The fleet legislation of 1898 for the first time looked ahead and established rules as to the future number of ships and the time-limit within which they should be built, and also laid down principles as to the tasks that the fleet was intended to accomplish. Two squadrons, of eight battle-ships each, were to be in constant readiness and were to have a flag-ship at their head. Six large and sixteen small cruisers were to act as scouts, three large and ten small cruisers as a “foreign fleet”; two battle-ships, three large cruisers and four small ones were to form the reserve, and the whole reorganization was to be completed in six years—that is, by 1904. It had heretofore been provided that in case of war each ship should give up half of its trained men as a nucleus for the new crews of the reserve ships. This greatly weakened the fighting power of the ships at the crucial moment, and the legislation of 1898 abolished the compulsion for one at least of the two squadrons. Between 1898 and 1900 came events which greatly disquieted Germany: the Spanish-American and Boer Wars and disturbances in Samoa. Off Manila there were amenities between the German and American admirals which might have ended more creditably for the former had he been able to display more force. The legislation of 1900 was influenced by all these factors and has a wider perspective than any that had gone before. The preamble declared that “Germany must have a battle-fleet so strong that even for the most powerful naval opponent a war is connected with such dangers that that opponent’s own position as a power may be impaired.” And further: “For this purpose it is not imperative that the German battle-fleet be as strong as that of the greatest maritime power, for, as a rule, a great maritime power will not be in a position to concentrate its whole fighting force against us. But even though it should succeed in opposing us with greatly superior forces the subjection of a strong German fleet would so weaken an enemy that, in spite of any victory he may win, his fleet will no longer be sufficiently powerful to assure his own predominant position.” “For the first time,” writes Mittler, “the so-called _risk idea_ which was henceforth to be a determining factor in our fleet development was clearly expressed.”