Using alternate fleets to teach naval strategy

Which alternate-history command scenario best teaches students to think strategically about a navy as a whole?

Start with Britain around 1900, then use Japan, China, or France to introduce more difficult political and strategic tradeoffs.

Clarke usually begins these teaching exercises with Britain around 1900 and regards Japan in the same period as a harder starting point because of its competing demands. China has also provided a deliberately difficult assignment. Spain presents a different problem: its internal politics are hard to represent adequately alongside the strategic situation. France after the Franco-Prussian War offers another useful scenario, although students need to understand the Jeune École to make sense of French naval choices. A fifty-year period gives students time to develop their plans and work through their consequences. Starting with only the interwar years compresses the exercise too much.