[{"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-413":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},2365341,4632,"Chapter 413: Naval Arms Race","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-413",413,"\u003Cp>Compared to the somewhat reactive response from the British government, the reactions of other European countries appeared much calmer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is actually quite normal, as other European countries do not rely on sea power for their livelihood. France, which possesses the strongest navy besides Britain, actually relies on its own army strength to establish its footing on the European continent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countries like Germany and Russia, naturally, go without saying; they all built their illustrious reputations on their armies. Britain alone, at present, could never remain on the throne of world hegemony without the support of its navy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To become a world hegemon, one must achieve three major hegemonies: diplomatic hegemony, economic hegemony, and military hegemony.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Economic hegemony and military hegemony are easy to understand; they mean establishing one's hegemonic status in a certain region through economic or military actions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Diplomatic hegemony, economic hegemony, and military hegemony are complementary; supported by economic and military hegemony, diplomatic hegemony becomes multi-dimensional.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Britain at present, they are facing quite serious challenges in all aspects. In terms of economic hegemony, the newly rising United States and Germany, as more powerful industrial nations, have dealt a huge blow to Britain's original industrial system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for military hegemony, European countries are continuously building navies, and Spain has even invested a large sum of 20 million pounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With both economic and military hegemony challenged, Britain's diplomatic hegemony naturally cannot be maintained for long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In terms of the army, Britain is clearly unable to compare with military powers like France and Germany. The only thing that can allow Britain to continue maintaining its military hegemony is a navy that dominates Europe and even the entire world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is also the reason why Britain is extremely sensitive to the naval development of other countries. Even if Spain has no other intentions, responding to Spain's naval construction plan is very necessary for the British government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the British government, any provocation regarding British naval hegemony will be met with an extremely forceful response.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regardless of whether such provocation is intentional or unintentional, Britain will never allow any country or any force to challenge it, and it will certainly go all out to respond and crush any country that dares to challenge it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Gao Da learned that the British government had angrily spent 50 million pounds to respond to his naval construction plan, Gao Da was somewhat surprised.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he had anticipated that Britain would definitely respond to Spain's naval construction plan, he did not expect the British response to be so forceful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is 50 million pounds, nearly the total annual fiscal revenue of the Spanish government. If all this money were given to Spain, Spain's industry and economy could receive a huge stimulus, and the army and navy could also obtain more funding to expand their scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although somewhat surprised by the British people's grand gesture, Gao Da did not have the slightest worry about Britain's behavior of building battleships on a large scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, it can be confirmed that the Dreadnought-class battleship, which historically drove the naval development of various countries, has not yet been born. The British Navy has its own ideas about the improvement of battleships, but at this time, there is no relatively clear warship design, as it is only the end of 1902.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason why Spain developed the Dreadnought-class battleship in advance, besides Spain's efforts in warships and technological industry over so many years, is also due to some of Gao Da's ideas for the Spanish Navy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Gao Da knows nothing about warship design, he still has some impressions of what some warships in history looked like, and what changes the Dreadnought had compared to previous battleships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These impressions might not be able to help Spain quickly design a battleship that changes the world, but they can give the warship design experts at Spain's major shipyards a clear line of thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of the time, having a fairly clear research and development direction is very necessary. This era in Europe is an era that produces talent; some scientists who are obscure are not lacking in ability, but rather they chose the wrong direction during their research, ultimately spending their whole lives without obtaining any decent research results.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are not a few such people. Sometimes, the only difference between a scientist who goes down in history and an obscure scientist is just a little bit of inspiration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Da provided this little bit of inspiration to the group of warship design experts in Spain, which ultimately did promote the development of the Spanish Navy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coupled with the fact that Gao Da has always invested heavily in major shipyards, under the condition of having a clear research direction and sufficient R&D funds, it is a matter of course for Gao Da that Spain developed the Dreadnought earlier than in history, and he does not feel surprised.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Spain successfully developed the Dreadnought-class battleship, Britain's progress in battleship R&D had not changed much. Under these circumstances, the British Dreadnought-class battleship would not be born early.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is also the reason why Gao Da is not worried about Britain's large-scale construction of battleships, because the performance of the battleships Britain is building at this time can absolutely not reach the level of Spain's Dreadnought-class battleship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This also means that the warships Britain spent 50 million pounds to build are just a pile of scrap metal that can barely be called warships in front of Spain's Dreadnought-class battleship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to the cost of previous battleships, the 50 million pounds invested by Britain could build about 20 to 30 battleships, a scale that has far exceeded the number of battleships owned by other European countries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, in terms of battleships, quantitative change will not lead to qualitative change. No matter if Britain builds 20 or 30 new battleships, as long as the technical level of these battleships does not reach the level of the Dreadnought-class, they will never be able to pose a threat to the Dreadnought-class battleships newly built by Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is equivalent to almost all the money Britain threw out being wasted. In the future, after Britain's own Dreadnought-class battleships are born, these warships rushed out in a short period of time will eventually become a pile of scrap metal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention, on this point, those countries with insufficient capital actually took advantage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Austro-Hungarian Empire was the first country to give up naval competition. They only expressed concern about the behavior of Spain and Britain building navies on a large scale, but they did not intend to join the ranks of large-scale naval construction themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is actually a good thing for the Austro-Hungarian Empire; at least there is no loss without investment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy's approach seems a bit unwise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After learning about the behavior of Spain and Britain building navies on a large scale one after another, the Italian government not only did not wisely choose to give up competition, but instead decided to take this opportunity to raise the ranking of the Spanish Navy to a higher level.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this time, the King of Italy had become Gao Da's nephew, Vittorio Emanuele III, who shared the same name as Gao Da's father.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Gao Da's brother Umberto I, who had high aspirations, he was assassinated by an anarchist as early as 1900, saying goodbye to his throne early.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Come to think of it, I don't know if there was a problem with the genes of Vittorio Emanuele II, or if the luck of the entire Italian royal family is not very good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, so far, the only son of Vittorio Emanuele left is Gao Da; several daughters are still alive, but they no longer have much to do with the Italian royal family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, according to the rules of European throne succession, even if Gao Da's two brothers have passed away, the Italian throne is still at a relatively distant distance from Gao Da.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>European throne succession generally follows primogeniture, where the succession order of the eldest son's descendants is higher than that of the second son and his descendants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This also means that even if the current King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III, has no descendants, his throne will be inherited by the children of Gao Da's brother, the Duke of Aosta.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the Italian throne strictly follows the male succession law. Although this caused the Italian princesses to lose their right to the throne, Gao Da is still a long way from the Italian throne.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Gao Da's brother, the Duke of Aosta, was very capable of having children, and they were all sons. The Duke of Aosta and his two wives had a total of 4 sons. Although only the three sons born to his first wife have the right to inherit the throne, these three sons still keep Gao Da at an unreachable distance from the Italian throne.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless an accident involving these members of the Italian royal family occurs, Gao Da will have nothing to do with the Italian throne in his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Gao Da really has no thoughts about the Italian throne. After all, his father, Vittorio Emanuele II, was quite good to him, and his two brothers and he could be considered brotherly and respectful; Gao Da would not take the initiative to do anything that would harm the interests of the Italian royal family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regardless of whether Spain and Italy stand on opposite sides in the future, Gao Da will do his best to preserve the Italian royal family after the war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Gao Da, the more monarchical countries in Europe, the more stable Spain's monarchy will be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for whether the kings of these monarchical countries have power, that is not what Gao Da cares about. Whether it is a king with real power or a king who is a figurehead, as long as they can maintain the facade of a monarchy, they can help the monarchy continue to persist in countries around the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If these European monarchical countries all perish, it would be inevitable for Spain to become a target of public criticism if it continues to maintain a monarchy in the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Gao Da is clear that Italy's behavior of taking out a large amount of funds to build a navy will eventually fall short, Gao Da will not take the initiative to remind the Italian government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On one hand, if Gao Da were to remind the Italian government, it would inevitably arouse the vigilance of the British government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other hand, the Italian government's losses have nothing to do with the Italian royal family, and Gao Da has no need to destroy his own strategic deployment for the sake of Italy's interests.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, no matter how much Italy loses, it is not as much as the British lose. Letting the Italian government suffer setbacks can also let them understand the gap between Italy and the top powers, so as not to make some confusing choices.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Italy's naval construction behavior can be called ignorant of the heights of the world, then Germany and France's choice to follow suit in building a navy is simply not fearing the British.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like the British, after learning that Spain was building a navy on a large scale, the German and French governments also held meetings to discuss it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them, the one that reacted most intensely was the French government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason is also very simple: Germany is not a Mediterranean country, while France is a Mediterranean country, and it is right next to Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether the Spanish Navy is powerful or not is not important to Germany; with the British blocking the way in the middle, the Spanish Navy cannot cross more than half of Europe to go to the Baltic Sea to threaten Germany's coastline.\u003C\u002Fp>",1978,"2026-06-25T09:27:15.200Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","661903d7729485ad8b00d3d86d70caffad7eb85d9b27f563703f0fac8d8dca8f","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-414","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-412",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]