London Treaty failure and Depression spending

A failed first London Naval Treaty is more politically plausible than a missing Washington Treaty because Italy and Japan could simply decline to join. Treaty limits also restricted Britain's habitual use of warship construction and deployment as diplomacy while the United States remained outside the League of Nations. During the Great Depression, governments could direct money into shipbuilding and yard upgrades instead of paying to close or shrink industrial capacity. The Town-class cruiser example shows how yard selection was already tied to economic distress. Roosevelt's naval background and opposition to cumulative limits make renewed American construction politically easier to imagine.