Chapter 757: New Vienna system
Chapter 740 The New Vienna System
The development of things often have two sides, in the economic crisis ravaged the European continent triggered the situation of turmoil at the same time, but also accelerated the establishment of the Vienna system.
Lyon’s gunshot, the French government was caught in the internal and external difficulties; Italian independence movement flourished, but also the bullish and coaxing of the great French empire fell into the edge of disintegration.
In order to change the unfavorable political and diplomatic situation in which they found themselves, the French desperately needed a stable international situation, and the government in Paris had to make concessions on the issue of disarmament.
Without the French obstruction, the next disarmament conference, progress exceptionally smooth.
On January 21, 1882, Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and fifteen other European countries signed the Treaty on the Limitation of Army Armaments.
Under the terms of the treaty, the size of each country’s army was as follows:
Russian Empire 500,000 men;
Austria 486,000;
France 382,000;
Spain 246,000;
156,000 in the German Federal Empire;
Britannia 116 thousand;
98 thousand in the Nordic Confederation;
48 thousand in Belgium;
33 thousand in the Netherlands;
32 thousand in Switzerland;
Portugal 28k;
Prussia 28 thousand;
Greece 18k;
Montenegro 0.36 million;
……
Overall, this arms treaty is still based on the comprehensive strength of each country, taking into account the regional military balance.
The low share of the Kingdom of Prussia was due to the fact that the Berlin government was poor and could not afford to raise much of an army.
As early as half a year ago, the Berlin government had already begun to plan for disarmament, and the biggest problem was that there was no way to convince the military to agree.
It was hard to catch up with the arms limitation treaty, so the government naturally would not fight for the military to get a quota.
International treaties are signed, resulting in an established fact, the Prussian military even more powerful must be complied with, the defeated Prussia is not qualified to make a fuss.
The arms limitation treaty was signed, and the shadow of war drifting over the European continent disappeared at once. At least for the next ten years, everyone’s safety is guaranteed.
Limiting the number of land forces, the advantage of the big countries, although still obvious, but in the mutual restraint of the countries, but lost the ability to annex the small countries.
Yes, the main target was France. After the disarmament was completed, the French had a fair amount of troops to protect their own security, but not enough if they wanted to continue to expand.
Knowing that they were being targeted, the French had to accept it. At this time, Napoleon IV had to curb his ambitions to avoid being attacked from both inside and outside.
The armament treaty restricted only the continental mainland, and the overseas colonial armies were tacitly ignored. This was not to leave a back door open, but a practical necessity.
There were three main reasons for being ignored: firstly, the practical need to maintain the colonial system, which was simply impossible without sufficient troops;
Secondly, most colonial armies had limited combat power and were not valued by everyone;
Finally, the productivity limitations of the times. Overseas troops want to transport to the European continent, need a lot of manpower and material input, economic might as well just expand the army forget.
After the armament treaty was signed, the later things were negotiable.
The purpose of the Vienna system is: the European countries together to provide security for their respective homeland security, in order to maintain peace and stability in the European continent.
In this era of high anti-war wave, all governments had no interest in starting a war on the continent and naturally would not reject such a treaty.
The disputes were mainly over the details, and overall, the European countries were peace-loving. Even if the politicians didn’t love it, the international situation and the European population would make them peace-loving.
……
While everyone is celebrating the coming of peace, another arms race is starting to brew.
At the Vienna Palace, a military conference to determine the future course of Austria, and the world, was taking place in secret.
At this moment Franz was holding a warship design parameter in his hand, and if one was familiar with the history of naval development, one would find it extraordinarily familiar.
Displacement 14147 tons, full load displacement 15786 tons;
Length 126.7 meters, width 21.86 meters;
Range 10 knots/4700 nautical miles, maximum speed 18.3 knots;
Designed to store 950 tons of coal;
Equipped with four 305mm main guns, ten 150mm rapid-fire guns, sixteen 57mm rapid-fire guns, twelve 47mm machine guns and seven 450mm torpedo tubes.
……
Yes, the beginnings of a former dreadnought. Franz’s butterfly effect still affects the history of naval development.
Without the Franco-Prussian War, the French Navy not running out of money, and the rising Austrian Navy, the competition on the seas was much more brutal than at the same time in history.
With competition comes development, and in this era of rapid change, no one dares to stand still.
In this context, the naval technology of all countries is at least ten years ahead of the same period in history, and the design concept of the former dreadnought was born.
In this case, Franz could not help. Warships are a reflection of a country’s industrial strength, not something that can be driven by a so-called idea.
If one looked hard enough, one would find that designers were never short of ideas, and there were a whole host of ideas that were ahead of their time and forced to be shelved for various reasons.
Not to mention the ex-dreadnought, similar ideas for dreadnoughts and aircraft carriers have been brought up.
At first, Franz was amazed, thinking he had met a fellow traveler, but it turned out to be completely overthinking him.
Proposed similar to the design concept of the dreadnought brother first not to mention, although a little ahead of the curve, but still acceptable, with Austria’s industrial strength barely have the possibility of implementation.
The ones who designed the carriers are much more interesting.
For example: airship carrier theory. From the literal meaning of the word can be seen, is to put the airships on the ship, the battle lifted off the bombing.
Technically, this is perfectly fine. The hit rate of the bombing is ignored for now, the key is that it takes moments for the airship to lift off, and the enemy sends you down to the sea without waiting for you to fly into the sky.
That’s not all, another proposed “suicide attack” designer, Franz thought it was a kamikaze brigade possession.
The airplane had only just been born, and combat was impossible. One of the designers had a big idea, put the airplane on the ship as a disposable bomb, the outbreak of war, directly against the enemy warships crashed over.
Technically there was no problem, the key was where to find so many suicide warriors in airplanes?
No matter what, the brainstorming is still commendable. As for their design concepts, let’s put them in the warship technology reserve room first!
Franz asked, “How long will it take to build this kind of battleship?”
The designs that could be handed over to him had all been reviewed by the Admiralty many times to make sure that there were no problems with the technology before they were taken out.
Minister of the Navy Castagni replied, “According to the normal construction speed it will take about a year and a half, and if we speed up it can be completed in a year’s time.”
The construction time of one and a half years, plus the preparation time beforehand, after launching the debugging time, from the real service time may be two years.
Compared to previous battleships, this speed was considered slow; however, compared to future battleships, this speed was fast again.
Generally speaking, the first construction speed of new warships is the slowest, and the more the number of ships built, the faster the speed behind.
Franz nodded and said lightly, “Just proceed at the normal construction speed, build one out first to see the effect.”
Former Dreadnoughts were not cheap, a single main gun would cost 20,000 God’s Guilders, and a single warship would cost millions of God’s Guilders.
The cost of the later ones might come down, but as the first warship as a test subject, the cost would definitely not be low.
The literal parameters are not equal to the actual parameters, the real performance of the warships will only be known after they are built.
The design value is theoretical, under normal circumstances, there will be differences. Exactly how much error, depends on luck.
(End of chapter)