Dreadnoughts from Around the World (1905-14): 1914

Mackensen's larger guns, 28-knot speed, long range, and geared turbines looked formidable, but a design that never leaves the stocks is not yet naval power.

Britain kept capital ships moving through its yards and absorbed foreign orders into wartime service, while Germany could not complete Salamis in its own facilities.

Resources on a map did not give Germany the transport, labour, or administrative capacity needed to extract them from a destabilized Russia.

Italy's Francesco Caracciolo design combined 15-inch guns, an almost 12-inch belt, and a speed more often associated with battlecruisers.

The elusive Armstrong Whitworth design 781 for Brazil shows how archival gaps limit confident reconstruction of an intended capital ship.

The Greek battleship Vasilefs Konstantinos would have been a version of France's Bretagne class, but World War I prevented the project from entering service.

British and German construction mattered, but American, Japanese, French, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and South American choices formed an interconnected capital-ship race.

American and Japanese gun choices and Italian turret design pushed technology forward, while German capital ships generally answered British advances.

A 13.5-inch gun was hard to justify against Germany's 11-inch weapons alone, but rival 12-inch fleets made the added cost and ammunition burden intelligible.

Britain retained large advantages in pre-dreadnoughts, dreadnought numbers, and aggregate firepower after HMS Dreadnought entered service.

Britain's fleet had to protect a global trading system and respond to crises well beyond northern Europe, not simply count capital ships against Germany.

A cruiser could open a crisis with negotiation because other states understood that Britain could send much heavier force if talks failed.

Foreign work on 16-inch guns made an 18-inch British step more plausible than a small intermediate increase, though the exact Agincourt design remains uncertain.

A major continental war gave the German army first call on resources, slowing naval construction, repairs, and the crewing of ships.

Britain's interservice balance differed because the Royal Navy had the political experience and institutional position to secure wartime priority.

A Queen Elizabeth-sized hull carrying six 18-inch guns illustrates a possible British trade of one turret for speed and a dramatic increase in shell power.