The closing question moves the programme back to 1911, when either British or German yards might have delivered ships before the First World War. Germany's crowded building programme is set against Britain's King George V class, Queen Mary, and Almirante Latorre workload, after which British yards still had more spare capacity. A British order might plausibly have produced two commissioned Dutch ships by 1913, whereas a German order had a greater chance of yielding only one before wartime demands intervened. The question then turns to the effect such a force might have had on the First World War, later Dutch construction, and the interwar naval settlement. South American battleship fleets could be treated as a separate regional system and Spain's España class was easy to overlook, but capable Dutch 14-inch-gun ships would sit in the middle of Europe. An American Standard-type design remains a third counterfactual option even though American proposals drew little Dutch interest in the actual competition.
Chapter · 40:00-47:46
What if the Dutch had ordered in 1911?
An earlier Dutch order raises a counterfactual about British and German yard capacity, wartime readiness, and the treaty status of a Dutch battle fleet.