Postwar anti-war politics behind naval limitation

The treaty emerged from the moral and political shock after World War I, when the desire to prevent another catastrophe shaped attitudes toward naval power. The Royal Navy's ideal of preparing for war to preserve peace is contrasted with politicians who treated prewar naval competition as a cause of conflict. In this interpretation, those politicians paid too little attention to failed deterrent messaging that left the Kaiser room to believe Britain might stay out. Constraining capital ships to compromised designs could therefore seem attractive because every navy would possess expensive, fragile assets that leaders would hesitate to risk. The 35,000-ton limit followed a political theory of war prevention rather than an engineering optimum.