six of the Danton class begun afterwards. Germany's first pre-dreadnoughts, the , were laid down in 1890. By 1905, a further 19 battleships were built or under construction, thanks to the sharp increase in naval expenditure justified by the 1898 and 1900 Navy Laws. This increase was due to the determination of the navy chief Alfred von Tirpitz and the growing sense of national rivalry with the UK. Besides the Brandenburg class, German pre-dreadnoughts include the ships of the , , and Braunschweig classes—culminating in the , which served in both world wars. On the whole, the German ships were less powerful than their British equivalents but equally robust. Russia equally entered into a programme of naval expansion in the 1890s; one of Russia's main objectives was to maintain its interests against Japanese expansion in the Far East. The Petropavlovsk class begun in 1892 took after the British Royal Sovereigns; later ships showed more French influence on their designs, such as the Borodino class. The weakness of Russian shipbuilding meant that many ships were built overseas for Russia; the best ship, the Retvizan, being largely constructed in the United States. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 was a disaster for the Russian pre-dreadnoughts; of the 15 battleships completed since Petropavlovsk, eleven were sunk or captured during the war. One of these, the famous , mutinied and was briefly taken over by Romania at the end of the mutiny. However, she was soon recovered and recommissioned as Panteleimon. After the war, Russia completed four more pre-dreadnoughts after 1905. Between 1893 and 1904, Italy laid down eight battleships; the later two classes of ship were remarkably fast, though the was poorly protected and the lightly armed. In some ways, these ships presaged the concept of the battlecruiser. The Austro-Hungarian Empire also saw a naval renaissance during the 1890s, though of the nine pre-dreadnought battleships ordered only the three of the Habsburg class arrived before Dreadnought herself made them obsolete. America and the Pacific The United States started building its first battleships in 1891. These ships were short-range coast-defence battleships that were similar to the British except for an innovative intermediate battery of 8-inch guns. The US Navy continued to build ships that were relatively short-range and poor in heavy seas, until the laid down in 1901–02. Nevertheless, it was these earlier ships that ensured American naval dominance against the antiquated Spanish fleet—which included