In the decades before WWII fighter airplane design had not progressed very far from the cloth covered biplanes of the previous world war. Until the introduction of the spitfire in 1936 the rule of thumb was two wings were better than one. Extra lift was considered more important than the excess drag it created.
Nothing gets aircraft development going better than war, but the next best thing is competition.
Jacques Schneider, a French industrial manager, licensed plane and balloon pilot, deprived of flying due to a serious accident, supported various competitions and aero clubs financially. As race referee at the Monaco meeting in 1912, he noticed that seaplane design was lagging far behind other aircraft. He had seen how the spur of competition had developed the motor car into a reliable form of transportation, and he believed that similar competition between aircraft could achieve similar results. He, like many others connected with early aviation, believed that aircraft flying from and to a water surface would prove ideal for long-range air travel. After all, seven-tenths of the Earth's surface is water.