"Germany was now more isolated and in a more inferior position than ever; yet the only solution seen was to build more shivs." •)
ried about alliances between potential enemies that their naval policy was governed by the "two power standard':._by which the Royal Navy was to be maintained at a greater strength than the next two most powerful navies combined. By the tum of the century Great Britain had over 40 battleships and over 300 smaller types. Germany, by this time, had become the fastest growing power, with a higher birth rate than England or France and the world's largest steel industry. The country was governed by a Prussian military caste which felt Germany was entitled to be a world power. The two men most responsible for the events that followed were Kaiser Wilhelm , who was determined to get Germany a " place in the sun," and Admiral Tirpitz, who convinced him that building a battle fleet was the way to do it. The German Navy had for some years been a qualitatively excellent but small coastal defense force. Tirpitz lobbied hard and in 1897 the Bundestag passed a Navy Law mandating the construction of a sizeable fleet , including 19 battleships within five years. Britain took note but there was no immediate cause for alarm-German shipbuilding capacity was then small and it seemed hardly credible that the Royal Navy could be threatened in the foreseeable future. The Boer War in South Africa brought tension between Germany and Britain. The Germans were pro-Boer but were powerless to intervene with the Royal Navy controlling all trade routes and intercepting arms shipments to the Boers. Tirpitz made political capital out of this, leading to the Navy Law of 1900, which authorized an additional three battleships per year above those already planned . This placed the British in a dilemma. To abandon the two power standard seemed heresy and to build more battleships, financially ruinous . The British decided to abandon the policy of non-alignment and seek a mutual defense alliance with Japan in 1902 and an informal understanding with France and Russia to end rivalry in naval development or colonial expansion . This securing of interests by agreement allowed the British to withdraw squadrons of the fleet from the far corners of the world and concentrate their power to face the Germans in the North Sea . Tirpitz's strategy had backfired . Germany was now more isolated and in a more inferior position than ever, yet the only solution seen was to build more ships. In England some strident voices suggested the Royal Navy should "Copenhagen the German Fleet':._a reference to the Battle of Copenhagen in 1803, in which Lord Nelson annihilated a Danish fleet in a preemptive strike lest the Danes ally with France. Such notions could only throw fuel on the fire. It was against this background of intense rivalry that the construction of the Dreadnought was perceived to be so sensational . She represented a large escalation in destructive power, but this was the next logical step in a series of developments going for-
ward in all major navies. The real escalation was in the speed with which Fisher determined the Royal Navy had to be first and pushed the process to completion . Tirpitz viewed the Dreadnought as a direct attempt at intimidation. The building of this one large ship was seen as far more threatening than the construction of any number of smaller ones because it was beyond the scale of German facilities . The largest battleships before the Dreadnought were 15,000 tons, with German ships at no more than 13,000. To accommodate the combination of massive firepower, armor, and speed demanded by Fisher the Dreadnought was built to the unprecedented size of 18,000 tons. Germany could literally not float a battleship of this size. In order to compete, slipways would have to be lengthened , drydocks enlarged , the Kiel Canal widened , new locks built , and harbors and channels dredged to accommodate the deeper draft of such vessels. The Germans at once took up the challenge. Fisher's new ship put the British in the strange position of nullifying their own superiority in the now-outmoded predreadnoughts at a single stroke. A Liberal government was in power in England and there was growing concern over the need for social legislation ; unemployment was high and old-age pensions nonexistent or inadequate. Parliament did not enjoy being told that the vast sums spent on the Navy to date were largely invalidated and that truly staggering sums would be needed to rebuild the fleet yet again . In Germany the situation was nearly the same, with rising armament expenditures at last being hotly debated. In both countries the opposition was sizeable-but the militant voices prevailed . The result was an absolutely unprecedented arms race which spread like a fever of fear and pride around the globe. Within five years of the launching of the Dreadnought England had authorized 29 capital ships, Germany 21, and the United States 12. France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Spain , Russia , Japan , Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina , and Chile all had 2 to 4 ships either building or on order in foreign yards . On the other side of the Atlantic United States naval development had swung from post-Civil War indifference to a determination to have a fleet second to none. A large part of the reason for the earlier complacence was the general effectiveness of the "Pax Britannica," the worldwide stability of trade routes controlled by the omnipresent Royal Navy. On the surface the US had ongoing disagreements with Britain, over arms sales to the Confederacy or fishing rights with Canada, but basically US and British interests coincided. The business of both nations was business, and the foreign policy of both was nonalignment. The Royal Navy policed the world's oceans to keep the seas free for British commerce and the United States gained as much by it, without the costs of maintaining a navy.
Joining the fleet, the Texas (from which this photograph was made) steams in line abreast with her twin sister New York, and beyond a ship ofher predecessor class Wyoming. This battle line is the third strongest
in the world, and is widely known to Americans-this photo being from one of a bunch of postcards featuring the Texas, probably collected by our anonymous photographer.