Rise of Australia

Chapter 262 The German Dreadnoughts and the Establishment of the Allies
The cabinet meeting lasted for a long time, and also discussed the future development plans of various departments, and solved some problems in the current development.

For example, the people's livelihood department's proposal for a new policy to benefit the people, because it involves more than 700 million Australasians, this also means that the cost of the new proposal is not a small figure.

According to the estimate of the Ministry of Finance, the new policy will increase financial investment by at least 500 million Australian dollars each year, so the cabinet's support for the new policy is also divided into two factions.

But in the end, under Arthur's decision, the implementation plan of the new policy was determined.

Then there is the issue of the Ministry of Defense.With a new minister of the Ministry of Defense, it is bound to take some time to get acquainted with the current army of the Ministry of Defense.

Because the navy is about to usher in a large-scale expansion, under Arthur's proposition, the Ministry of Defense established the Ministry of the Army and the Ministry of the Navy to manage the army and navy systems respectively.

As for the current small-scale aviation system, it is temporarily divided under the army's banner.

After successive expansions of the army and navy, the Ministry of Defense has also become the bulk of Australasia's financial expenditure.

According to the report of the Ministry of Defense this year, the military expenditure of Australasia will reach a new high this year, at least 400 million Australian dollars.

A small half of this is the salaries of soldiers, plus the equipment, weapons and ammunition needed for soldier training, as well as the construction and maintenance of the navy, etc., forming a huge figure of nearly 700 million pounds.

However, military expenditure is the last thing to save and should not be saved, so even if the defense department applied for additional military expenditure again, Arthur gritted his teeth and agreed.

With such a combination of spending by several departments, a large financial loss this year is definitely inevitable.

But after all, it is the golden time for the country's development, and the available funds of the Ministry of Finance are still very rich, so there are not too many financial worries for the time being.

In addition, Arthur also assigned tasks to several new positions, allowing them to master their respective positions as soon as possible and devote themselves to work as quickly as possible.

For Australasia, if there is nothing to do around, then the best choice is to quickly invest in development.

Arthur knew that the real opportunity was the future World War I and World War II, and the others could only be regarded as small troubles.

The cabinet meeting finally ended with Arthur's order, and the various departments and cabinet ministers also devoted themselves to their work.

As time came to September, a piece of news completely detonated European public opinion, making Europe, which has attracted much attention, even more popular.

Since the birth of the battleship Dreadnought, the advanced and powerful battleship Dreadnought has attracted the attention of all countries in the world.

This also gave the British Empire a good show. Who made them the builders of dreadnoughts?

To say that there is the only country in Europe that can challenge the British Empire in all aspects, then the German Empire deserves it.

Although the German Empire is only a few decades away from national reunification, no one can deny the strength of the German nation, and quickly created a world hegemon with the first army and the second navy.

Since the birth of the dreadnought, Germany quickly came up with its own dreadnought technology, that is, the Nassau-class battleship that was originally expected in history but was actually useless.

If the dreadnought is an all-round improvement of the old battleships, then the Nassau-class battleships are just old-fashioned battleships with a little bit of power and armor protection.

The Germans cautiously did not adopt new steam boilers, coupled with the lack of attention to large-caliber artillery, resulting in the Nassau-class battleship's artillery caliber being only 283 mm, which is far lower than the dreadnought's 305 mm main gun.

Even if the German 283mm main gun has been strengthened to a certain extent and the firing frequency is faster, its lethality and damage are far inferior to the 305mm main gun. This is the real reason why the Nassau-class battleships lag behind the dreadnoughts.

But now is far from the same as in history.The Germans mastered the new dreadnought design from Australasia, which also contrasted the Nassau-class battleships with the Sovereign-class battleships.

The Germans were surprised to find that the Nassau-class battleships were comparable in armor protection capability to the Sovereign-class battleships, but their theoretical artillery output capability and speed were slightly inferior.

The Sovereign-class battleship is a dreadnought designed with reference to German and British warships. Doesn't this mean that there is also a gap between the Nassau-class battleship and the Dreadnought?
Such a stark contrast quickly alarmed William II, and under the order of William II, the construction plan of two Nassau-class battleships, a total of four ships per year, was directly cut in half, and the remaining two ships were all given to Sovereign-class battleship.

Although the Sovereign-class battleship was not designed by the Germans, it also used a lot of German technology, and with the help of drawings and detailed materials, it is not difficult for German experts to quickly master such technology.

根据德国1906和1907年的造舰计划，两艘君主级战列舰莱茵兰号和波森号分别在1908年8月和1908年9月竣工，让德意志帝国成为世界上第二个拥有无畏舰的国家。

The Germans' pen is not small, and they immediately owned two dreadnoughts.The British Bellerophon-class battleship has a total of three shipbuilding plans, but even the earliest Bellerophon battleship will be completed around February 1909.

This caused Germany to suddenly overtake the United Kingdom and become the country with the largest number of dreadnoughts in the world.

The importance of the dreadnought naturally goes without saying.The navy is the standard to measure the strength of a country.If you look closely at all the great powers, all of them are maritime powers with sufficient naval forces.

Even a late power like Italy has the sixth largest navy in the world.

Needless to say, the Italian army's combat effectiveness is not even as good as that of some second-strong countries.

The criterion for becoming a great power country is whether its naval strength can enter the level of a great power, that is, the top eight in the world.

In other words, the previous battleships and the current dreadnoughts are a country's ticket to enter the great powers, and it is also the main condition for whether it can be truly taken seriously.

If it is said that Germany has been catching up with the United Kingdom before, then at least recently, Germany has achieved catch-up in terms of dreadnoughts.

This makes Germany's limelight the same for a while, and even some European people and small countries are already discussing when Germany will catch up with the United Kingdom.

This makes it unacceptable to Britain, and what is even more unacceptable is that Russia is getting closer to Germany. There are even rumors that Nicholas II wants to sign a further non-aggression treaty with Germany.

At present, the momentum in continental Europe has clearly shifted towards Germany. This is the opinion of quite a few small countries and European people.

Take a closer look at the two major blocs currently facing each other in Europe. The Allies have the German Empire, the absolute overlord with the largest army and the second largest navy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a powerful army, and the Kingdom of Italy, which has the sixth largest navy in the world. These three countries are enough Dominate the world.

As for the Allied Powers, Russia did not join the Allied Powers because of the approaching of Germany and Russia and the alienation of France and Russia.

Although the treaty with France is still maintained, the conflict between Britain and Russia has put France in a dilemma.

Although France has signed treaties with Britain and Russia, Russia and Germany also have neutrality treaties.

Can Britain and France alone really stop the alliance of the three great powers of Germany, Austria and Italy?Not really.

After all, no matter how powerful Britain is, it also belongs to the navy.France is a country located on the European continent and is threatened by the German Army at any time.

No matter how powerful the British navy is, it can't go ashore to fight the German army, right?Moreover, Germany has already surpassed the United Kingdom in dreadnoughts, and it is not certain who will have a stronger navy in the future.

Under various signs, the Allies have firmly suppressed the Allied Powers in the limelight, and even some small countries that were originally friends with the Allied Powers have kept silent for fear of causing trouble to the upper body.

Such a situation is not acceptable to the British. If the expansion of the Allied Powers is not vigorously promoted, Europe in a few years may be dominated by the Allied Powers.

The British cabinet held a long meeting for this, and Edward VII also appeared and said something that woke up the British cabinet: "Don't forget who is our biggest enemy. If Germany cannot be solved, then everything in Britain will disappear. .”

On September 1908, 9, Britain formally sent a note to Russia, starting the peace talks between the two sides on a series of contradictions.

Although I don't know what the content of the negotiations between the two parties was, on September 1908, 9, the two countries first signed the "Treaty of Understanding". The two sides chose to forget the previous contradictions and become a peaceful and friendly country again.

Then on September 9, the heads of state of Britain, France, and Russia met. In order to express their sincerity, the location of the meeting was chosen in St. Petersburg, which greatly satisfied the Russians.

On September 9, the "British-Russian Entente" was officially signed. The British expressed compromises to Russia in many areas, and even promised that as long as Russia turned its attention back to Europe, Britain would temporarily give up its support for the island nation.

The details of the various treaties have not been made public, but the Anglo-Russian agreement completely reversed the situation in Europe.

After the signing of the agreement, the British publicly stated that the conflict between them and Russia no longer exists, and Britain, France and Russia will make joint efforts for peace and tranquility in Europe.

The goals of these three countries needless to say, except for the German Empire, which was in the limelight some time ago, there is no other country that can make these three powerful countries abandon their previous suspicions and unite.

Due to the mutual understanding between Britain and Russia, the Allied Powers were formally established. The three countries of Britain, France and Russia did have the strength to fight against the Allies, both in terms of influence and real strength.

The British used their diplomatic means and influence to let the whole world understand who is the hegemon of the world.

After William II heard that the Anglo-Russian agreement was signed, he fell into a brief silence.

He once thought that he had successfully won over Russia, but he didn't expect to be pried into a corner by Britain at this moment.

But there is no way. As the current world hegemon, Britain has a strong influence in all major regions, and it can benefit Russia more.

The friendship between countries is more about interests. William II believed that if he was Nicholas II, he would do the same for the interests of the country.

All of a sudden, politicians and small countries close to the Allied Powers emerged one after another, as if the previous silence did not exist.

After Europe entered the heyday of the Allies, it entered the heyday of the Allies in a short period of time.

Arthur shook his head helplessly in Australasia. Unexpectedly, the wheels of history were still going back and forth, and the respective countries of the two major military groups still chose the path in history after all.

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(End of this chapter)