[{"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-476":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},2365404,4632,"Chapter 476: South American Naval Arms Race","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-476",476,"\u003Cp>European nations generally regard the commissioning date of the Spanish battleship *Dreadnought* as the birth of the dreadnought era, and this point in time was only seven years ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In these seven years, European nations have been frantically building dreadnoughts, with the construction speeds of Britain and Spain being the most extravagant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Spain was the first country in the world to possess a dreadnought, looking at the current public naval data of various governments, Britain has already surpassed Spain in dreadnoughts, possessing a full 11 of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain only possesses 10 dreadnoughts; whether in terms of the number of dreadnoughts or total naval tonnage, it lags behind Britain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this does not mean the Spanish government has slacked off. On the contrary, Spain's speed in building dreadnoughts is actually no weaker than the British, but several dreadnoughts were sold to France and Italy, which resulted in Spain only having 10 dreadnoughts on paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In reality, however, the construction of Spain's new generation of dreadnoughts, the *Victor*-class battleships, is currently proceeding quite smoothly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The *Victor* and the *Peace* battleships have already completed construction; the former is expected to be officially commissioned early next year, and the latter can join the ranks of the Spanish Navy around the middle of next year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, in one year, Spain will possess 12 dreadnoughts, two of which will be super-dreadnoughts, and its naval strength will be no weaker than the British, even if Britain's total naval tonnage is twice that of Spain's.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Led by Spain and Britain, Europe is currently engaged in a grand naval arms race. Almost all major powers are building dreadnoughts, and even some countries without such great strength have ideas about these warships with such formidable combat power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This brings us to the country with the largest land area in South America, Brazil, which once belonged to the Portuguese colonies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Brazil's comprehensive strength is not much to speak of on a global scale, in the South American region, Brazil can still be considered a regional power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Brazilian government had originally ordered ordinary battleships, that is, pre-dreadnoughts, from the British government a few years ago. But when they learned that Britain already possessed mature dreadnought construction capabilities, they immediately changed their minds and informed the British government that they hoped to convert the pre-dreadnoughts originally agreed upon into dreadnoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brazil is far away in South America; even if they mastered dreadnoughts, it would have no impact on the British Empire. More importantly, converting the pre-dreadnoughts ordered by Brazil into dreadnoughts also has positive significance for the British naval department.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the conversion of the Brazilian warships can achieve significant success, then Britain can subsequently convert its existing pre-dreadnoughts, giving them firepower and propulsion at the dreadnought level, so that they would not be without any ability to resist when facing an enemy's dreadnoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a conversion naturally has flaws; increasing the caliber of the guns and the power units without increasing the tonnage of the warship results in the warship appearing somewhat incongruous, and its armor protection capability is certainly inferior to that of an orthodox dreadnought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, in terms of firepower and speed, it can still reach the level of a dreadnought, so there is actually no major problem in calling these converted warships dreadnoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Precisely because of this, Brazil suddenly acquired two *Minas Gerais*-class battleships this year, and its naval strength suddenly jumped to the top ten in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, a more accurate way to describe Brazil's top ten navy is tenth in the world. Brazil cannot compete with the countries ahead of it, but crushing the countries behind it is still no problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acquiring two dreadnoughts at once is certainly good news for Brazil, but for other countries in South America, especially for Brazil's main rivals, Chile and Argentina, it is not a good thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon learning that Brazil had acquired two dreadnoughts, the Chilean Congress quickly passed a resolution to allocate 4 million pounds to help the naval department build warships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The main content of this warship construction order is two dreadnoughts with a tonnage as high as 28,000 tons, six destroyers, and two submarines.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There is no need to overthink it; Chile's purpose in building a navy is to check and balance Brazil. Two 28,000-ton dreadnoughts are enough to surpass the *Minas Gerais*-class battleships possessed by Brazil; after all, the latter are products modified on the basis of pre-dreadnoughts and still have certain differences from true dreadnoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In order to obtain high-performance dreadnoughts to counter Brazil, the Chilean government conducted a wide-ranging tender, inviting famous naval shipyards from various European countries to provide rough designs and selecting the most satisfactory design to be handed over to the shipyard for construction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As one of the top two dreadnought-building countries, Spain naturally also received an invitation from the Chilean naval department.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regarding Chile's requirements, several of Spain's major shipyards were quite interested. Although Chile required the construction of battleships with a tonnage as high as 28,000 tons, they did not have excessive requirements for the warship's armor protection, gun caliber, or power units, only requiring them to reach the level of a dreadnought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a Spanish shipyard could secure this order, it could earn at least 1 million pounds in net profit. This is no small sum; even for a Spanish shipyard, this huge amount of capital would be tempting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, Spain's Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard both possess the ability to design and build dreadnoughts. Both shipyards participated in the Chilean naval tender, and ultimately, Spain's Royal Guanizo Shipyard won the bid and received the order from the Chilean naval department.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Valencia United Shipyard was also interested in this order, the shipyard was building *Victor*-class battleships for the Spanish Navy, and neither the delivery time of the warships nor the level of detail in the warship design could compare to the available Royal Guanizo Shipyard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Royal Guanizo Shipyard provided the Chilean Navy with a design for a naval warship that they could not refuse. These two battleships, named by the Chilean government as the *Admiral Latorre* and the *Admiral Cochrane*, had their main bodies referenced from Spain's *Dreadnought*-class battleships, but the overall design of the warships was enlarged and widened, and they were equipped with 343mm main guns of the same caliber as Spain's *Victor*-class battleships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the firepower was at the same level as Spain's *Victor*-class battleships, in terms of armor protection and propulsion, it was not as extravagant as the *Victor*-class battleships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, since they were building warships for Chile, there was no need for the Spanish shipyard to empty out its entire foundation; it still had to hide some more advanced technology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In terms of armor protection, the armor of Chile's two dreadnoughts was thinner, which was also to accommodate the speed of the dreadnoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This improved battleship, which had been lengthened and widened, had a standard displacement exceeding 25,000 tons and a full-load displacement approaching 30,000 tons; it was a proper super-giant ship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But because it was improved from Spain's *Dreadnought*-class battleships, there were not many improvements in terms of propulsion equipment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the armor were not made as thin as possible, the speed of this battleship might not have met the requirements for a dreadnought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, even if the armor were thinner, it would still be better than the two pseudo-dreadnoughts that Brazil had converted from pre-dreadnoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>",1239,"2026-06-25T09:27:15.200Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","f945348108c7200b1e01749480a0065c44e53798c63b9220c2e5cdc3a5035dca","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-477","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-475",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]