If Blücher had defined the treaty heavy cruiser

What cruiser limits might negotiators have chosen if SMS Blücher had become the reference design for a heavy cruiser?

A ceiling near 16,000 tons and perhaps nine-inch guns would produce a much larger treaty cruiser than the historical 10,000-ton, eight-inch standard.

The audience proposes Blücher as an early heavy cruiser because her 21-centimeter battery exceeded the later eight-inch threshold. Her normal displacement of roughly 15,842 tons provides a basis for imagining a rounded 16,000-ton treaty ceiling. Her 8.3-inch guns might likewise have encouraged negotiators to permit weapons around nine inches. Treaty definitions were political choices shaped by available ships rather than timeless technical boundaries.