How Brazil could reshape Washington Treaty bargaining

If Brazil obtained its planned British-built battleships, how might that affect naval treaty limits?

Brazilian participation could raise overall limits and give Britain leverage to seek separate allocations for the Dominions, complicating the American position under the Monroe Doctrine.

The enlarged-Brazil counterfactual raises a dispute about whether other South American states could demand seats at a naval conference. One objection is that a delayed First World War would also leave the great powers with larger fleets, reducing Brazil's relative importance. Clarke describes British interest in using South American participation to argue for separate Dominion treatment, with the Monroe Doctrine complicating the American position. Under the resulting hypothetical structure, minimum allowances for smaller powers push the larger navies' allocations upward. These are competing arguments about an altered treaty settlement.