[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-409":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2365337,4632,"Chapter 409: Anglo-Japanese Alliance","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-409",409,"\u003Cp>At the same time that Spain was holding a secret launching ceremony for the Dreadnought battleship, the world situation was also undergoing tremendous changes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In January 1902, in order to balance the powerful Russia, Britain chose to form an alliance with Japan in East Asia to prevent Russian influence from continuing to expand in the Far East.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason for the alliance between Britain and Japan was simple: to treat Japan as the first line of defense against Russian expansion in the Far East and use them to drag the Russians down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Japan had undergone reforms by this time, it had not achieved much in terms of industry. After all, Japan itself was an island nation with very scarce mineral resources, which could not fully support the construction of modern industry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they wanted to develop industry, they had to obtain support from the European powers; on one hand, to acquire the corresponding technology, and on the other, to import large quantities of coal and iron ore from colonies controlled by the European powers, so as to support industrial development.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely for this reason that Japan became a loyal little brother to Britain at this time. It is true that Britain wanted to use Japan to counter Russia, but Japan also wanted to use British support to gain more land in East Asia, especially the mineral resources it lacked the most.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Starting from this point alone, the interests of Russia and Japan were in conflict. Even without the British signaling, Japan and Russia would sooner or later have moved toward opposition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention that with British support, Japan was already preparing for war against Russia domestically. This was a rather extreme nation; they did not mind gambling their national destiny for the development of their country, even if the enemy was a powerful European power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the Russians at this time, they were quite dissatisfied with the alliance between Britain and Japan. Everyone could see that Britain chose to ally with Japan to target Russia, but Russia had no way to deal with this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, Russia had no reason to stop the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and other countries, including Russia's own ally France, also wanted to see Russia's interests in the Far East damaged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countries like Germany were willing to see Russia's Far East interests damaged because they wanted to weaken this vast empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for France, the French did not want their ally to focus too much attention on the Far East. The reason France allied with Russia was to have Russia attract a portion of Germany's military forces and, together with Russia, attack Germany from both the east and west.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if Russia deployed too many troops to the Far East, the number of German troops that could be drawn into Eastern Europe would become limited. In this situation, the Germans would certainly deploy more troops to the border with France, and then it would be the French who suffered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, for the sake of their own interests, the French were eager for Russia's expansion in the Far East to fail, so that they would obediently turn their attention back to the situation in Europe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this situation, Russia had almost no helpers to cheer them on. However, the Russians did not think that little Japan could defeat them; after all, they were one of the powerful European hegemons, possessing over 2,000 square kilometers of land, a population of hundreds of millions, and an industry that ranked among the best in Europe—how could a tiny Japan be a match for Russia?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Gao Da learned of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the conflict between Russia and Japan, Gao Da understood that a war between Japan and Russia was about to break out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This war not only allowed the countries of Europe to see Russia's weakness, but also allowed Japan, a country that had only been reforming for a few decades, to leap into the ranks of the powers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, this status as a power was very watered down, and like the United States, it was a rather deformed power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except for Japan and the United States, the other European powers were all countries that possessed strong industry and economy, as well as excellent military strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the United States only possessed a strong industry and economy, if they wanted to expand their military, they could still easily raise an army of over a million people plus a navy that ranked in the top four in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Japan? Although they defeated Russia in history, that was only a part of Russia's army and the Far East Fleet, just a small fraction of Russia's military strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If their military strength could barely be considered that of a power, then Japan's industrial level could be said to be a complete mess.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 1900, when the steel production of European countries was generally as high as millions or even several million tons, Japan's steel production was a pathetic 2,000 tons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One must know that Italy, which was already at the bottom among all the powers, had an annual steel production of a relatively decent 118,000 tons. What could Japan's pathetic 2,000 tons of steel production do? It could only be used to build a warship with a tonnage of no more than 3,000 tons, or to build a few dozen kilometers of railway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In such a situation, let alone Russia looking down on Japan, even Gao Da looked down on the current Japan very much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If not for British support, it would not have been so easy for Japan to win the war against Russia. Even if they could win the war, the subsequent Russian retaliation would instantly crush this country that relied solely on military power to establish itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Gao Da, the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War did not matter much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was important was the development of the situation in Russia after the Russo-Japanese War, and the impact of that development on the situation in Europe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Britain stood on the opposite side of Russia through the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and Germany also stood on the opposite side of Russia. But this did not mean that Britain and Germany would form an alliance, because since the beginning of the 20th century, Germany had been vigorously developing its navy, and its comprehensive naval ranking was constantly rising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this situation, it was impossible for Britain not to be wary of Germany. It was only because the current size of the French navy was still far greater than that of Germany, coupled with the conflict with Russia, that Britain had a slight tendency to lean toward Germany.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the essence of Britain's statehood was maritime hegemony, and this was something that no country was allowed to challenge. As long as Germany wanted to continue developing its navy, Britain and Germany would sooner or later have a falling out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Gao Da, there were many choices at present.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Either directly accelerate the evolution of the domestic situation in Russia, let Russia directly withdraw from the disputes in Europe, and then join hands with Germany to defeat Britain and France.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>France was surrounded by Spain and Germany; as long as France was defeated, a single Britain would not be able to stir up any trouble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What's more, Spain currently had a lead in Dreadnoughts; as long as they built a few more Dreadnoughts in the next few years, and combined with Germany's naval power in the future, a naval battle with Britain would not necessarily end in failure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The possibility of winning a world war by doing this was very high; the disadvantage was that Germany, having defeated Britain and France, would become the sole hegemon of Europe. If Spain wanted to balance Germany, it could only try its best to preserve France or support a transformed Russia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was another way, which was to unite with France and Russia to directly force Britain to the side of Germany, and then explode naval power with France to balance Britain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the premise of saving Russia as much as possible, the military strength between France-Russia-Spain and Britain-Germany-Austria would reach a balance. To do this, Spain would need to pay more troops to help France resist Germany, and also build a navy to fight a decisive battle with the British navy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they could win the war, Spain would not only be able to recover Gibraltar and annex Portugal, but also would not have to worry about other hegemons on the European continent threatening them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, although France and Russia would be the victors, their great war with Germany would cause them heavy losses. As for Britain and Germany, as the defeated nations, it would be good enough if they could keep most of their territory; naturally, they would no longer be able to threaten Spain's position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first plan was clearly more stable, but the second plan could allow Spain to gain more benefits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was not that Gao Da looked down on France; if any country were to face the joint siege of Germany and Spain, that country would only face the outcome of a crushing defeat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The strength of the German army went without saying; this was the undisputed world's number one army. Although Spain's army was not as famous as Germany's, when European countries ranked their armies, they would unanimously place Spain's army in the fourth position in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why was it fourth in the world? In the eyes of European countries, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army might be inferior to that of the German army, but it could still contend with the French army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason the French army could rank second in the world was because their army possessed both great combat effectiveness and a massive scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Russian army ranked third in the world, and the only reason was that Russia possessed a large amount of manpower. Human wave tactics were currently a tactic that was completely impossible to crack; one could only consume Russia's manpower through constant attrition, killing until Russia could no longer bear the casualties.\u003C\u002Fp>",1688,"2026-06-25T09:27:15.200Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","31b6e1f8e2f60536ad55830e14f267623c1a9497cc51f4b3b62bd35f5b9d9df3","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-410","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-408",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]