Chapter 351: Naval Arms Race

After the design of the Monarch-class battleship received the approval of the naval department, the relevant construction work immediately began.

The first to begin construction was the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, which was responsible for building the Ferdinand II, the future flagship of the Spanish Royal Navy.

The construction period for the battleship Ferdinand II would last a year and a half. It was set to begin in September 1890, with an expected launch date in March 1892.

Coupled with the long sea trial phase, the earliest this brand-new battleship could enter naval service would be in three years, that is, 1893.

The construction of the second Monarch-class battleship, the Isabella I, would be slightly later, as the scale of the Valencia United Shipyard was, after all, not comparable to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

The Isabella I would begin construction in November 1890, with the goal of completing it by mid-1892. If the construction process went smoothly, both of these brand-new battleships had the potential to enter the ranks of the navy before 1894.

The remaining two, the El Ferrol Royal Naval Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard, also had their own tasks.

In fact, after the design for the main warships of over ten thousand tons was finalized, the design for the 7, 00-ton class cruisers could also be modeled after them; by sacrificing a portion of performance, a new cruiser design could be obtained.

Here, one must mention Spain's requirement for 7, 00-ton class cruisers, which was to use them as secondary capital ships; that is to say, these 7, 00-ton warships were also intended to enter the front lines of battle and were expected to play a role in naval warfare.

After several days of discussion by the warship design committee, the general design plan for the 7, 00-ton class cruiser was finally determined.

Because the tonnage was only 7, 00 tons, it was impossible for this class of cruiser to be well-rounded in terms of firepower, armor protection, and speed like a battleship.

Because they were to participate in decisive battles of capital ships, the importance of firepower was greater than armor protection and speed, and the importance of speed was greater than armor protection.

The logic was simple: only with sufficient firepower could one inflict damage on the opponent's capital ships. Only with sufficient speed could one keep up with the opponent's main force; otherwise, they would become sitting ducks that could not move.

As for armor protection, while it might be very important for a battleship, it was not as important for a cruiser.

The cruiser's tonnage was only 7, 00 tons to begin with, and considering the speed requirements, even if firepower were sacrificed, it would be impossible to achieve battleship-level armor protection.

Rather than that, it would be better to abandon armor protection entirely and raise firepower and speed to battleship levels.

Even if such a cruiser with poor protection would sink after taking a few shells, as long as it could hit the opponent's capital ships a few times before sinking into the sea, it would not be a loss at all for the Spanish Navy.

To ensure that the 7, 00-ton class cruiser could also inflict damage on the enemy's capital ships, the first thing determined was the cruiser's artillery caliber.

Although the 305mm naval gun caliber could not compare to the 343mm caliber of the Monarch-class battleship, it was definitely a capital ship-level gun with immense lethality.

In terms of propulsion, the cruiser copied the power plant of the Monarch-class battleship, also adopting two three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines.

It was just that the power was weakened; the power during normal ventilation was only about 7, 00 horsepower, and it could only reach the power level of the Monarch-class battleship's normal power under full-power conditions.

However, considering that this cruiser only had a tonnage of around 7, 00, such power was already quite sufficient.

It was estimated that this cruiser design could exceed a maximum speed of 18 knots, and with the steam group running at full power, the speed could reach about 17 knots.

High speed and strong firepower—these were all the advantages of the cruiser. As for armor protection, this cruiser design had only disadvantages.

The thickness of this cruiser's main armor belt could not even compare to Spain's two ironclads, and its armor protection could simply be described as fragile.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as it was hit by a single shell from an opponent's capital ship, this cruiser would be at risk of sinking.

But with high risk comes high reward; this 7, 00-ton cruiser also had the capability to sink the opponent's capital ships.

Considering the ever-increasing cost of current capital ships, as long as this type of cruiser could achieve a ratio of two-for-one, it would be a guaranteed profit for Spain.

Because this type of cruiser was destined to adopt a "life-for-life" fighting style, this brand-new 7, 00-ton class cruiser was named the Warrior-class.

The El Ferrol Royal Naval Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard would be fully responsible for the construction of 10 Warrior-class cruisers, and their task was to launch two cruisers per year over the next 5 years.

After all, it was only a 7, 00-ton class warship, so the construction time was not as long as a battleship. The construction time of a battleship often exceeded a year, generally between one and a half to two and a half years.

The construction time for a 7, 00-ton class cruiser could be compressed to one year, which also meant that the El Ferrol Royal Naval Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard only needed to build one cruiser each per year to meet the requirements of the 5-year naval construction plan issued by the navy.

September 1890 was an extremely lively month for Spain.

At the beginning of September, the battleship Ferdinand II officially announced the start of construction. As the King of Spain, Carlos personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the battleship Ferdinand II and expressed his new expectations for the Spanish Navy.

At this time, due to the influence of the publication of *The Influence of Sea Power upon History*, European countries, both the public and the government, attached great importance to naval power.

Spain's act of building battleships with such great fanfare was a huge boost of confidence for the Spanish people.

Not many days after the groundbreaking ceremony for the battleship Ferdinand II, the groundbreaking ceremonies for the cruiser Warrior and the cruiser Hero followed immediately.

The groundbreaking ceremonies for these two smaller cruisers did not attract as much attention, but they also sparked heated discussions among many Spanish people.

For the Spanish people, 1890 was perhaps the happiest year. In this year, one battleship and two cruisers were announced to begin construction; the combined tonnage of these three warships was already close to 30, 00 tons, which was something the original Spanish public could never have imagined.

During the previous ironclad era, a naval scale of 30, 00 tons was equivalent to at least three ironclads, and it would have taken Spain at least 5 years to build three ironclads.

But now, Spain had completed the task of building 30, 00 tons of naval vessels in just one year. Did this mean that Spain's naval power would continue to strengthen in the coming years?

Like the Spanish public, many European countries expressed concern over Spain's fanfare-filled naval construction.

Especially the British, who were eager to inquire about the news of the battleships Spain was building every day. Although Britain had long discussed the concept of battleship construction at this time, their first battleship, the Royal Sovereign, had already begun construction as early as the end of September last year, and it was expected to be launched early next year to begin the sea trial phase.

But it was clear that Britain would not be satisfied just because it started building battleships earlier than Spain. Britain wanted to maintain its status as the hegemon of the seas, and they would not allow any country to provoke their naval power. Because Spain kept the battleships under construction highly confidential, the British side had not been able to find out detailed news about the battleships Spain was building.

Just in case, Britain still accelerated the speed of its own battleship construction and once again increased the naval budget.

Britain's act of increasing the naval budget triggered a small round of naval arms race in Europe.

At this time, it was not just the British who attached great importance to the navy; almost all the major European powers were accelerating their naval construction.

As early as the middle and latter part of 1889, the Triple Alliance, led by Germany, Austria, and Italy, held a secret meeting to discuss the development and future plans of the navy.

After Alfred Thayer Mahan's book *The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660–1783* was published, the Triple Alliance reacted decisively by convening another meeting and reaching a unified opinion: to continue to accelerate naval construction.

The King of Italy at this time was still Carlos's brother, Umberto I, who was a nationalist and an imperialist who attached great importance to Italy's military power.

Previously, under his leadership, the size of the Italian army had almost doubled. During the reign of Carlos's father, Victor Emmanuel II, the standing army of the Kingdom of Italy was only a little over 200, 00.

When Umberto I became the King of Italy, the size of the Italian army expanded rapidly in a short period, and it had now reached an exaggerated level of nearly 400, 00 people.

One must know that the standing army of Germany and France before the war was only 400, 00 people, and the population, industry, and economy of Germany and France were far ahead of Italy.

Maintaining an army size of over 400, 00 was a huge challenge for Italy's finances. However, during the reign of Umberto I, Italy also gained two small colonies in Tunisia, which could be considered as making Italy's military expansion not in vain.

After Sea Power theory was valued by European countries, Umberto I immediately turned his attention to the development of the navy.

Earlier, he had already made the Italian Navy rank among the top five in the world. The total tonnage of the Italian Navy reached 242, 00 tons, and the naval scale had even surpassed that of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Spain.

Of course, this 242, 00 tons of naval tonnage also had some "water" in it. The reason why Spain's naval tonnage lagged behind Italy's was mainly that the sailing warships from decades ago had almost all been eliminated, and the capital ships were only the ironclads built in recent years.

While Italy was building ironclads on a large scale, it also retained its previous sailing warships. The total tonnage of all warships reached 242, 00 tons, but in terms of the number of ironclads, it lagged behind Spain.

The current world naval ranking was: Britain first, France second, Russia third, Spain fourth, Italy fifth, Germany sixth, the United States seventh, and Austria-Hungary eighth.

From this, one could also see the reason why the Triple Alliance was vigorously developing its navy; their naval strength was not just a little bit behind that of the Franco-Russian Alliance.

If they did not develop their navy, the joint fleet of France and Russia would dominate the Mediterranean, thereby affecting the stability of the coasts of Italy and Austria-Hungary.

Although Germany's coastline would not be harassed by the French fleet, if Italy and Austria-Hungary fell into chaos due to the loss of their coasts, Germany alone would not be able to hold out for long.

While Britain and Spain were building their navies on a large scale, Italy also announced its own naval construction plan.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Italian army was not very good, the Italian Navy was worth mentioning. More importantly, Italy's level in the shipbuilding industry was relatively excellent, which was also the reason why the Italian Navy could rank among the top five in the world.

At this time, the era of transition from ironclads to pre-dreadnoughts had arrived; even if the term "battleship" had not yet become popular in various countries, the concept of this type of warship was no secret.

In the research and development of capital ships, every country wanted to design a more powerful warship. In this regard, the British were doing the best; they would not only lead the era of battleships but also lead the era of dreadnoughts after battleships.

For Italy, which had a fairly good shipbuilding industry scale, they also had their own battleship ambitions.

Upon learning that Spain's battleship was obtained through public bidding at a great cost by Carlos, Carlos's brother Umberto I also conducted public bidding within Italy, declaring that whoever could design a work that satisfied the Italian Navy would receive a large sum of funding rewards and other various subsidy policies.

Such public bidding was highly valued by Italian shipyards and sparked competition among major shipyards.

In October 1890, Italy also announced that it would build at least 5 battleships in the next 5 years and invest 200 million lira in naval funds.

The Italian lira and the Spanish peseta were of equal value, which also meant that the construction costs invested by the Italian government in the navy were not much different from those of Spain.

If Italy alone was like this, let alone Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The German government attached great importance to the construction of the navy.

At this time, Germany had reached the era of Wilhelm II, and Germany's foreign policy was no longer the isolation of France and the management of Europe of the Bismarck era.

As early as a few years ago, Germany had been constantly expanding its colonies. After Wilhelm II became the German Emperor, Germany's emphasis on colonies had been constantly increasing, and the navy had also become an important force in Germany's military construction.

As early as October 1889, the German government announced that it would invest at least 150 million marks in the next 5 years to develop the German Empire's own powerful navy.

In March 1890, the German government announced an additional 50 million marks, expanding the naval development budget to 200 million marks in one fell swoop.

The mark was more valuable than the peseta. 200 million marks was equivalent to 250 million pesetas, which also meant that Germany's investment in the navy was not much different from Spain's.

As for the remaining member of the Triple Alliance, Austria-Hungary, their investment in the navy was less.

This was not because Austria-Hungary did not value the navy, but because Austria-Hungary's finances were limited, and it could not continue to develop a large-scale navy while maintaining a large-scale army.

Furthermore, Austria-Hungary's coastline was relatively short, and all of it was concentrated in the Adriatic Sea bay. The Adriatic Sea is a bay within the Mediterranean, between the Balkan Peninsula and the Apennine Peninsula, and its narrowest point was even just over 70 kilometers.

This also meant that once Austria-Hungary went to war with France, their fleet would likely be directly blockaded in the Adriatic Sea, unable to enter the Mediterranean at all, let alone go to the ocean to fight.

(End of chapter)