The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 296: Chapter 261: Germany's Dreadnoughts and the Formation of the Allies

The Cabinet Meeting lasted a long time, discussing the future developmt plans for several departmts and resolving some issues in the currt developmt.

For example, the new proposal for the people's livelihood policy in the Departmt of Civil Affairs, which involves more than sev million Australasians, also means that the cost of the new proposal is not a small amount.

According to the Ministry of Finance's estimate, the new policy will require at least an additional 5 million Australian dollars in fiscal input every year. Therefore, the Cabinet's attitude towards the new policy is divided into two factions.

However, in the d, it was Arthur who decided on the implemtation plan for the new policy.

Another issue is the Ministry of Defse. With a new Minister in place, he will inevitably need some time to familiarize himself with the currt military under the Ministry of Defse.

Since the navy is about to undergo a large-scale expansion, at Arthur's suggestion, the Ministry of Defse has established an Army Departmt and a Navy Departmt, each responsible for managing the Army and Navy systems.

As for the currt small-scale aviation system, it is temporarily assigned to the Army.

With the concurrt expansion of the Army and Navy, the Ministry of Defse has become the largest expditure in Australasia's fiscal budget.

According to this year's report from the Ministry of Defse, the military expditure of Australasia will reach a new high this year, with at least fourte million Australian dollars.

About half of this consists of soldiers' salaries, equipmt and weaponry needed for soldiers' training, and the construction and maintance of the navy, totaling nearly sev million pounds.

However, military expditure is the least and least willing to be saved. Therefore, ev if the Ministry of Defce applied for additional military expditure once again, Arthur still gritted his teeth and agreed.

After several departmts spt so much, it is inevitable that this year's fiscal deficit will be significant.

However, it is the gold time for national developmt, and the currt available funds in the Ministry of Finance are still quite abundant. Therefore, there are no temporary worries about funding issues.

Moreover, Arthur assigned tasks to several new positions, asking them to quickly grasp their respective positions and devote themselves to their work as soon as possible.

For Australasia, if the surings are peaceful, the best choice is to quickly turn to developmt.

Arthur is aware that the real opportunities lie in the future World War I and World War II, while everything else would only be considered minor skirmishes.

The Cabinet Meeting finally ded with Arthur's order, and the various departmts and Cabinet Ministers devoted themselves to their work.

As time came to September, news once again set off a shatter in European public opinion, making the already highly focused European situation ev more intse.

Ever since the birth of the Dreadnought-class battleship, dreadnought battleships, advanced and powerful, have received widespread atttion from a the world.

This also allowed the British Empire to show off, as they were the ones who built the dreadnought.

If there were only one country in Europe capable of challging the British Empire in all aspects, it would undoubtedly be the German Empire.

Although it had only be a few decades since the German Empire's unification, no one could dy the strgth of the German nation, which quickly established itself as a world superpower with the strongest Army and the second strongest Navy.

Following the birth of the dreadnought, Germany quickly brought out its own dreadnought technology, which was the historically anticipated but, in reality, not very useful Nassau-class battleship.

If the dreadnought can be said to be a full-scale improvemt over the old battleships, the Nassau-class battleship is merely an old battleship with slightly hanced power and armor protection.

The Germans cautiously did not adopt the new steam boilers, and their lack of atttion to large-caliber artillery resulted in the Nassau-class battleship having a gun caliber of only 83 millimeters, far lower than the Dreadnought's 305 millimeter primary artillery.

Although the Germans' 83mm main gun had be somewhat reinforced, with a faster firing rate, its destructive power and effect were far less than the 305mm primary artillery. This was the real reason why the Nassau-class battleship lagged behind the dreadnought.

But now it is vastly differt from history. The Germans have acquired new dreadnought designs from Australasia, contrasting the Nassau-class battleship with the Monarch-class battleship.

The Germans were surprised to discover that, apart from the armor protection capability of the Nassau-class battleship which is comparable to the Monarch-class battleship, the theoretical firepower output and speed are slightly inferior.

And the Monarch-class battleship is a dreadnought designed with referce to German and British warships, which means there is a gap betwe the Nassau-class battleship and the Dreadnought-class battleship, right?

This stark contrast quickly alarmed William II, and at his command, the original plan to build two Nassau-class battleships every year, a total of four, was cut in half, and the remaining two slots were allocated to the Monarch-class battleship.

Although the Monarch-class battleship was not designed by the Germans, it employed many German technologies. With the help of blueprints and detailed information, it was not difficult for German experts to quickly master this technology.

According to the German 906 and 907 shipbuilding plans, the two Monarch-class battleships Rhine and Pos were completed in August 908 and September 908, respectively, making the German Empire the second country in the world to have a dreadnought.

The Germans were not modest, suddly having two dreadnoughts. The British Bellerophon-class battleship construction plan totaled three ships, but ev the first Bellerophon battleship would not be completed until a February 909.

This caused Germany to suddly overtake Britain and become the country with the most dreadnought equipmt in the world currtly.

The significance of the dreadnought is, of course, self-evidt. The navy is the standard for measuring a country's strgth. Looking at all powerful nations, they are all maritime powers with sizable navies.

Ev a lesser power like Italy has the sixth strongest navy in the world.

As for Italy's army, it does not need much explanation; its manifested combat power is ev inferior to that of some secondary-power countries.

The standard for becoming a major power is whether the country's naval strgth can reach the level of major powers, that is, the top eight in the world.

In other words, the older battleships and the currt dreadnoughts are a country's ticket to joining the major powers and the primary condition for being tak seriously.

If Germany had be on the chase for Britain before, it is at least now that Germany has overtak the UK in terms of dreadnoughts in the rect period.

This has left Germany unrivaled for a time, and ev some European citizs and small countries are discussing wh Germany will surpass Britain.

This is unacceptable to the British, and what is ev more intolerable is that Russia is moving closer to Germany, and there are ev rumors that Nicholas II wants to sign a further non-aggression pact with Germany.

At prest, the momtum on the European contint has clearly shifted towards Germany, which is the view of quite a few small countries and European citizs.

Looking closely at the two opposing groups in Europe, the allies have the German Empire, which is currtly an absolute hegemon in the army and second in the navy, as well as the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy with the sixth strongest navy in the world. These three countries are ough to dominate the world.

Meanwhile, the Entte did not join Russia, because of the German-Russian rapprochemt and the Frch-Russian estrangemt.

Although they still maintain a pact with France, the conflict betwe Britain and Russia has put France in a dilemma.

At prest, France has signed separate agreemts with Britain and Russia, but Russia and Germany also have a neutrality treaty.

Can Britain and France alone really stop the alliance of the three major powers of Germany, Austria, and Italy? It is really uncertain.

After all, powerful as Britain is, it is in the realm of naval strgth. France in the European contint is always under threat from the German army.

No matter how powerful the British navy is, it cannot land and fight the German army, can it? And at prest, Germany has overtak Britain in dreadnoughts, so it is not certain which country will have a stronger navy in the future.

Under various signs, the allies have firmly suppressed the Entte in terms of momtum, and some small countries that had a good relationship with the Entte have also closed their mouths, fearing that they would bring disaster upon themselves.

This situation is not acceptable to the British. If they do not vigorously promote the expansion of the Entte, the European contint may be dominated by the allies in a few years.

The British Cabinet has held a long meeting, and ev Edward VII appeared, saying a commt that will awak the British Cabinet: "Do not forget who our biggest emy is. If we cannot solve Germany, th everything great about Britain will vanish."

On September 7, 908, Britain formally made an inquiry to Russia, initiating a series of peace talks betwe the two sides on a series of contradictions.

Although it is not clear what the contt of the talks betwe the two sides actually was, on September 7, 908, the two countries signed the "Agreemt Treaty," with the two sides choosing to forget the previous conflicts and become a peaceful and fridly country again.

Afterward, on September 9, the heads of Britain, France, and Russia held talks. In order to express their respective sincerity, the talks were held in Saint Petersburg, which greatly pleased the Russians.

On September 3, the "Anglo-Russian Agreemt" was formally signed. The British made concessions to Russia in several areas, ev promising that as long as Russia shifts its atttion back to Europe, Britain will temporarily abandon its support for the island nation.

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

After the signing of the agreemt, the British oply stated that their conflicts with Russia no longer exist, and Britain, France, and Russia will jointly make efforts for peace and tranquility in Europe.

The goal of these three countries is, of course, quite clear: apart from the rectly resurgt German Empire, no other country could make these three great powers abandon their past grievances and join together.

Due to the understanding betwe Britain and Russia, the Entte was officially established. Britain, France, and Russia now have both the influce and the real power to stand up against the allies.

The British have used their diplomatic means and influce to let the whole world understand who the true ruler of this world is.

Upon hearing of the signing of the Anglo-Russian Agreemt, William II was momtarily silt.

He had thought that he had successfully won over Russia, but at this momt, the British have turned the tables.

However, there was no way out. As the currt world hegemon, Britain has a strong influce in all major regions and can provide more befits to Russia.

Relations betwe countries are largely based on interests, and William II admits that if He were Nicholas II, he would do the same for the sake of national interests.

For a time, politicians and small countries close to the Entte surfaced one after another, as if their previous silce had not existed.

Europe once again tered the era of the Entte after a brief period of Alliance prosperity.

Arthur in Australasia shook his head helplessly, not expecting history to repeat itself. In the d, the nations in the two major military blocs chose the path of historical competition.