The "We Want Eight" panic then ensued, and six battleships and two battlecruisers were ordered in the 1909 program. By 1909 it was suddenly realized that the Germans were going to be building 10 Dreadnoughts against the 8 British ones that had been ordered up to then. The new Liberal government in 1905 cut back on battleship orders. While the British could indeed outbuild the Germans, they stumbled through attempts at economy. Japan had two, was building two, and would soon have four advanced Kongo battlecruisers. However, France, Austria, Russia, and Italy all had just four modern Dreadnoughts. Japan was on the verge of passing France to have the fourth largest navy, and Austria had a larger navy than either Russia or Italy. By 1914, Germany had indeed vaulted to the second largest navy in the world. Spain, Turkey, Sweden, Brazil, etc.) were considered only "coastal defense" navies. Then Russia, Italy, and Austria were the sixth, seventh, and eighth of the major powers, respectively. The United States was second, behind Britain, followed by France and Japan. In Jane's Fighting Ships of 1906, Germany was still ranked as only fifth among naval powers. The Dreadnought iself was built in a year. As it happened, the essential design shift, all big guns, had already been planned by the Americans, though the South Carolina ships were only built very slowly, not being finished until 1910. The British simply figured that they could build faster than the Germans, which they could. The naval race thus started was therefore only five years old when Britain, with the building of the Dreadnought, reset the whole process to zero. Then, because of German identification with and interference in the Boer War (1899-1902), this program was doubled in 1900, with a clearly hostile intent toward Britain. German advocates of naval power, like Admiral Tirpitz and Kaiser Wilhelm, who wanted to have a navy like his grandmother, Queen Victoria, got a serious building program launched in 1898. Some real hostility was soon found in Germany, however. No real hosility was behind the American effort, however, and it proceeded in a leisurely way, as only one more ship was authorized in 1892 (BB4 Iowa) and two more in 1895 (BB5 Kearsarge, the only battleship not named after a state but instead after the Union ship that had sunk the Confederate raider Alabama in the Civil War, and BB6 Kentucky). Thus, the United States authorized its first three proper modern battleships in 1890 (BB1 Indiana, BB2 Massachusetts, and BB3 Oregon). This inspired several states to invest more seriously in warships than they had previously, most significantly the (Mahan's own) United States, Japan, and Germany. In 1890, however, Alfred Thayer Mahan's book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 was published, examining how the British used the Royal Navy to obtain control of the seas and establish the Pax Britannica dominance that they enjoyed in the 19th century. In 1889, after some war scares over Russia, Britain had adopted a "two power standard," by which the Royal Navy should be at least as large as any other two navies (mainly meaning France and Russia).Īdmiralty Arch, London, completed 1912 2005 Hitherto, France and Russia, followed by Italy, were Britain's main concern. In the 1890's Britain had acquired a number of competitors for its supreme status on the seas. The Dreadnought now had ten (though only a broadside of eight), and it was bigger and faster (21 knots, against 18). Pre-Dreadnought battleships all had a main battery of four guns. The lessons of the Battle of Tsushima between Russia and Japan in 1905, however, where long range fire had decided the battle, inspired the radical design of the British Dreadnought. The tradition of the Royal Navy had always been not to push innovation itself, which tended to devalue existing ships, but only to respond to innovations made by others. The first table below compares the building programs of Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and Japan in "Dreadnought," i.e. Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:īritons never, never, never will be slaves. Great Britain and Germany, the United States and Japan The epic arms race of battleships between Dreadnought, Pre-Dreadnoughts, States & Rivers, the Treaty Cruisers
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