ABSTRACT
With the advent of armor, a country's industrial base became even more important to its naval power, and the sheer cost of larger armored warships meant that only those aspiring to great power status would attempt to build them. When the Ottoman empire and Spain failed to sustain their ironclad programs of the 1860s, by the early 1870s the list of naval powers for the first time ever was identical to the overall list of the great powers of Europe: Britain, France, and Russia, joined by Italy, newly united Germany, and Austria–Hungary. The other maritime countries of Europe, the United States, and other naval states beyond Europe fell into a clearly inferior category of sea power. Even among the great powers, those whose fate in war would be determined on land tended to restrain their naval spending. The 1870s also witnessed a clear division of fleets into armored and unarmored components, with the terms “battleship” and “cruiser” coming into use to describe the two groups of vessels. For the European powers the ironclad battle fleet remained in home waters for the event of a war against another great power, while the unarmored fleet showed the flag worldwide in defense of colonial and trading interests.
