Chapter 223: Chapter 208: The Focus of the Party _3

Portugal and Bulgaria have successively transformed into republics, and the family has lost control over these countries.

Finally, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family also lost the source of their name, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Duchy, and their family’s glory was no longer as dazzling as before.

However, before this, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was still one of the most prominent families in Europe, and it could also help Arthur and Australasia gain more support from Europeans and win the favor of more European royal families.

After King George V, representatives of major powers such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy and the United States also came forward to congratulate him.

The Island Nation, as if unaware of the treaty between Australasia and the Russian Nation, still congratulated Arthur with great respect.

Only after the representatives of these powerful nations had come forward to congratulate him did it come to the turn of representatives from non-great power countries to speak.

This, in fact, is the mainstream of the world: weak countries have no diplomacy. If a country’s power is not recognized by others, then the diplomatic representatives they send can only wait for others to finish talking before they are eligible to speak.

Of course, whether or not others want to listen to what they have to say is another matter.

After receiving everyone’s blessings, more than an hour had passed.

Arthur gestured for everyone to enjoy the banquet, and the scene returned to its original hustle and bustle.

For everyone, such a banquet is a good opportunity to establish diplomatic relations, as representatives and nobles from various countries have their own social circles, and are also doing their best to get along with useful people.

As the protagonist of today, Arthur’s every move naturally attracted the attention of many people.

However, Arthur mainly talked to people from great power countries like Crown Prince William today, and it was not easy for nobles and officials from other countries to make small talk.

Australasia’s shipbuilding plan has attracted the attention of many powerful countries, and they are very curious whether the two battleships in Australasia’s shipbuilding plan are actually dreadnoughts.

It is worth noting that there are currently only three countries that have explicitly expressed their intention to start building dreadnoughts, and there are only six that have plans to build them.

In such a time frame, any country with a dreadnought in its possession would see a massive change in its naval strength.

This is why these countries are concerned about Australasia’s shipbuilding plan: with two dreadnought battleships, Australasia’s naval strength could rival that of the Island Royal Navy, which has five old battleships.

Arthur’s choice to publicly announce Australasia’s ten-year shipbuilding plan was to expand Australasia’s international influence.

Therefore, when Arthur faced questions from representatives of these countries, he categorically admitted that both battleships in Australasia’s shipbuilding plan were advanced warships at the dreadnought level.

Arthur even went so far as to mysteriously claim that the other three of the five main battleships in the Australasian shipbuilding plan were powerful warships developed by Australasia itself, above the level of old battleships but below that of dreadnoughts.

By this calculation, Australasia’s number of battleships could reach five, with at least two being powerful dreadnought-level battleships.

This means that once Australasia’s shipbuilding plan is completed, its naval strength will rise to the world’s top ten.

Such strength is enough to attract the attention of some countries, especially along the Indian Ocean and Pacific coastlines.

Australasia’s influence in these two regions is even expected to rival that of powerful nations.

At least apart from the British Empire, there are not many countries that can guarantee that their fleets in these two areas will be stronger than the Australasian Fleet.

Of course, apart from being surprised at Australasia’s ambitious shipbuilding plan, representatives of various countries are also interested in the two main battleships in their construction plan.

The first is a powerful dreadnought-level battleship, and the second is an advanced warship with a combat power higher than that of old battleships.

Currently, there are not many dreadnought designs worldwide, and Australasia’s two warship designs have directly brought them to the forefront in this regard.

Of course, the countries that are most curious about the specific data and performance of Australasia’s two warships are probably the British Empire and the Island Nation.

The reason is simple: the British Empire has a large number of interests along the Indian Ocean coast and the Pacific Coast, and India, which is very important to the British Empire, is not far from Australasia.

Under such circumstances, the British Empire urgently needs to assess Australasia’s future naval strength to make better diplomatic decisions.

Although the Island Nation is relatively far away from Australasia, its enemy, the Russian Empire, in the Far East has established a good relationship with Australasia, and the two sides have even reached a marriage alliance.

This means that Russia is very likely to receive substantial assistance from Australasia in future wars, including support in terms of warships.

In this case, the Island Nation has every reason to understand the specific data and performance of Australasia’s two warships in order to guard against the possible appearance of Australasian-made warships in the Russian fleet in the future.

As a matter of fact, Russia has indeed become interested in Australasia’s dreadnought design.

In history, Russia’s dreadnought was a warship designed with the help of the British Empire, based on Italy’s Dante-class dreadnought.

However, under current circumstances, it is virtually impossible for the British Empire to help Russia design a dreadnought.

Meanwhile, Russia’s current ally, France, does not have a dreadnought production plan of its own, let alone help Russia design and produce one.

Russia might be able to get help from Germany, but it could cost them the French-Russian alliance, which is something Russia cannot accept in the short term.

As a result, there is little hope for Russia to design and produce a dreadnought in the short term, which is unacceptable for Nicholas II, who has always regarded his country as a top-tier power.

In fact, the Russian Empire did not pay much in the Russo-Japanese War and did not withhold any compensation.

This means that the Russian Empire has not suffered as much damage as it did in history. After receiving additional financial assistance from Germany, the Russian Empire has even regained some vitality.

In addition, with the temporary neutrality treaty with Germany, the Russian Empire is not so worried about the impact on its western borders and can allocate more troops to assess domestic crises.

As a result, the Russian Empire currently has some funds and a strong interest in the world’s most powerful warship, the dreadnought.

However, Russia’s ability to design its own warships is poor, and without the help of other countries, it is virtually impossible to achieve self-production.

Britain, France, and Germany, for various reasons, are unlikely to assist the Tsardom of Russia, and the United States, wanting to extend its reach to the Pacific coast, is naturally unwilling to help the Far Eastern hegemon.

Currently, the only country that can provide Russia with a dreadnought appears to be Australasia.