The dynamics of competitive naval expansion during the period 1889–1922 were shaped by interlocking economic, technological, financial, and political changes that had taken place over the course of the 19th century. The spread of industrialization expanded global production and consumption. Industrialization also made possible technological improvements in commercial ships and longdistance communications that reduced the costs of marine transportation. The increases in demand and supply together with decreases in the expense of commercial process accelerated the growth of trans-oceanic trade, and stimulated the acquisition of colonial territory for economic exploitation. This in turn enhanced the significance of maritime commerce and imperial extension as components of national prosperity, and thus of the strategic importance of naval power needed to protect valuable and even vital economic interests. Industrialization also created surplus wealth that could be devoted to naval purposes, brought into being powerful interest groups that favored higher outlays on navies, and generated rapid advances in naval technology. As a consequence, maritime powers were both fiscally capable and politically inclined to spend more on navies, and required to update their fleets repeatedly with warships of the latest design in order to maintain fighting efficiency. For most of the 19th century, upswings in warship construction by maritime powers were the product of temporary political conditions, and thus episodic. From 1889 to 1922, however, chronic international political antagonism – exacerbated by the widely held belief that the economic and therefore political destiny of great states depended upon maritime development – provoked widespread and nearly continuous competitive naval building.