Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 653: Battleship Prince
The Atlantic Ocean is much narrower than the Pacific Ocean.
While Sun Chuanting's letter had not yet arrived in Hawaii, Raimondo's letter had already been delivered to Philip on March 20, 1637.
However, one very important reason why it was so fast was that when the messenger arrived in Lisbon, Philip happened to be in Lisbon.
Not only him, but also the monarchs of EU countries, leaders of political entities under Spain such as Portugal, Catalonia, the Netherlands, Venice, and local industry leaders are all in Lisbon at this moment.
The reason why the top European dignitaries gathered together was certainly not to receive Raimondo's report. The reason why the "EU Summit" was solemnly held in Lisbon this time was that a very important topic was: the division of East Africa.
Before the opening of the Suez Canal, Philip had already stated that after conquering North Africa from the Ottomans, Spain only wanted a few ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa and the whole of Egypt. The rest of the African continent would be divided up among the EU countries.
But to be honest, before the opening of the Suez Canal, the main focus of EU countries on developing colonies in Africa was limited to West Africa and South Africa, and they had basically no interest in East Africa.
However, the situation was completely different after the opening of the Suez Canal: East Africa's geographical advantages were instantly highlighted.
Imagine if a country in the European Union occupied East Africa, especially the Horn of East Africa where Somalia and Eritrea were located in later generations. Then, through the Suez Canal, the mainland and colonies could be quickly connected. More importantly, it could develop trade relations directly with Asian countries based on East Africa without having to go through Spain. The benefits here are really huge.
In the historical plane, one of the important reasons why there were still independent countries with large land areas like Ethiopia in East Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries was that the Suez Canal was opened very late. At that time, the European powers had already formed a balance of power to a certain extent. Except for the guys like Italy who didn't care about their eating manners, others were reluctant to take action. (Liberia in West Africa was nominally an independent country at the time, but it was actually a colony of the Americans)
But this dimension is completely different. On the one hand, the Suez Canal was opened two hundred years ahead of schedule. On the other hand, in order to better rule Europe, Philip consciously divided some of the European powers into separate parts.
France has been split into more than a dozen small countries. Germany has been broken into even more pieces. Poland and Lithuania, although also a populous country, have a terrible electoral monarchy that severely restricts their development. Philip, instead of reforming it, firmly maintains this system in his country...
Therefore, if we really want to talk about the countries in the EU that are currently strong in developing colonies, they are only the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, and Austria. Among these four countries, only the United Kingdom and Austria have a population of more than or close to 10 million.
Of course, the basic population is not a problem. Before Portugal was annexed by Spain, it only had a native population of more than two million, and it established colonies everywhere. The key is whether it can gain benefits from the colonies: for countries that are still in the early stages of colonial rule, the benefits are very obvious.
Therefore, everyone is very interested in developing African colonies, and has been vigorously promoting this as a national policy over the years.
Philip was of course happy to see this happen: since the union adopted a unified tax rate and a unified currency, Spain, as an advanced industrial country, has sucked too much blood from EU countries through these two measures. If the allies are not allowed to go to Africa to suck blood, the union will fall apart sooner or later. Therefore, even though he knew that after the opening of the Suez Canal, if European countries really established stable colonies in East Africa, they would have direct trade relations with China, he had to allow and support countries to divide East Africa.
However, at this time in East Africa, the Abyssinian Empire still existed, and its national strength was not weak. Not only that, this country also had a deep connection with Portugal, which was annexed by Spain before. Due to its geographical location, both Catholicism and Crescent Church were spread in this country. In the early sixteenth century, the Crescent Church supported by the Ottoman Empire gained state power. But not long after, the Catholics supported by Portugal successfully fought back. In short, the Abyssinian Empire at this time was not only a country with Catholicism as its state religion, but Portugal itself also had huge interests there.
Therefore, the Lisbon Conference this time mainly resolved two issues. First, the map was opened up. Under the chairmanship of the leader, everyone divided the sphere of influence in East Africa on paper to avoid fighting within the alliance in the future. Second, discuss how to compensate the Portuguese local council.
As the distribution of interests was involved, the meeting naturally did not go smoothly. At first, Philip still maintained his demeanor as the leader of the alliance and patiently mediated. But when he received Raimondo's letter, it was difficult for him to maintain this demeanor.
In order not to lose his composure in front of many European dignitaries, he made up an excuse and hurriedly left the main venue.
With a crisp "clang" sound, a metal lighter was lit by the left hand. Then the right hand skillfully took out a cigarette from the pocket and put it in his mouth...
"Huh~" After exhaling a puff of smoke, my mood seemed to be relieved a little.
Cigarettes were invented by Philip when he was doing opium business. Although it was the 17th century, the attraction of tobacco to human beings was the same. No, it should be said that due to the lack of stress relief methods in this era, tobacco was more attractive to people of this era.
Anyway, Philip knew that in the last fiscal year, tobacco contributed nearly 20 million in profits and taxes out of the royal government's total revenue of 290 million.
In the smoke, Philip thought of Rudolf.
Hey, if you hadn't been so aggressive, how could I have killed you? I've been so tired of being alone these years...
"His Majesty."
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"Count Barudes and the Prince of Asturias battleship have arrived in Lisbon. He asked me to report to you that the weather on the sea is good today. If you have time, he can show you the power of the 305mm main gun on the sea of Lisbon."
"Hahahaha, very good." He took two deep puffs of the cigarette and waved his hand. The servant beside him brought the ashtray.
Blowing out smoke rings from his mouth and extinguishing the cigarette butt with his hand, Philip floated back to the main venue lightly: "Everyone, let's suspend the meeting and go to the port together to watch the most powerful war machine in Europe and even in human history!"
…
On this day, the ocean outside the port of Lisbon was sunny and the visibility was excellent. When Philip led a group of dignitaries to the temporary viewing platform in the port, a red flare rose into the sky. Then, a long and deep whistle sounded, and only three or five minutes later, a huge steel warship slowly came into everyone's sight.
"Everyone," said Navy Commander Barudis, standing out from the crowd. "The Navy has prepared a new high-power telescope for you. Please watch it while I explain it to you."
"The Prince of Asturias battleship was designed by engineers at the Bilbao shipyard after the basic concept was proposed by His Majesty Philip, and was finalized after being modified and approved by His Majesty Philip. The keel of the ship was laid on December 5, 1631, and the main part of the hull was completed and launched in June 1635. The outfitting was completed in January 1637 and the first sea trial was completed in the waters near Bilbao. This time, it is the first long-distance voyage of the ship, and it will soon conduct live-fire design training.
Ladies and gentlemen, this ship has a standard displacement of 12,000 tons and a full load displacement of 14,300 tons. It is equipped with six 305mm main guns, and the protective armor of key parts reaches 280mm, and the protective armor of ordinary parts is at least 65mm. It has four steam turbines. The theoretical maximum speed can exceed 15 knots. The entire ship has been electrified, and the lighting inside the ship can always remain as bright as day. Even at night, the searchlight can make our enemies nowhere to hide. In short, everyone, this is an epoch-making, invincible, super-giant ship! "
This era was still the Age of Exploration in Europe. Although not all the European dignitaries were proficient in the navy, they were still very clear about what the data just mentioned meant. Because they knew the meaning of these data, Barudis's introduction shocked the European dignitaries.
Of course, Philip was not among these nobles who were surprised beyond words.
Whether it was the Battle of the Philippines or the Battle of Santiago, the results fully demonstrated one thing: the ironclad ship manufacturing levels of the Ming Dynasty and Spain were almost the same. When the ironclad fleets of the two sides met, who would win depended more on which fleet had better ship conditions, which commander had a higher level, and who had better luck in terms of hit rate.
However, it was too far to travel from Spain to the Philippines, or to go around the Strait of Magellan in South America to reach the west coast of South America. Even if the ironclad ships weighing thousands of tons reached there, they would be exhausted.
Therefore, in the battle between the ironclad ships of both sides, the Spaniards were basically the ones who suffered losses.
Therefore, in order to regain control of the Pacific Ocean, it is necessary to design a completely new battleship that completely surpasses the existing ironclad ships and is suitable for ocean-going operations.
When Spain began preparing to build the next generation of ironclad ships in 1630, Philip naturally thought of the famous dreadnought.
However, it was impossible to build a dreadnought with the technological level of this plane. Philip could only settle for the next best thing and ask the Spanish shipyards to build a pre-dreadnought. Among the many types of pre-dreadnought warships, as a historian who knew a little about everything but was not proficient in most of them, Philip was only familiar with the technical parameters of the "Sovereign" class battleships. Therefore, in the design drawings of this Prince, all the technical parameters were designed according to the "Sovereign" class.
However, ideals are full, and reality is very skinny. Although the technological level of this plane has been greatly improved due to the pursuit of the traversers. But the more technology develops, the larger the group of scientists and technical workers will be needed. The impact of a single traverser on technology will become smaller and smaller over time. Therefore, even if the construction period of this Prince is extended from the original three years to six years, even with the bonus of Wenqu. The real data of this Prince is still far less than the monarchy level in the historical plane.
Let's talk about speed. In fact, Barudis's introduction just now was obviously bragging. Philip himself knew that the Prince could not run at 15 knots. Due to the limitations of materials science at the time and Ibrahim's refusal to cooperate, the steam engine of this battleship was actually very limited. Even if the boiler was burned to the extreme, the battleship could only run at a maximum of 12.5 knots - this state could not last too long. In fact, the battleship could only cruise at a speed of 10 knots at ordinary times. If encountering severe weather such as strong winds and rainstorms, the ship must reduce its speed to less than 8 knots.
In addition to speed, the armor is also limited by materials science. With the same thickness of steel plates, the protection of the Prince is not as good as that of the Sovereign in the historical plane.
However, no matter how big the gap between this battleship and the Sovereign is, the 305mm main gun is real, the displacement of more than 10,000 tons is real, and the entire ship is electrified, it is also real. In this era, it is invincible!
"Boom boom~" In the deafening bombardment, the three 1,500-ton sailing warships that were pulled out as target ships were instantly reduced to dust. Amid the hissing sounds of inhalation, the eyes of the European nobles looking at Philip suddenly became extremely obedient.
"Hahaha, everyone, I have decided that after the Prince of Asturias completes this sea trial, he will be sent to America to perform a mission. Okay, everyone, let's go back to the meeting and finalize all the topics for today as soon as possible!"
