Whilst tirelessly revising for my history A-level, I came across many claims that Britain inadvertently weakened its own position in the naval race with Germany by launching HMS Dreadnought.
Now I could see their inital position, as it made their massive numerical advantage in Pre-dreadnoughts irrelevant, but I fail to see how it would quite measure up. I mean, Japan had already begun building Satsuma and the USN had designed USS South Carolina and USS Michigan so surely someone else that Britain cared about would catch on?
Would Britain really have been better off having Fischer fall down the stairs before 1906? Or did the inital head start benefit the Royal Navy in the long run?