South American dreadnought race - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A South American dreadnought race between Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, and Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

was kindled in 1907 when the Brazilian government announced their intention to purchase three dreadnought

Dreadnought

The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...

s—powerful battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

s whose capabilities far outstripped older vessels in the world's navies—from the British company Armstrong Whitworth

Armstrong Whitworth

Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...

. Previous Argentine–Chilean naval arms race

Arms race

The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation...

s, combined with the overthrow of the Brazilian monarchy and subsequent naval rebellions, had left the Brazilian navy well behind the other two major South American navies in terms of quality and total tonnage. Brazilian politicians moved to address this imbalance in 1904, as part of an overarching goal of becoming an international power. Three small battleships were ordered in 1906, but after the appearance of in 1906, the Brazilian government canceled all three in favor of the new "dreadnought" type. Two ships of the Minas Geraes class

Minas Geraes-class battleship

The Minas Geraes class, spelled Minas Gerais in some sources, consisted of two battleships built for the Brazilian Navy which began a South American dreadnought race. The ships were named Minas Geraes, after the Brazilian state, and São Paulo, honoring both the state and city...

were laid down immediately with a third to follow.

The Argentine and Chilean governments immediately canceled a naval-limiting pact between them, and both ordered two dreadnoughts (the Rivadavia and Almirante Latorre classes

Almirante Latorre-class battleship

The Almirante Latorre class consisted of two battleships designed by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the Chilean Navy. Only one, , was finished as a battleship; the other, Almirante Cochrane, was converted to an aircraft carrier. They were sold to the Royal Navy prior to completion and...

, respectively), with Argentina's contract going to the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company

Fore River Shipyard

The Fore River Shipyard of Quincy, Massachusetts, more formally known as the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, was a shipyard in the United States from 1883 until 1986. Located on the Weymouth Fore River, the yard began operations in 1883 in Braintree, Massachusetts before being moved...

and Chile's going to Armstrong. Meanwhile, Brazil's third dreadnought was canceled in favor of an even larger ship, but the ship was laid down and ripped up several times after repeated major alterations to the design. When the Brazilian government finally settled on a design, they realized it would be outclassed by the Chilean dreadnoughts' larger armament, so they sold the ship to the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

and attempted to acquire a more powerful ship.

By this time the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

had broken out in Europe, and many shipbuilders suspended work on dreadnoughts for foreign countries. Argentina's two dreadnoughts were delivered, as the United States remained neutral in the opening years of the war, but Chile's two dreadnoughts were purchased by the United Kingdom. In the years between the First and Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, many naval expansion plans, some involving dreadnought purchases, were proposed. While most never came to fruition, in April 1920 the Chilean government reacquired one of the dreadnoughts taken over by the United Kingdom. No other dreadnoughts were purchased by a South American nation, and all were sold for scrap

Ship breaking

Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially...

in the 1950s.

Argentine–Chilean boundary dispute

Conflicting Argentine and Chilean claims to Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

, the southernmost region in South America, had been causing tension between the two countries since the 1840s. This tension was ratcheted up in 1872 and 1878, Chilean warships seized merchant ships which had been licensed to operate in the disputed area by the Argentine government. An Argentine warship did the same to an American ship in 1877. These actions nearly led to war in November 1878, when the Argentines dispatched a squadron of warships to the Santa Cruz River

Santa Cruz River (Argentina)

Santa Cruz River is a river from the Argentine province of Santa Cruz.The Santa Cruz begins at the shore of the Viedma and Argentino Lakes, of glacial origin and located in the Los Glaciares National Park, and runs eastwards before reaching the Atlantic Coast, north of the southern tip of South...

. The Chilean Navy responded in kind, and war was only avoided by a hastily signed treaty. Both governments were distracted in the next few years by Argentina's internal military operations against the indigenous population

Conquest of the Desert

The Conquest of the Desert was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s, which established Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples...

and Chile's War of the Pacific

War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...

(Guerra del Pacífico) against Bolivia and Peru, but by 1890 a full-fledged naval arms race

Arms race

was underway between the two.
Both sides began ordering warships from the United Kingdom. The Chilean government added £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

3,129,500 to the budget for its fleet in 1887, which was centered around two aging central battery ironclads

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

, and , and a protected cruiser

Protected cruiser

The protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century, so known because its armoured deck offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused by exploding shells above...

. The battleship , two protected cruisers, and two torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

s were ordered, and their keels were laid in 1890. The Argentine government responded quickly with an order for two battleships, and . The race continued through the 1890s, even after the 1891 Chilean Civil War

Chilean Civil War

The Chilean Civil War of 1891 was an armed conflict between forces supporting Congress and forces supporting the sitting President, José Manuel Balmaceda. The war saw a confrontation between the Chilean Army and the Chilean Navy, which had sided with the president and the congress, respectively...

. The two countries alternated cruiser orders between 1890 and 1895, each ship marking a small increase in capabilities from the previous one. The Argentines upped the ante in July 1895 by buying an armored cruiser

Armored cruiser

The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like other types of cruiser, the armored cruiser was a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships it encountered.The first...

, , from Italy. The Chileans responded by ordering its own armored cruiser, , and six torpedo boats; the Argentine government quickly ordered another cruiser from Italy and later bought two more.

The race slowed for a few years after a boundary dispute

Puna de Atacama dispute

The Puna de Atacama dispute was a border dispute involving Argentina, Chile and Bolivia in the 19th century over the arid high plateau of Puna de Atacama located about 4500 m.a.s.l...

in the Puna de Atacama

Puna de Atacama

The Puna de Atacama or Atacama Plateau is an arid high plateau averaging about above sea level and spanning an area of , in the Andes of northern Chile and Argentina and southwest Bolivia. Before the War of the Pacific , the region belonged to Bolivia. In 1898 it was ceded to Argentina in...

region was successfully mediated by the American ambassador to Argentina

United States Ambassador to Argentina

The United States Ambassador to Argentina is the official representative of the President of the United States to the head of state of Argentina....

, William Paine Lord

William Paine Lord

William Paine Lord , was a Republican politician who served as the ninth Governor of Oregon from 1895 to 1899. The Delaware native previously served as the 27th associate justice on the Oregon Supreme Court, including three times as the Chief Justice of that court...

, in 1899, but more ships were ordered by both countries in 1901. The Argentine Navy ordered two Rivadavia-class

Kasuga class cruiser

The was a class of two armored cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy based on the developed by Italy at the end of the 19th century.-Background:...

armored cruisers from Italy, and the Chilean Navy replied with orders for two Constitución-class

Swiftsure class battleship

The Swiftsure class was a class of two British pre-dreadnought battleships. Originally ordered by Chile, they were purchased by the United Kingdom prior to completion.-Background:...

pre-dreadnought

Pre-dreadnought

Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...

battleships. The Argentines then signed letters of intent with the Italian engineering company Ansaldo

Gio. Ansaldo & C.

Ansaldo was one of Italy's oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993.-From foundation to World War I:...

in May 1901 to buy two larger battleships. The growing dispute disturbed members of the British government, as it had the potential to disrupt the extensive British commercial interests in the area. Through their minister to Chile, they mediated negotiations between the two countries. These were successfully concluded

Treaty of Arbitration between Chile and Argentina of 1902

The Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case 1902 , was a British arbitration that established the present day boundaries between Argentina and Chile in Patagonia between the latitudes of 40° and 52° S as a interpretation of the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina...

on 28 May 1902 with three pacts. The third limited the naval armaments of both countries; both were barred from acquiring any further warships for five years without giving the other eighteen months of advance notice. The United Kingdom's Royal Navy purchased the two Chilean battleships, while the Japanese Navy took over the order for the two Argentine armored cruisers; the two Argentine battleships were never ordered. Two Argentine cruisers and Chile's Capitán Prat were demilitarized.

Brazil's fading and reemergence

Brazil's navy fell into obsolescence after an 1889 revolution, which deposed Emperor

Politics of the Empire of Brazil

Politics of the Empire of Brazil took place in a framework of a quasi-federal parliamentary representative democratic monarchy, whereby the Emperor of Brazil was the head of state and nominally head of government although the President of the Council of Ministers was effectively the de facto head,...

Dom

Dom (title)

Dom is a title of respect prefixed to the given name. It derives from Latin Dominus.It is used in English for certain Benedictine and Carthusian monks, and for members of certain communities of Canons Regular. Examples include Benedictine monks of the English Benedictine Congregation...

Pedro II

Pedro II of Brazil

Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...

, and a navy revolt

Revolta da Armada

Brazilian Naval Revolts, or the Revoltas da Armada , were armed mutinies promoted mainly by Admirals Custodio de Mello and Saldanha da Gama and their fleet of Brazilian Navy ships against unconstitucional attitudes of the then the central government in Rio de Janeiro.-First revolt:In November 1891,...

. Although the navies of Argentina and Chile were now limited by their agreement, they still retained the numerous vessels built in the interim, and so by the turn of the 20th century the Brazilian Navy lagged far behind its Argentine and Chilean counterparts in quality and total tonnage, despite Brazil having nearly three times the population of Argentina and almost five times the population of Chile.
Rising demand for coffee and rubber

Rubber boom

The rubber boom was an important part of the economic and social history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related with the extraction and commercialization of rubber...

brought Brazil an influx of revenue in the early 1900s. Simultaneously, there was a drive on the part of prominent Brazilians, most notably the Baron of Rio Branco, to have the country recognized as an international power. A large naval acquisition program was drawn up and passed by the National Congress of Brazil

National Congress of Brazil

The National Congress of Brazil is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government.Unlike regional legislative bodies – Legislative Assemblies and City Councils -, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies .The Senate represents the 26 states and...

in late 1904 in accordance with their belief that a powerful navy would be crucial to the achievement of this goal, but it was two years before any ships were ordered.

Two factions argued over the types of ships to be ordered. One, supported by Armstrong, favored a navy centered around a small number of large warships, while the other preferred a larger navy of smaller warships. The latter originally prevailed with a bill authorizing the construction of three small battleships, three armored cruiser

Armored cruiser

s, six destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

s, twelve torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

s, three submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s, and two river monitor

River monitor

River monitors were heavily armored, and normally mounted the largest guns of all riverine warships. The name originated from the US Navy's Brown Water Navy's USS Monitor, which made her first appearance in the American Civil War, and being distinguished by a single revolving turret.On 18 December...

s. Though the Brazilian government later eliminated the armored cruisers for monetary reasons, the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Júlio César de Noronha, signed a contract with Armstrong Whitworth for three small battleships on 23 July 1906.

Alarmed, the American ambassador to Brazil sent a cablegram

Cablegram

A cablegram, sometimes shortened to just cable, was a telegram, a text possibly encrypted, which was transmitted through the means of an electrical cable, underwater or aerial....

to his Department of State

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

in September 1906, warning them of the destabilization that would occur if the situation devolved into a full naval arms race. At the same time, the American government under Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

tried using diplomatic means to coerce the Brazilians into canceling their ships, but the attempts were dismissed, with the Baron of Rio Branco remarking that caving to the American demands would render Brazil as powerless as Cuba, whose new constitution

1901 Constitution of Cuba

1901 Constitution of Cuba was the constitution used in Cuba from May 20, 1902 until it was replaced by the 1940 Constitution of Cuba. A constitutional convention was called by Leonard Wood, the U.S. military governor of Cuba. On November 5, 1900, the 6 provinces sent delegates to the convention...

allowed the American government to intervene in Cuban affairs. The President of Brazil

President of Brazil

The president of Brazil is both the head of state and head of government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Armed Forces...

, Afonso Pena, supported the naval acquisitions in an address to the National Congress of Brazil in November 1906, as in his opinion the ships were necessary to replace the antiquated and obsolete vessels of the current navy.

Catalyst: Brazil's dreadnoughts

The keel

Keel

In boats and ships, keel can refer to either of two parts: a structural element, or a hydrodynamic element. These parts overlap. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in construction of a ship, in British and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event...

s of the three Brazilian battleships were laid, but Britain's new dreadnought

Dreadnought

concept, represented by the commissioning of the ship of the same name

HMS Dreadnought (1906)

HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...

in December 1906, rendered the Brazilian ships obsolete before they were completed. A transition to a few large warships was finalized with the explosion of the old battleship Aquidabã

Brazilian battleship Aquidabã

Aquidabã, anglicized as Aquidaban, was a ‎Brazilian ironclad warship built in the mid-1880s. The ship participated in two naval revolts; during the second she was sunk by a government torpedo boat. After being refloated, Aquidabã was sent to Germany for repairs and modernization...

in 1906, which killed many of the small-ship supporters, and the selection of a large-ship advocate, Rear Admiral Alexandrino Fario de Alencar, for the powerful post of minister of the navy. The money authorized for naval expansion was redirected by de Alencar to building two dreadnoughts, with plans for a third dreadnought after the first was completed, two scout cruisers (which became the Bahia class

Bahia class cruiser

The Bahia class was a pair of scout cruisers built for Brazil by Armstrong Whitworth in the United Kingdom, based on a design that borrowed heavily from the British scout cruisers. The class comprised the lead ship , along with her sister ship . Both were named after states of Brazil...

), ten destroyers (the Pará class

Pará class destroyer (1908)

The Pará class destroyers were a class of 10 destroyers built for the Brazilian Navy between 1908 and 1910 by Yarrow in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow, Scotland. All named after states of Brazil, the class closely resembled the River class destroyers...

), and three submarines. The three battleships on which construction had just begun were scrapped beginning on 7 January 1907. The design for the new dreadnoughts was approved on 20 February 1907.

The order for powerful dreadnoughts, at a time when few countries in the world had contracted for such armament, caused a major stir in the international politics of the time. The United States quickly began courting Brazil as a potentially powerful ally in the Western Hemisphere. On the other side of the Atlantic, in the midst of the early 1900s naval arms race

World War I naval arms race

The naval arms race of the early 20th Century preceded and was one of the several intertwined causes for World War I. It was primarily between the United Kingdom and the German Empire...

between the United Kingdom and Germany, members of the British House of Commons debated purchasing the ships in March, July, and September 1908 to bolster the Royal Navy while ensuring they would not be sold to a foreign rival. Newspapers and journals around the world speculated that Brazil had only ordered the ships as a cover for a major power, who would take official control of the ships when completed. Newspapers, in particular, opined that the ships could be sold to anyone but the country they were based in; British papers variously accused the Germans, Japanese, and Americans as being the real buyers, while mainland European papers looked at the United Kingdom with suspicion, and American papers accused the British, Germans, and Japanese of being the hidden buyer. The American New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

remarked:

The rumor is that the three warships . . . ordered [in Britain] two years ago will be launched from English shores only to fly the German flag. It is asserted that these ships, which are named the Sao Paulo, the Minas Geras [sic] and the Rio de Janeiro, and all of which will be completed by next fall, will be conveyed to the German government on the payment of $30,000,000.

It may be recalled that when orders were placed for the ships . . ., there was much speculation as to the destiny of the vessels, as no naval expert could understand how a second-rate power like Brazil needed such formidable engines of war which would represent absolutely the latest stages of naval construction and armament. Meanwhile, it had been reported that the ships were being built for the Japanese government, which had a secret understanding with Brazil. But this theory was soon discarded by the fact that relations between these two countries were not extremely cordial on account of the attitude of Brazil toward the immigration of Japanese laborers. Then it was semi-officially stated that the ships would never leave the ways except to fly the British flag, but the money for such a purpose could only be raised by a loan or the Admiralty getting the sum from the sinking fund—contingencies which would naturally become public property long before they could be carried out. ("Germany May Buy English Warships," New York Times, 9 August 1908, C8)

Response: Argentina and Chile's dreadnought orders

Argentina and Chile were alarmed by the Brazilian move, and they quickly moved to nullify the 1902 agreement which restricted their navies. Argentina's Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship is the Argentine government ministry which oversees the foreign relations of Argentina.The current Chancellor is Héctor Timerman.-External links:...

, Manuel Augusto Montes de Oca, remarked that either Minas Geraes or São Paulo could destroy the entire Argentine and Chilean fleets. While this may have been hyperbole, either battleship was much more powerful than any single vessel in the Argentinian fleet. Both countries faced difficulty in financing their own dreadnoughts. Although the ruling National Autonomist Party

National Autonomist Party

The National Autonomist Party was an Argentine political party during the 1874-1916 period. Created on March 15, 1874 by the union of the Autonomist Party of Adolfo Alsina and the National Party of Nicolás Avellaneda...

supported the purchases, they initially faced public resistance for such expensive acquisitions. Renewed border disputes with Brazil, particularly in the Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

region, where Brazil accused Argentina of attempting to restore the region's Viceroyalty

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...

, and an influx of inflammatory newspaper editorials supporting new dreadnoughts swayed the public to support the purchases. The Argentine government did offer to purchase one of the two dreadnoughts from Brazil, which would leave the two navies on an equal footing and satisfy the naval needs of both countries without an expensive arms race. The Brazilian government declined to sell, and a naval bill authorizing the purchase of new warships passed on 17 December 1908 with 49 in support to 13 opposed. Chile, on the other hand, had wanted to respond to Brazil's purchase as early as February 1906, but the naval plans were delayed by a financial depression

Depression (economics)

In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as part of the modern business cycle....

in 1907 brought on by a drastic fall in the nitrate

Nitrate

The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...

market and by a major earthquake in 1908. Money for a naval building program was only allocated in 1910.

After the Argentine government sent a naval delegation to Europe to solicit and evaluate armament companies' offers, they received tenders from fifteen shipyards in five countries (the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy), and conducted a drawn-out bidding process. The Argentine delegation rejected all of the bids twice, each time recycling the best technical aspects of the tendered designs when crafting new bidding requirements. The shipbuilders were furious, as the process of designing a major warship took large amounts of time and money, and they believed the Argentine tactic revealed their individual trade secret

Trade secret

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...

s. A British naval architect published a scathing condemnation of the Argentine tactics, albeit only after the contracts were not awarded to a British company:

We may assume that the British battleships embody good ideas and good practice—in all probability the very best. These cannot fail, in a greater or less degree, to become part of the design which the British shipbuilder first submits to the Argentine Government. In the second inquiry it may be presumed that everything that was good in the first proposals had been seized upon by the Argentine authorities and asked for in the new design. This second request went not only to British builders but to all the builders of the world, and in this way it is exceedingly probable that a serious leakage of ideas and practice of our ships was disseminated through the world by the Argentine government. . . . The third inquiry that was issued showed to all the builders of the world what has been eliminated or modified in the second inquiry; and so the process of leakage went merrily on, and with it that of the education of foreign builders and the Argentine government. (John H. Biles, "Argentina," Navy [Washington] 4, no. 7 [1910]: 30, quoted in Robert Scheina, Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987 [Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987], 84)

The United States' Fore River Shipbuilding Company

Fore River Shipyard

tendered the lowest bid—in part due to the availability of cheap steel, though they were accused of quoting an unprofitable price so the ships could act as loss leader

Loss leader

A loss leader or leader is a product sold at a low price to stimulate other profitable sales. It is a kind of sales promotion, in other words marketing concentrating on a pricing strategy. A loss leader is often a popular article...

s—and was awarded the contract. This aroused further suspicion in the European bidders, who had believed that the United States was not a real contender, although Argentina did order twelve destroyers from British, French, and German shipyards. The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

(London) editorialized that the American government had heavily misused their diplomatic influence in directing the contracts to Fore River, and accused the company of obscenely lowering their price.

The Argentine contract included an option

Option (finance)

In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the...

for a third dreadnought in case the Brazilian government adhered to its contractual obligations to order a third dreadnought. Two newspapers, La Prensa and La Argentina

La Nación

La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...

, heavily advocated a third ship; the latter even started a petition to raise money for a new battleship. The American minister to Argentina, Charles H. Sherrill

Charles H. Sherrill (ambassador)

Gen. Charles Hitchcock Sherrill was American politician, diplomat and sport officer.Son of Charles H. Sherrill, he studied Yale University and became a New York City based lawyer....

, cabled back to the United States that "this newspaper rivalry promises the early conclusion of a movement which means a third battleship whether by public subscription or by Government funds." On 31 December 1910, the Argentine government decided against constructing the ship, after Brazil canceled its third dreadnought in May, and the election of Roque Sáenz Peña

Roque Sáenz Peña

Roque Sáenz Peña Lahitte was President of Argentina from 12 October 1910 to 9 August 1914, when he died in office...

, who was making entreaties to Brazil to end the expensive naval race, to the Presidency.

Although Chile solicited bids from several armament companies, nearly all believed that a British company would win the contract; the American naval attaché

Military attaché

A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...

opined that without anything short of a revolution, the contracts were destined for the United Kingdom. The Chilean Navy had cultivated extensive ties with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

since the 1830s, when Chilean naval officers were given places on British ships to receive training and experience they could bring back to their country. This relationship had recently been cemented when a British naval mission was requested by Chile and sent in 1911. Still, the American and German governments attempted to swing sentiment to their side, and dispatched naval vessels to Chilean ports. Their efforts were futile, and the design tendered by the British company Armstrong Whitworth

Armstrong Whitworth

was chosen and awarded on 25 July 1911.

Construction and trials of the new warships

Brazil's Minas Geraes, the lead ship

Lead ship

The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...

, was laid down by Armstrong on 17 April 1907, while her sister ship

Sister ship

A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...

São Paulo

Brazilian battleship Sao Paulo

São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship designed for the Brazilian Navy by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. She was the second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class, and was named after the state and city of São Paulo....

followed thirteen days later at Vickers. Construction of the partial hull needed to launch

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

Minas Geraes was delayed by a four-month strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

to 10 September 1908, and São Paulo followed on 19 April 1909. Both were christened in front of large crowds by the wife of Francisco Régis de Oliveira, the Brazilian ambassador to the United Kingdom. After multiple trials

Sea trial

A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft . It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and can last from a few hours to many days.Sea trials are conducted to measure a vessel’s...

of the speed, endurance, efficiency, and weaponry of the ship, Minas Geraes was completed and handed over to Brazil on 5 January 1910. São Paulo followed in July, after her own trials.

Argentina's Rivadavia

ARA Rivadavia

ARA Rivadavia"ARA" is an acronym for Armada de la República Argentina was a battleship of the Argentine Navy. Named after the first Argentine president, Bernardino Rivadavia, she was the lead ship of her class and the third dreadnought built during the South American dreadnought race...

was built by Fore River at its shipyard in Massachusetts, and as called for in the final contract, Moreno was subcontracted

Subcontractor

A subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract....

out to the New York Shipbuilding Corporation

New York Shipbuilding

The New York Shipbuilding Corporation was founded in 1899 and opened its first shipyard in 1900. Located in Camden, New Jersey on the east shore of the Delaware River, New York Ship built more than 500 vessels for the U.S...

of New Jersey. The steel for the ships was largely supplied by the Bethlehem Steel Company of Pennsylvania. Rivadavia was laid down on 25 May 1910 and launched

Ship naming and launching

on 26 August 1911. Moreno

ARA Moreno

ARA Moreno was a dreadnought battleship designed by the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company for the Argentine Navy...

was laid down on 10 July 1910 and launched on 23 September 1911. Construction on both ships took longer than usual, and there were further delays during their sea trials when one of Rivadavias turbines was damaged and one of Morenos turbines failed. The two were only officially completed in December 1914 and February 1915.

Chile's Almirante Latorre

Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre

Almirante Latorre, named after Juan José Latorre, was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Chilean Navy . She was the first of a planned two-ship class that would respond to earlier warship purchases by other South American countries...

was launched

Ship naming and launching

on 27 November 1913. After the First World War

World War I

broke out in Europe, work on Almirante Latorre was halted in August 1914, and she was formally purchased on 9 September after the British Cabinet

Cabinet of the United Kingdom

The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....

recommended it four days earlier. Almirante Latorre was not forcibly seized like the Ottoman Reshadieh and Sultan Osman I

HMS Agincourt (1913)

HMS Agincourt was a dreadnought built in the early 1910s. The ship was originally ordered by Brazil, but the collapse of the rubber boom plus a lessening of the rivalry with Argentina led to her resale while still under construction to the Ottoman Empire who renamed her as Sultan Osman I...

(ex-Rio de Janeiro), two other ships being built for a foreign navy, because of Chile's "friendly neutral" status with the United Kingdom which the British needed to maintain due to their dependence on Chilean munitions imports. The former Chilean ship was completed on 30 September 1915, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 15 October, and she served in that navy through the First World War. Work on the other battleship, Almirante Cochrane, was halted after the outbreak of war. The British purchased her on 28 February 1918 to be converted to an aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

, as the partially completed ship was the only available large and fast hull capable of being modified into a full flush-deck carrier. Low priority and quarrels with shipyard workers

Industrial action

Industrial action or job action refers collectively to any measure taken by trade unions or other organised labour meant to reduce productivity in a workplace. Quite often it is used and interpreted as a euphemism for strike, but the scope is much wider...

slowed completion of the ship, but she was eventually commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Eagle

HMS Eagle (1918)

HMS Eagle was an early aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile as the Almirante Cochrane, she was laid down before World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924...

Third stage: another Brazilian dreadnought

When Brazil canceled construction on the third Minas Geraes class ship, they asked for new designs from Armstrong that took in the more recent advances in naval technology, such as the advent of super-dreadnoughts. Eustace Tennyson-d'Eyncourt served as Armstrong's liaison to Brazil. Originally, the dreadnought was going to mount twelve 14-inch guns, but the many requests made by the Brazilian Navy for minor changes delayed the contract signing until 10 October 1910. The battleship's keel laying was delayed further by a shipwright strike. During these delays, a new Minister of the Navy, Admiral Marques Leão, was appointed to replace de Alencar. He had been greatly influenced by German naval practices while touring Europe in early 1910, and as he saw it, Brazil's new battleship should "not be built on exaggerated lines such as have not yet stood the test of experience." He and others in the navy favored a reversion to the 12-inch gun, but others, including the outgoing Minister of the Navy (de Alencar) and the head of the Brazilian naval commission in the United Kingdom (Rear Admiral Duarte Huet de Bacellar Pinto Guedes), were in favor of obtaining the ship with the largest armament—in this case, a design thought up by Bacellar, carrying eight 16-inch guns, six 9.4-inch guns, and fourteen 6-inch guns.

D'Eyncourt, who had departed Brazil in October immediately after the contract was signed, returned in March 1911 to display the various design options available to the Brazilian Navy. Armstrong evidently thought the second faction would prevail, so he also took with him everything needed to close a deal on Bacellar's design. By mid-March, Armstrong's contacts in Brazil reported that Leao had convinced the President to cancel the design with twelve 14-inch guns in favor of a smaller ship. D'Eyncourt probably avoided proposing 16-inch guns when he realized the political situation. In meetings with Leao, designs of only ten 12-inch guns mounted on the centerline were quickly rejected, even though their broadside was as strong as that of the Minas Geraes class, but a design with fourteen 12-inch guns emerged as the frontrunner. Author David Topliss attributes this to political necessity:

The reasons for the Minister's interest in the [fourteen] gun ship are not hard to fathom. In his book The Big Battleship, [Richard] Hough says that D'Eyncourt appealed to the Brazilian's megalomania, but this is unlikely to be true. In reality it is much more probable that the choice was dictated by political considerations. It has been seen that the Minister would find it difficult to justify paying more for a ship that was on paper less powerful than the Minas Geraes. The same would apply to a ship that (on paper) was only the equal of the Minas Geraes; somehow he had to have a ship that was more powerful. Having rejected the possibility of larger caliber guns, the only option was to have more guns of the same caliber. (David Topliss, "The Brazilian Dreadnoughts, 1904–1914," Warship International 25, no. 3 [1988]: 280)

After numerous requests for design alterations from the Brazilian Navy were accommodated or rejected, a contract was signed for a ship with fourteen 12-inch guns on 3 June 1911 for £2,675,000, and Rio de Janeiros keel was laid for the fourth time on 14 September. It did not take long for the Brazilian government to reconsider their decision again; by mid-1912, Chile's battleships with ten 14-inch guns were under construction, and suddenly it appeared that Rio de Janeiro would be quickly outclassed. Armstrong studied whether replacing the 12-inch guns with seven 15-inch guns would be feasible, but Brazil was probably already attempting to sell the ship. In the tension building up to the First World War, plenty of countries, including Russia, Italy, France, Greek, and the Ottoman Empire, were willing to purchase the ship. Russia and Italy dropped out, and Greece made an offer for the original purchase price plus an additional £50,000. As they worked to obtain the money, the Ottomans, with a loan from a French banker independent of his government, were able to secure the ship as-is for £1,200,000 on 29 December 1913. As part of the purchase contract, the remainder of the ship was constructed with Ottoman money. Renamed Sultan Osman I, she was eventually taken over by the British shortly after the beginning of the First World War, serving with the Royal Navy as HMS Agincourt

HMS Agincourt (1913)

.

The Argentine government authorized a third dreadnought in October 1912 in case Rio de Janeiro was completed and delivered, but the ship was never named or built.

Riachuelo

After selling Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian government asked Armstrong and Vickers to prepare more designs for a new battleship. They replied with at least fourteen designs, six from Vickers (December 1913 through March 1914) and eight from Armstrong (February 1914). Vickers' designs varied between eight and ten 15-inch and eight 16-inch guns, with speeds between 22 and 25 knots (the lower-end ships having mixed firing, higher using oil), and displacements between 26000 tonnes (25,589.3 LT) and 30500 tonnes (30,018.2 LT). Armstrong took two basic designs, one with eight and the other with ten 15-inch guns, and varied their speed and firing. The Brazilian government chose what was labeled as Design 781, the first of the eight 15-inch designs tendered by Armstrong, which also shared characteristics with the Queen Elizabeth and es then being built for the United Kingdom.

The Brazilian government placed an order for one ship of this design, to be named Riachuelo, at the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard in Elswick

Elswick, Tyne and Wear

Elswick is a ward of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in the western part of the city, bordering the river Tyne. One of the earliest references to the coal mining industry of the north east occurs in 1330, when it was recorded that the Prior of Tynemouth let a colliery, called Heygrove, at...

in May 1914. Some preliminary work was completed for Riachuelo, but the ship's keel had not been laid by the time the United Kingdom declared war on the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

in August 1914, and Riachuelo was never constructed.

Attempted sales

After Rio de Janeiro was sold to the Ottoman Empire, the Argentine government bowed to popular demand and began to seek a buyer for their two dreadnoughts. The money received in return would be devoted to internal improvements. Three bills directing that the battleships be sold were introduced into the Argentine National Congress

Argentine National Congress

The Congress of the Argentine Nation is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies....

in mid-1914, but all were defeated. Still, Germany and the United Kingdom expressed worries that the ships could be sold to a belligerent nation, while Italy, the Ottomans, and Greece were all reportedly interested in buying both ships, the latter as a counter to the Ottoman purchase of Rio de Janeiro. The United States, worried that its neutrality would not be respected and its technology would be released for study to a foreign country, put diplomatic pressure on the Argentine government to keep the ships, which it eventually did.

In each of the countries involved in the South American dreadnought arms race, movements arose that advocated the sale of the dreadnoughts to devote the money toward more worthy pursuits. The costs for the ships were rightfully viewed as enormous. After the Minas Geraes class was ordered, a Brazilian newspaper equated the initial purchase cost for the three ships (given as £

Pound sterling

6,110,100 without accounting for ammunition, which was £605,520, or necessary upgrades to docks, costing £832,000) as equaling 3,125 miles of railroad tracks or 30,300 homesteads

Homestead (buildings)

A homestead is either a single building, or collection of buildings grouped together on a large agricultural holding, such as a ranch, station or a large agricultural operation of some other designation.-See also:* Farm house* Homestead Act...

. Costs for maintenance and related issues, which in the first five years of Minas Geraess and São Paulos commissioned lives was about 60 percent of the initial cost, only added to the already staggering sum of money. The two Rivadavias were purchased for about a fifth of the Argentine government's yearly income, and not including the later in-service costs.

In addition, the nationalistic sentiments that exacerbated the naval arms race had given way to slowing economies and growing public opinion that supported investing inside the country. Commenting on this, the United States' Minister to Chile

United States Ambassador to Chile

The following is a list of Ambassadors that the United States has sent to Chile. The current title given by the United States State Department to this position is Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.-See also:*Chile – United States relations...

, Henry Prather Fletcher, wrote to Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...

: "Since the naval rivalry began in 1910, financial conditions, which were none too good then, have grown worse; and as time approaches for the final payment, feeling has been growing in these countries that perhaps they are much more in need of money than of battleships."

Post-war expansions

After the end of the First World War, the dreadnought race never began again, but many plans for post-war naval expansions and improvements were attempted by the Argentine, Brazilian, and Chilean governments. Argentina's Rivadavia and Moreno were modernized in the United States between 1924 and 1926, and under a large naval building program launched in 1926, three cruisers (the Italian-built Veinticinco de Mayo class

Veinticinco de Mayo class cruiser

The two Veinticinco de Mayo class heavy cruisers served in the Argentine Navy through World War II. They were the only post-Washington Naval Treaty heavy cruisers built for a South American Navy...

and the British-built La Argentina

ARA La Argentina

The ARA La Argentina was a light cruiser, designed for training naval cadets, built for the Argentine Navy. The ship was authorised in 1934, and the contract was put out to tender in 1935, being won by the British company Vickers-Armstrongs at a cost of 6 million pesos.La Argentina was built in...

), twelve destroyers (the Spanish-built Churruca class

Churruca class destroyer

Churruca was a Spanish destroyer class built for the Spanish Navy based on a British design. Eighteen ships were built, two sold to Argentina.The ships were authorized on 17 February 1915 by Navy Minister Augusto Miranda y Godoy...

and the British-built Mendoza

Mendoza class destroyer

The Mendoza class were a group of destroyers built in Britain for the Argentine Navy in the 1920s. They were the first part of the Argentian re-armament programme of the 1920s- Design :...

/Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires class destroyer

The Buenos Aires class destroyers were a group of destroyers built for the Argentine Navy in Britain in the 1930s.-Design:The ships were based on the contemporary G class destroyers building for the British Royal Navy, with some modifications to suit Argentinian requirements...

classes), and three submarines (the Italian-built Santa Fe class) were acquired.

The Brazilian government modernized Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and the two cruisers acquired under the 1904 plan, Bahia

Brazilian cruiser Bahia

Bahia was the lead ship of a two-vessel class of cruisers built for Brazil by Armstrong Whitworth in the United Kingdom. Six months after her commissioning , crewmen aboard Bahia, , , and mutinied, beginning the...

and Rio Grande do Sul, between 1918 and 1925. They also made plans to acquire additional ships in the 1920s and '30s, but both were sharply reduced from the original proposals. In 1924, a proposal for the construction of a relatively modest number of warships (a heavy cruiser, and five destroyers) and five submarines was floated. In the same year, the newly-arrived American naval mission, led by Rear Admiral Carl Theodore Vogelgesang

Carl Theodore Vogelgesang

Carl Theodore Vogelgesang was a United States Navy rear admiral and Navy Cross recipient. He was the first U.S...

, tendered a naval expansion plan of 151,000 tons, divided between battleships (70,000), cruisers (60,000), destroyers (15,000), and submarines (6,000). The United States' State Department, led by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...

, was fresh from negotiating the Washington Naval Treaty

Washington Naval Treaty

The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...

and not keen on seeing another dreadnought race, so Hughes quickly moved to stymie the efforts of the mission. Only one Italian-built submarine, Humaytá

Brazilian submarine Humaytá

Humaytá was a modified built in Italy for the Brazilian Navy. The submarine was laid down by Odero-Terni-Orlando at La Spezia on 19 November 1925, launched on 11 June 1927, and handed over to the Brazilian Navy on 11 June 1929. Proceeds from the sale of the to the Mexican Navy provided funds for...

, was acquired under this plan.

Minas Geraes was modernized at the Rio de Janeiro Naval Yard from June 1931 to 1938, but São Paulos poor material condition made any similar action uneconomical. During the same period, the Brazilian government looked into purchasing cruisers from the United States Navy but ran into the restrictions of the Washington and London Naval Treaties

London Naval Treaty

The London Naval Treaty was an agreement between the United Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, France, Italy and the United States, signed on April 22, 1930, which regulated submarine warfare and limited naval shipbuilding. Ratifications were exchanged in London on October 27, 1930, and the treaty went...

, which prevented the sale of used warships to foreign countries. They also tried to purchase destroyers from the United States, but eventually contracted for six destroyers from the United Kingdom. In the interim, a plan to lease six destroyers from the United States Navy was abandoned after it was met with strong opposition from both international and American institutions. Three Marcilio Dias-class destroyers

Marcilio Dias class destroyer

The Marcilio Dias class destroyers were three ships of the Brazilian Navy that served during World War II. They were based on the Mahan class destroyer and were the first sizable ships built in Brazil...

, based on the American Mahan class

Mahan class destroyer

The Mahan-class destroyers served in the United States Navy before and during World War II. The lead ship of the class was named for Alfred T. Mahan, a US Naval officer and influential theorist on sea power....

, were laid down in Brazil with six minelayers, all of which were launched in 1939–1941. Though both required foreign assistance to complete and were consequently delayed by the war, all were completed by 1944.
Chile began to seek additional ships to bolster its fleet in 1919, and the United Kingdom eagerly offered many of its surplus warships. This action worried the nations of South America, who feared that a Chilean attempt to regain the title of "the first naval power in South America" would destabilize the region and start another naval arms race. Chile asked for Canada and Almirante Cochrane, but the cost of converting the latter back to a battleship was too high. Planned replacements included the two remaining s, but a leak to the press of the secret negotiations to acquire them caused an uproar within Chile itself over the value of such ships. In the end, Chile only bought Canada and four destroyers in April 1920. All five had been ordered from British yards by the Chilean government before 1914, but were purchased by the Royal Navy after the British entered the First World War. All were obtained for comparatively low prices; Canada was sold for just £1,000,000, less than half of what had been required to construct the ship. The Chileans continued to acquire more ships from the British in the 1920s, adding six destroyers (the Serrano class

Serrano class destroyer

The Serrano class was a series of six destroyers which served with Chilean Navy during World War II. Chile ordered the Serrano class from John I. Thornycroft & Company in the United Kingdom to enhance the Chilean Navy's ability to patrol its extensive coastline...

), three submarines (the Capitan O'Brien class), and smaller ships in the late 1920s. Almirante Latorre was sailed to the United Kingdom in 1929 to be modernized at Devonport Dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

, which was completed in 1931. In the late 1930s, the Chilean government inquired into the possibility of constructing an 8600 long tons (8,738 t) cruiser in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, or Sweden, but this did not pan out. A second plan to acquire two small cruisers was dropped with the beginning of the Second World War. Interestingly, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

, the United States attempted to purchase Almirante Latorre, two destroyers, and a submarine tender

Submarine tender

A submarine tender is a type of ship that supplies and supports submarines.Submarines are small compared to most oceangoing vessels, and generally do not have the ability to carry large amounts of food, fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies, nor to carry a full array of maintenance equipment and...

, but the offer was rejected.

At the beginning of the Second World War, the three major South American navies found themselves unable to acquire major warships. With the end, the United States and United Kingdom had many ships that were unnecessary or surplus to the requirements of their post-war navies. Still, the South American countries ran into political difficulties in acquiring anything larger than Flower-class corvettes

Flower class corvette

The Flower-class corvette was a class of 267 corvettes used during World War II, specifically with the Allied navies as anti-submarine convoy escorts during the Battle of the Atlantic...

and River-class frigates

River class frigate

The River class frigate was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic....

. The war had proved the obsolete status of battleships, so the navies were seeking cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, which they were finally able to acquire when the Red Scare

Red Scare

Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...

began to strongly affect American and international politics. One of the deals reached under the Mutual Defense Assistance Act

Mutual Defense Assistance Act

The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on 6 October 1949. For US Foreign policy, it was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era, and initially to Europe...

(1949) sold six American light cruisers to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in January 1951. While this bolstered the navies of important South American allies of the United States, which would be treaty-bound

Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance

The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was an agreement signed on 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many countries of the Americas...

to assist the United States in any war, naval historian Robert Scheina argues that the American government also used the opportunity to significantly affect the traditional naval rivalry among the three countries:

While more than ninety percent of the aid provided under [the Mutual Defense Assistance Act] went to European and Asian countries, the United States, now the dominant foreign power in Latin America, used surplus ships as a tool to further mutual interests . . . and reshape the Latin American naval panorama. Thus Argentina's pre-World War II formula that she had to possess a fleet equal in strength to the combined fleets of Brazil and Chile changed in one stroke to 1A = 1B = 1C. (Scheina, Naval History, 173)

With the influx of relatively modern warships, the battleships of the three countries were sold for scrap

Ship breaking

in the 1950s. The Brazilian ships were disposed of first; São Paulo was sold in 1951, but was lost in a storm north of the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

while being towed to her final destination. Minas Geraes was sold two years later and broken up in Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

beginning in 1954. Of the Argentine dreadnoughts, Rivadavia was scrapped in Italy beginning in 1959, while Moreno was brought to Japan in 1957. Almirante Latorre, inactive since 1951, followed Moreno to Japan in 1959.

Ships

Ship	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Minas Geraes	Armstrong Whitworth Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...	17 April 1907	10 September 1908	January 1910	Scrapped Ship breaking Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially... 1950s.
São Paulo Brazilian battleship Sao Paulo São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship designed for the Brazilian Navy by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. She was the second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class, and was named after the state and city of São Paulo....	Vickers Vickers Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...	30 April 1907	19 April 1909	July 1910	Sank en route to scrapyard, September 1951.
Rio de Janeiro HMS Agincourt (1913) HMS Agincourt was a dreadnought built in the early 1910s. The ship was originally ordered by Brazil, but the collapse of the rubber boom plus a lessening of the rivalry with Argentina led to her resale while still under construction to the Ottoman Empire who renamed her as Sultan Osman I...	Armstrong	14 September 1911	22 January 1913	August 1914	Acquired by Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries... , then taken over by the United Kingdom for use in the First World War; scrapped beginning 1924.
Riachuelo	Armstrong	–	–	–	Ordered but soon canceled after the outbreak of the First World War.
Rivadavia ARA Rivadavia ARA Rivadavia"ARA" is an acronym for Armada de la República Argentina was a battleship of the Argentine Navy. Named after the first Argentine president, Bernardino Rivadavia, she was the lead ship of her class and the third dreadnought built during the South American dreadnought race...	Fore River Fore River Shipyard The Fore River Shipyard of Quincy, Massachusetts, more formally known as the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, was a shipyard in the United States from 1883 until 1986. Located on the Weymouth Fore River, the yard began operations in 1883 in Braintree, Massachusetts before being moved...	25 May 1910	26 August 1911	December 1914	Scrapped 1950s.
Moreno ARA Moreno ARA Moreno was a dreadnought battleship designed by the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company for the Argentine Navy...	Fore River	9 July 1910	23 September 1911	February 1915	Scrapped 1950s.
Almirante Latorre Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre Almirante Latorre, named after Juan José Latorre, was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Chilean Navy . She was the first of a planned two-ship class that would respond to earlier warship purchases by other South American countries...	Armstrong	27 November 1911	27 November 1913	October 1915	Acquired by the United Kingdom from Chile to serve in the First World War; acquired by Chile again, 1920; scrapped 1950s.
Almirante Cochrane HMS Eagle (1918) HMS Eagle was an early aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile as the Almirante Cochrane, she was laid down before World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924...	Armstrong	20 February 1913	8 June 1918	February 1924	Acquired by the United Kingdom and converted to the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle; sunk 1942.

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