Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 613 Oil
Although the design of the aircraft carrier by the Royal Guanizo shipyard in Spain was somewhat bold, after Carlo saw the design, he quickly determined that it was a feasible design and asked the Royal Guanizo shipyard to build the first ship based on the design for testing.

Carlos is quite satisfied with the progress Spain has made in aircraft carrier development. Historically, the first country to possess an aircraft carrier should be Britain. In the later stages of World War I, around 1917-1918, Britain built the world's first aircraft carrier by converting cruisers.

However, such an aircraft carrier design was quite rudimentary and had many flaws. This is why, although aircraft carriers were born during World War I, they did not become combat-ready until World War II.

The development of aircraft carriers in European countries today is significantly slower than in history. It wasn't until near the end of the World Wars that European countries began to pay attention to aircraft.

To see aircraft carriers built in European countries, we must wait until they have fully mastered aircraft technology and developed first-class aircraft.

Even the UK today has not reached the level of aircraft carrier development seen in the same historical period. This is even more true for other European countries, some of which have no concept of aircraft carriers whatsoever, and their naval construction remains primarily focused on battleships.

This also means that Spain has completely taken the lead over European countries in terms of aircraft carriers. Needless to say, other countries outside Europe, including the United States, must lag behind European nations.

With Carlo's approval, the government's relevant approval process proceeded quickly, and the funds were soon paid to the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard.

With ample funding and strong government support, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard was able to build the first aircraft carrier quite quickly.

Compared to battleships, aircraft carriers do not require as long a construction period. This is partly because aircraft carriers discard almost all weapons, retaining only a small number of anti-aircraft weapons to deal with threats.

On the other hand, the tonnage of an aircraft carrier is far inferior to that of a battleship. The estimated displacement of the aircraft carrier currently under construction in Spain is between 1.1 and 1.3 tons.

It should be noted that as early as the beginning of the World War, European countries had already built super dreadnoughts with a displacement of 2 tons.

Today's aircraft carriers are only half the size of super dreadnoughts. This not only means that aircraft carriers are cheaper to build, but also that the construction of such warships is unlikely to attract the attention of other European countries.

With warships built by major powers generally exceeding 20,000 tons, Spain's warships, with a displacement of just over 10,000 tons, would not attract special attention from Britain and France.

This also means that as long as Spain maintains secrecy, it can ensure that it can maintain its lead in aircraft carriers.

By the time European countries, led by Britain and France, officially began researching aircraft carriers, Spain's aircraft carriers had already been launched and had a new generation design. It was no longer so easy for Britain and France to catch up with Spain.

Carlo has high expectations for the aircraft carrier currently under construction. This aircraft carrier is 181.6 meters long, 22.4 meters wide, and has a draft of 5.8 meters.

According to the design of aircraft carriers, under normal circumstances, an entire aircraft carrier can carry about 20 aircraft. Even when fully loaded, an aircraft carrier still has extremely high speed, sometimes even exceeding that of a super dreadnought.

The reason is simple. Although the super dreadnought has a large number of power modules, the dreadnought itself is too large and too heavy.

While the propulsion system of an aircraft carrier is not as extravagant as that of a super dreadnought, the aircraft carrier itself is smaller in size and its tonnage is far less than that of a super dreadnought.

Under these circumstances, the aircraft carrier's speed was greatly increased. According to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard's estimates for this aircraft carrier, under normal circumstances, the carrier's expected speed could reach approximately 26 knots, which is quite fast compared to both cruisers and battleships.

Aircraft carriers are extremely important to Spain today, as they enhance Spain's firepower and pose a threat to more countries.

With a strike range of only a few hundred kilometers, the Spanish aircraft, with the support of an aircraft carrier, could even threaten the United States across the ocean.

Of course, aircraft also provide a significant boost to aircraft carriers. With the help of aircraft, aircraft carriers can detect enemies hundreds of kilometers away, allowing them to prepare adequately for a countermeasure.

With such a wide field of vision, enemy warships could not threaten the Spanish aircraft carrier at all, while the aircraft carried by the Spanish aircraft carrier could threaten enemy warships from hundreds of kilometers away.

The advantages of aircraft carriers clearly demonstrate their role; they are essentially the bane of battleships. No matter how advanced modern battleships become, their firepower coverage remains limited to a range of only a few dozen kilometers.

When facing aircraft carriers, battleships were mostly left to passively defend themselves. Although battleships possessed extremely superior armor protection, at that time, most countries' battleship designs were primarily aimed at defending against threats from the surrounding seas.

Current battleships lack adequate countermeasures against aerial threats. In a naval battle, if a battleship is detected by an aircraft carrier from a distance, even with its thick armor, it will ultimately be outnumbered and likely sunk by enemy aircraft. While battleships can easily destroy many aircraft, the cost of building them is vastly different.

A new battleship often costs millions of pounds, while an aircraft can cost anywhere from several thousand to tens of thousands of pounds.

This also means that a battleship must destroy hundreds of aircraft before it sinks in order to ensure that it does not lose money.

Such a kill ratio is simply impossible to achieve. Even if battleships have anti-aircraft weapons, aircraft are not to be underestimated and cannot simply remain airborne for the enemy to target.

For the side that owns aircraft carriers, sinking a battleship with just a few aircraft is a very worthwhile deal.

Besides the different costs of aircraft and battleships, the vastly different construction times are also a significant factor.

Even if a battleship can destroy dozens of aircraft, so what? With full industrial capacity, dozens of aircraft can be built in less than a week.

The construction time for a battleship is at least two years, which means that in this exchange of combat power, the battleship side is completely at a loss.

If it weren't for the fact that current aircraft carrier designs still need to be tested to determine their combat effectiveness, Carlo would have liked to build several aircraft carriers at once to increase the strength of the Spanish Navy.

Although the British Royal Navy still holds the title of the world's number one navy on the surface, the Spanish Navy is no weaker than the British Royal Navy and is challenging Britain's position as the world's number one navy.

Now that Spain has established sufficient military strength, some of its wealth can be made public, such as the rich oil reserves in the Middle East, which can now be gradually monetized to generate substantial foreign exchange earnings for Spain.

After the World War, Spain took over all of Britain's colonies along the Persian Gulf, thus becoming the country with the richest oil reserves.

However, for the sake of stability, Carlo has never disclosed the Middle East's abundant oil reserves, which naturally remain unexploited.

With the advancement of technology, people's demand for oil has increased significantly. In the last century, oil's main function was as the primary fuel for kerosene lamps, which resulted in a very low price for oil, and countries did not pay much attention to the oil industry.

It wasn't until the invention of the automobile, coupled with advancements in internal combustion engine technology, that people began to take petroleum seriously.

Today's oil prices have changed dramatically compared to the last century. Spain's domestic oil reserves are relatively scarce, which is why Carlos hopes to tap into Middle Eastern oil at this time.

By investing in the oil industry early, Spanish oil companies could dominate a large portion of the global oil market.

The abundant oil reserves along the Persian Gulf coast ensure that Spain will never have to worry about oil production. With Spain's own strong capabilities, the Middle East's rich oil reserves will bring Spain a lot of revenue, indirectly accelerating Spain's economic development.

Today, no country in the Middle East can rival Spain. With only Yemen remaining as a British colony in the southernmost part of the peninsula, they are no longer qualified to compete with Spain for Middle Eastern oil.

Countries like the United States and Russia, needless to say, are in a state of considerable domestic chaos, barely able to save themselves.

France's sphere of influence is too far from the Middle East, and its strength is significantly weaker than that of Spain.

Unless Britain and France join forces, no country can threaten Spain's dominance in the Middle East. But will Britain and France really unite against Spain for the sake of Middle Eastern oil?
Carlo wasn't actually sure. But if Britain and France really did join forces, Carlo had a way to deal with it.

If Britain and France joined forces, Carlo wouldn't mind funding Germany's rise and helping it launch World War II. At worst, he could use World War II as an opportunity to thoroughly weaken Britain and France, making Spain the most powerful nation in Europe and solidifying its dominance.

Moreover, Britain and France may not necessarily join forces. Carlo will not reveal all the oil reserves in the Middle East at once; he will only select some oil fields with suitable reserves and develop them openly and legitimately.

If such a tiny amount of oil reserves can trigger a joint response from Britain and France, then Carlo can only say that the British and French governments are indeed too greedy, and it is indeed necessary to punish them severely.

(End of this chapter)