up to World War II, Germany's industrial scale was quite impressive, far ahead of other European countries.

However, after Germany fell into a disadvantageous position in the war, its industry was also severely affected. In particular, in the last year of the World War, the scale of German industry decreased rather than increased, and steel production dropped sharply.

Britain was slightly better than Germany, but only marginally better. If Britain hadn't played a similar role to Spain among the Allies, its industry probably wouldn't be where it is today.

Under the leadership of England, Germany, and the West, the industries of other European countries could only be described as a mess.

France lost nearly a third of its territory to German invasion, while Russia suffered heavy population losses and was embroiled in a civil war.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire also lost vast territories and population, while Italy was already in a weak position to begin with.

Looking at the industrial situation of various European countries after the World War, one can deeply appreciate the impact of the war on Europe.

It is no exaggeration to say that after the World War, the proportion of European industry in the world's industry decreased by at least one-fifth compared to before the World War.

If Britain and Spain hadn't joined forces to intercept orders from the Allied and Central Powers, and if the United States had benefited as it has in history, the proportion of European industry in the world's industry would likely have decreased significantly.

This is one of the biggest changes in the world today compared to history. Historically, the United States benefited immensely during the World Wars. Before the outbreak of the World War, the United States' annual steel production was only about 3000 million tons, but by the end of the war, steel production had exceeded 4500 million tons. This dramatic increase was largely due to orders from Europe.

Without European orders, by 1915, the United States' annual steel production was only about 2875 million tons, significantly less than at the same time in history.

Compared to the United States, the development of Britain and Spain has been much faster.

Britain's steel production barely exceeded 10 million tons, making it the only European country besides Germany to surpass that mark.

Germany's steel production is still 1154 million tons, but considering Germany's huge debt burden, coupled with the fact that domestic factories, a large amount of production equipment, and skilled workers will be used to offset debts, Germany's industrial scale will decrease rather than increase in the next few years, and may even slip to less than 10 million tons.

Apart from Britain and Germany, Spain has the largest industrial scale.

According to statistics for the whole of 1914, Spain's annual steel production reached 784.4 million tons and its annual iron production reached 878.6 million tons, ranking third in Europe in both steel production.

With German industry destined to decline rather than grow, and Britain burdened with massive debt, Spain's industry has a chance to contend for the top spot in Europe.

In fact, Spain's annual steel production is only about 200 million tons less than that of the UK and about 300 million tons less than that of Germany. It would be quite easy for Spain to catch up with the steel production of these two countries.

Below Spain, neither France nor Russia has industrial output figures that are more than half that of Spain.

It's not unreasonable to say that France suffered the most from this world war. In addition to the massive population decline, France's industrial scale also shrank dramatically.

In 1910, France produced 341.7 million tons of steel, making it the fourth largest industrial power in Europe at the time, not much different from Spain, the third largest in Europe.

However, by 1915, France's steel production was only 243.7 million tons, and this was only achieved after France recovered its homeland in the later stages of the war and began to vigorously resume industrial construction.

During the most difficult phase of the World War, when nearly a third of France's territory was occupied by Germany, France's annual steel production nearly dropped to around 110 million tons, less than a third of its peak.

Even though the war is over, given the development challenges caused by the sharp decline in France's population, it would probably take several years of hard work for France to recover to the industrial level of 1910.

More importantly, France imported a large number of Spanish industrial products during the war, which flooded the French market.

For French domestic industries to develop, they must compete with Spanish companies. With Spain's industry already firmly among the top three in Europe, and even poised to become number one, it will be extremely difficult for French companies to compete.

After all, the larger the industrial scale, the lower the production costs. Unless France can increase its support for domestic companies or raise tariffs to counterbalance Spanish companies, the development of domestic factories will face significant challenges.

Compared to France, Russia's industry was actually better. Of course, this refers to the combined industrial scale of Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia.

If we only consider Tsarist Russia, its industrial scale today is only a fraction of what it was before the war.

The reasons for this are complex. On the one hand, the civil war divided Russia, and many industrial cities, including Moscow, were occupied by Soviet Russia.

On the other hand, there are also a large number of opponents in the remaining vast territories.

It must be acknowledged that Soviet Russia did indeed garner substantial support from its workers. Even simply organizing a workers' strike could effectively disrupt Tsarist Russia's industrial production, causing a significant reduction in the scale of Russian industry.

But within Soviet Russia, these workers held a completely different attitude. They had complete trust in the republican government formed by the workers' union and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to their work, which led to a rapid increase in the scale of Soviet Russia's industry in a short period of time, accounting for the majority of Russia's industry.

This is also why Tsarist Russia gradually fell into a disadvantageous position during the civil war. After all, industry is still very important to a country, and weak industry means weak overall national strength.

Under Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the last vestige of dignity for European nations.

Although Austria-Hungary lost vast territories, its most valuable regions were fortunately preserved. Austria and Czechoslovakia were significant industrial areas within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the fact that these regions were entirely retained is a key reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire still possessed a considerable industrial base.

Compared to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy's industry was much weaker.

Although Italy won the world war, its status as a major power became unstable.

One reason is that the Italian army performed poorly in the war. While other European countries had some impressive performances, the Italian army did not perform well.

It's one thing to be outnumbered and unable to win, but to be outnumbered and still lose is a serious blow to Italy's standing in Europe and the world.

If it weren't for European prejudice, Japan, a newly emerging country, would probably have already surpassed Italy when ranking countries in the world.

In 1910, Italy's annual steel production was only 13.6 tons, a fraction of that of other major powers.

By the end of World War I in 1915, Italy's annual steel production was still just over 20 tons, a fraction of that of other major powers.

This slow pace of development reveals Italy's decline.

However, the Italian government cannot be entirely blamed. While Spain may be relatively poor in coal and iron ore, Italy could be said to have virtually no coal or iron ore reserves.

This is also why the Italian government dreamed of expanding its colonies and relentlessly invaded other countries. Despite Italy's large population, its land seems to have little use other than agriculture.

Northern Italy does have a certain industrial scale, but due to a lack of mineral resources, it needs to import a large amount of ore from abroad.

This has led to a major problem for Italy's industrial development: its industrial development is easily restricted by foreign countries.

Even if ore imports are not restricted, importing large quantities of ore each year would require huge expenditures, which would also affect Italy's industrial development.

Spain and Italy had the same problem, but Spain initially solved it by developing a large number of colonies.

Spain's colonies had relatively good mineral resources, which were sufficient for Spain's industrial development.

However, Italy's colonies had few mineral resources, and if this issue was not addressed, Italy's future industrial development would still face significant limitations.

Italy shares a similar plight with that newly emerging country in the Far East.

Speaking of which, Japan has developed at a very fast pace in recent years, and some media outlets selectively place Japan ahead of Italy when ranking countries.

However, in Europe and even the world, Italy remains the world's eighth strongest power, which is still the international mainstream view.

However, most media outlets also acknowledge that Japan is indeed the strongest country outside of all the major powers, and its industrial scale and military strength are indeed quite impressive.

Carlo naturally didn't care about this country, which had significant limitations. However, considering the country's historical crimes, Carlo still instructed Prime Minister Andrew to manipulate the partition of German colonies to prevent Japan from taking any German colonies and slow down Japan's development.

If war breaks out in the future, Carlo wouldn't mind paying a small price to cause some trouble for Japan.

(End of this chapter)