The dreadnought world extended far beyond Britain and Germany to the United States, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, Spain, and other powers. The Anglo-German competition was a race in numbers, while Britain, the United States, Italy, and sometimes Austria-Hungary also pushed gun size and design sophistication. That qualitative contest helps explain the Royal Navy's move from 12-inch guns to the 13.5-inch Orion class and then to Queen Elizabeth's 15-inch battery. This wider field challenges histories that reduce prewar capital-ship competition to Britain and Germany alone. It also explains why the Treasury could treat dreadnought spending as deterrence when peace appeared cheaper than war and naval construction returned money through employment and shipyard capacity.
Notable Point · 24:27-32:22
The global dreadnought race around 1912
A broad comparison puts Queen Elizabeth into several dreadnought races at once, including contests beyond the familiar Anglo-German rivalry.