In this account, Germany's industrial discontinuity was a deliberate British goal at Versailles. By suppressing capital-ship construction and the supporting skills, the restrictions made a renewed buildup require years of conspicuous yard investment. Britain expected its own mass shipbuilding capacity to remain strong, so that warning would preserve time to answer German construction. Later naval treaties and the economic slump weakened the British baseline assumed in 1919, but German rearmament still exposed itself well before Plan Z could mature.
Notable Point · 15:40-16:52
Versailles restrictions were meant to create warning time
British restrictions on German naval construction sought to make any future rebuild slow, difficult, and visible enough for Britain to respond.