Germany had been improving its armoured cruisers in steps, with the Scharnhorst class preceding Blücher. Expecting Britain to keep improving its own armoured cruisers was reasonable given the fleets both countries already had. Dreadnought reset the benchmark for battleships to one British ship, while the three Invincibles did something similar for large cruisers. An older cruiser could still be formidable against smaller ships. In peacetime diplomacy, appearing obsolete beside the new British ships weakened the value of that force on paper. HMS Warrior provides an earlier analogy for a ship changing what counted as modern.
Notable Point · 11:16-14:40
Fisher reset the battleship and cruiser benchmarks
Dreadnought and the Invincibles changed how Britain and Germany counted useful ships, even while older vessels could still fight.