Chapter 262: Germany's Dreadnoughts and the Formation of the Allies

The cabinet meeting lasted for a long time, and discussed the future development plans of multiple departments and solved some problems in the current development.

For example, the proposal of the new people-friendly policy of the livelihood department involves more than 7 million Australians, which means that the cost of the new proposal is not a small number.

According to the estimation of the Ministry of Finance, the new policy will increase the financial investment by at least 5 million Australian dollars each year, so the cabinet's support for the new policy is also divided into two factions.

However, in the end, Arthur decided to implement the new policy.

There is also the issue of the Ministry of Defense. With a new minister of the Ministry of Defense, it will take some time to get familiar with the current military of the Ministry of Defense.

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

As for the aviation system, which is not large at present, it is temporarily divided under the army.

After the expansion of the army and navy, the Ministry of Defense has also become the bulk of Australasia's fiscal expenditure.

According to this year's report of the Ministry of Defense, Australasia's military expenditure this year will reach a new high, at least 14 million Australian dollars.

A small half of this is the soldiers' salary, plus the equipment and weapons and ammunition needed for soldiers' training, as well as the construction and maintenance of the navy, etc., which constitutes a huge figure of nearly 7 million pounds.

However, military expenses are the most important thing that cannot and should not be saved, so even if the defense department applied for additional military expenses again, Arthur still gritted his teeth and agreed.

After several departments spent so much, a large fiscal loss this year is inevitable.

However, after all, it is the golden time for national development, and the current available funds of the Ministry of Finance are still very abundant, 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 going on around, then the best choice is to quickly devote themselves to development.

Arthur knows that the real opportunity is the future World War I and World War II, and the others can only be regarded as minor fights.

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

As time came to September, a piece of news completely ignited European public opinion, making the highly concerned Europe even more popular.

Since the birth of the HMS Dreadnought, this advanced and powerful battleship has attracted much attention from countries around the world.

This also made the British Empire a big hit, because they were the builders of the dreadnought?

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

Although the German Empire has only been a few decades away from national unification, no one can deny the strength of the German nation, which 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, which was the Nassau-class battleship that was originally highly expected in history but actually had no use.

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

The Germans were cautious about not adopting new steam boilers, and coupled with the lack of attention to large-caliber artillery, the caliber of the Nassau-class battleships was only 283 mm, far lower than the 305 mm main guns of the dreadnoughts.

Even though the Germans' 283 mm main guns have been strengthened to a certain extent and the firing frequency is a little faster, the lethality and degree of destruction are far less than the 305 mm main guns, which is the real reason why the Nassau-class battleships lag behind the dreadnoughts.

But now is far different from history. The Germans mastered the new dreadnought design from Australasia, which also made the Nassau-class battleships and the Monarch-class battleships form a contrast.

The Germans were surprised to find that in addition to the armor protection capability of the Nassau-class battleships being comparable to the Monarch-class battleships, the theoretical artillery output capability and speed were slightly inferior.

The Monarch-class battleships were dreadnoughts designed with reference to German and British warships. Doesn't this mean that there is also a gap between the Nassau-class battleships and the Dreadnought battleships?

Such a sharp contrast soon alarmed William II, and under his order, the original plan to build two Nassau-class battleships per year, a total of four ships, was directly cut in half, and the remaining two places were all given to the Monarch-class battleships.

Although the Monarch-class battleships were not designed by the Germans, they also used a lot of German technology. With the help of drawings and detailed information, it was not difficult for German experts to quickly master such technology.

According to Germany's shipbuilding plans in 1906 and 1907, the two Monarch-class battleships Rheinland and Posen were completed in August 1908 and September 1908 respectively, making the German Empire the second country in the world to have dreadnoughts.

The Germans' hand is not small, and they have two dreadnoughts at once. The British planned to build three Bellerophon-class battleships, but even the earliest Bellerophon battleship was completed around February 1909.

This caused Germany to surpass Britain and become the country with the largest number of dreadnoughts in the world.

The importance of dreadnoughts is self-evident. The navy is the standard for measuring whether a country is strong or not. Looking closely at all the great powers, all of them are maritime powers with a navy of sufficient size.

Even Italy, the last great power, has a navy that ranks sixth in the world.

And Italy's army is self-evident, and its combat effectiveness is even worse than that of some second-strong countries.

The standard for becoming a great power is whether its naval strength can reach the level of the great powers, that is, the top eight in the world.

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

If Germany has been catching up with Britain before, then at least in recent times, Germany has surpassed Britain in terms of dreadnoughts.

This has made Germany the most popular country, and even some European people and small countries have been discussing when Germany will surpass Britain.

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

At present, the momentum of the European continent has obviously leaned towards Germany. This is the view of quite a few small countries and European people.

Looking closely at the two major groups currently confronting each other in Europe, the Allies have the German Empire, the absolute hegemon with the first army and the second navy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a strong army and the Kingdom of Italy, the sixth in the world in terms of navy. These three countries are enough to dominate the world.

As for the Allies, Russia did not join the Allies because of the approach of Germany and Russia and the alienation of France and Russia.

Although it still maintains the entente with France, the conflict between Britain and Russia has put France in a dilemma.

Although France has signed ententes with Britain and Russia respectively, Russia and Germany also have a neutrality treaty.

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

After all, no matter how powerful Britain is, it is also in the navy. France is a country located in continental Europe and is threatened by the German army at any time.

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

Under various signs, the Allies have firmly suppressed the Allies in the limelight, and even some small countries that were originally friendly with the Allies have kept silent for fear of getting into trouble.

Such a situation is not acceptable to the British. If the expansion of the Allies is not vigorously promoted, Europe will probably be dominated by the Allies in a few years.

The British Cabinet held a long meeting for this purpose, and Edward VII also appeared and said a sentence that awakened the British Cabinet: "Don't forget who is our biggest enemy. If Germany cannot be resolved, then everything in Britain will disappear."

On September 7, 1908, Britain formally notified Russia and started peace talks between the two sides on a series of contradictions.

Although it is not known what the negotiations between the two sides are about, on September 17, 1908, the two countries first signed the "Treaty of Understanding". Both sides chose to forget the previous contradictions and become a peaceful and friendly country again.

Then on September 19, the heads of state of Britain, France and Russia met. In order to express their sincerity, the meeting place was chosen in St. Petersburg, which made the Russians very satisfied.

On September 23, the Anglo-Russian Treaty was officially signed. The British compromised with Russia in many areas and even promised that as long as Russia would focus on Europe, Britain would temporarily give up its support for the island country.

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

After the signing of the treaty, the British publicly stated that their contradictions with Russia no longer existed, and Britain, France and Russia would make joint efforts for peace and tranquility in Europe.

Needless to say, the goals of these three countries, except for the German Empire, which was in the limelight some time ago, no other country could make these three powerful countries put aside their past grudges and unite together.

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

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

After hearing that the Anglo-Russian Treaty was signed, William II fell into a brief silence.

He once thought that he had successfully won over Russia, but he didn't expect that Britain would still steal his corner at this moment.

But there was no way. As the current world hegemon, Britain had a strong influence in all major regions, and could bring more benefits to Russia.

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

For a while, politicians and small countries close to the Allies emerged one after another, as if the previous silence did not exist.

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

Arthur shook his head helplessly in Australasia. He didn't expect that the wheel of history would still go back and forth, and the countries of the two major military groups would eventually choose the path in history.

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