Two different prewar naval arms races

Germany's risk-fleet strategy created a quantitative contest in which enough German hulls were meant to make war prohibitively costly for Britain. Britain answered every German increase with still greater construction, eventually forcing German naval demands into direct competition with the army's artillery and procurement budget. Britain, the United States, Japan, and Italy also pursued a looser qualitative contest in which speed, guns, armor, and prestige mattered more than total hull count. That second race resembled playing different statistics in a card game: one exceptionally capable ship could win prestige without posing the same immediate danger as numerical superiority.