Since the end of the Sino-British War for hegemony in 1840, all countries in the world have been talking about this war, talking about the defeat of Britain and the victory of China, and the emergence of ironclad ships and breech-loading rifles was the key to the victory of the Chinese Empire in the war, and the great power of these two also triggered a worldwide arms race.

Britain has been the hegemon of the world's oceans after the Battle of Trafalgar, and with the defeat of the Battle of Malacca, the British also clearly recognized the power of ironclads, although Britain believed that this naval battle was not equal, but Britain also tried more hard to develop ironclads and large-caliber naval guns. Historically, in 1849, France built the world's first battleship with a steam engine as an auxiliary power plant, the "Napoleon", which became the pioneer of the Navy's steam-powered battleships. But after experiencing a failure of the ironclad, the British have a deeper understanding, in 1845 in the efforts of all parties in the United Kingdom, the first ironclad ship in Europe was officially launched, this warship of about 4180 tons was named "Warrior", although it is an ironclad ship, but in fact, it is added to the outside of the sail with a layer of iron, and the steam engine is installed in the sail ship, which still retains the sail as an auxiliary power. In the eyes of the Chinese military attachés who went to watch the ceremony, it can be said that the "warriors" are simple and ugly.

Shortly after the launch of the British ironclad ship, France built the "Ravage" ironclad ship, and the fashionable France imitated China to go to the sails completely relying on steam power, but whether it was the "Warrior" or the "Ravage" still did not equip the batteries like the Xia class, and the guns were still arranged on both sides of the warship like a sailboat. With Lin Hong's consent, Mawei Shipyard helped the Kingdom of Prussia build the first ironclad ship "Frederick the Great" according to the enlarged version of the Shanghai class, with mature ironclad and naval gun technology and a displacement of nearly 7,000 tons, far exceeding the ironclad ships of Britain and France at that time.

Although Britain and France were ashamed of Prussia's purchase of ships from China, after all, it was in vain to buy them without their own technology. But the "Frederick the Great" deeply stimulated the navies of both countries. Britain and France set off a frenzy of ironclad construction, and the result was to trigger the accession of Russia and the Ottomans, Prussia's ironclad ships not only stimulated Britain and France but also stimulated Russia, another naval power in the Baltic Sea, and Russia's ironclad construction led to the Ottoman Empire on the southern side of the Black Sea, and other countries such as Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia, a country on the Italian peninsula, also began to build their own ironclad ships, but their relative size and enthusiasm were not the same as those of the previous countries.

Compared with the excitement of European countries, China is much calmer, because the geographical location of the empire has no competitors in the Far East, but with the expansion of the Four Oceans Navy and the need for colonial expansion, in June 1845, the Imperial Diet passed the Naval Enlargement Act, authorizing the Ministry of Finance to allocate 300 million Chinese dollars to the Navy in the next five years to build new warships for the Navy. By 1848, the Chinese Empire had basically completed the upgrading of warships and entered the steam age in an all-round way.

Although Prussia had ironclads that were not available in Europe, their main focus was not on the navy, as Prussia was known for its powerful army in Europe, so Prussia was obviously more interested in the army of the Chinese Empire than in the navy. In 1845, Prussia put forward a request to China to purchase army rifles and artillery, and the cabinet and the emperor absolutely supported this kind of thing, after all, the 1845 rifle began to be reequipped with the army and the number of 1840 rifles that had been retired was huge, Prussia's request was not only in line with the cabinet's strategy of provoking the European army arms race, but also helped the empire solve the problem of the accumulation of retired equipment brought about by the redressing, and finally the cabinet let Prussia transport 200,000 rifles in the case of half selling and half giving away. A production line of 20,000 breech guns and bullet shells.

At that time, most of Europe was still a smoothbore gun, Prussia was first equipped with rear-loading rifles, which caused great pressure on France, which was also an army power, and in the case of insufficient domestic production technology and capacity, France could only purchase nearly 300,000 Type 40 rifles and several production lines of infantry ammunition from the empire. Of course, the cabinet was not stupid, and they then sold a total of 1 million rifles to Britain, Austria, Russia, Ottoman and other countries, and basically sold all the retired rifles to Europe.

The sale of these weapons led directly to another escalation of the arms race, which was joined by poor countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Hesse, Bavaria and even the Two Sicilies, but the United States still leisurely nested in North America and developed its own domestic industry, which turned a deaf ear.

For a time, the European continent was in full swing, and every country had new weapons appearing every week, and today France launched one ironclad ship, and tomorrow Britain will launch two. And such a price is heavy, the military expenditure of Britain and France rose by 14% and 21% respectively, accounting for 10.2% and 12.9% of the annual financial expenditure of the two countries, a large amount of wealth was invested in the army and the construction of the army, and other investments such as education, infrastructure, industry and other aspects were greatly reduced, and it will not be reflected in a short time, but in 1848, when the European Revolution these contradictions were undoubtedly exposed, the people of Europe asked the government to reduce military spending to ensure the people's livelihood. Even democratic Britain saw mass demonstrations.

In the face of an endless arms race, with national anger on the one hand, and the continuous military build-up of potential competitors on the other, heads of state and governments are caught in a dilemma. To reduce armaments or not to reduce armaments, how to reduce them? What should I do after I finish the reduction? What should I do if I lose my opponent and still increase?

At the beginning of 1849, when the countries were entangled, Chen Kejie, the prime minister of the Chinese Imperial Cabinet, who was visiting Britain for the first time, formally issued a proposal to European countries to reduce armaments and sign arms treaties. Chen Kejie's proposal was welcomed by people with lofty ideals from all over the world.

On 2 March, the prime ministers of Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, Ottoman, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, and other small countries arrived in London, England.

On the 4th, the heads of state of China's 11 countries officially held talks at Windsor Castle.

At this time, the total tonnage of the British navy has reached 578,000 tons, and France has reached 457,000 tons, and the total tonnage of the two countries is extremely close to the total tonnage of the two countries twenty years later, far exceeding the total tonnage of the two countries at this time in history, but the tonnage still under construction in the dock of Britain has reached 48,900 tons, and the total tonnage of France still under construction is only 13,000 tons, after all, France is not as rich as Britain, and France still has the first army in Europe to build, and the rest such as Russia, The tonnage of the Ottomans and Austria also reached 207,000 tons, 133,000 tons and 175,600 tons. On the contrary, Prussia, which attaches importance to the army, has a total naval tonnage of less than 100,000 tons. As the instigator of such an arms race, the armament of the Chinese Empire has not changed much, the army has only been replaced with new rifles and artillery, and the total tonnage of the navy has been hovering around 480,900 tons after the passage of the Naval Expansion Act (the tonnage of the newly built warships has not changed much since the tonnage left after the retirement of the old ships), ranking second in the world after the United Kingdom.

At the Conference on Disarmament, France demanded that the tonnage of the ships already built be used as the benchmark and that no capital ships be added within 10 years, and this proposal immediately aroused Britain's opposition, because after all, there were still nearly 50,000 tons of warships under construction on his slipway, and if France's proposal was approved by the plenum, then the warships on the slipway of the British shipyard would be dismantled, and everything else would be a waste of money except for those warships that were about to be launched and built in the short term.

Countries such as Russia and the Ottomans demanded an increase in their own tons to meet their own national defense requirements.

Prussia, for its part, demanded that the number of land forces in each country be capped, especially since France's large army size had posed a great threat to Prussia.

In short, the whole venue was like a vegetable market

Finally, after a month of debate, the final eleven countries signed the "Eleven Nation Agreement on Arms Limitation and Warship Tonnage" at Buckingham Palace in London.

The treaty stipulates that Britain shall have a total tonnage of no more than 620,000 tons and shall not build more than 50,000 tons of capital ironclad ships in the next ten years, France will be limited to 550,000 tons, and the Chinese Empire, as the initiator of the treaty, has promised that the total tonnage of naval development in the next ten years will not exceed the upper limit of 580,000 tons, while Russia, the Ottomans and Austria will each have a ceiling of 250,000 tons. That is to say, in the next ten years, in addition to decommissioning, Britain will have an upper limit of 10,000 tons, in fact, this is beneficial to the United Kingdom, because in the next ten years, Britain will also retire a large number of sailboats, and these vacant tonnage can be used to make new ironclad ships. Other countries have also acquired their own tons as caps. In terms of land forces, there are also specific restrictions on the number of troops in the eleven countries.

"In fact, the signing of this treaty did not really limit the competition of the navies of various countries, but only eased the tense atmosphere at that time and eased the internal contradictions of various countries, but in fact this arms race did not end until the end of the Crimean War, and another effect of this arms race is to promote the leapfrog progress of science and technology, new rifles, breech guns, ironclad ships have greatly aggravated the tragedy of the war." ――

"History of World Wars: Europe"