Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 359 Chaos in Portugal

The new cabinet government has just come to power and has received absolutely good news.

After a year and a half of construction, the first flagship of Spain's new Monarch-class battleship, the Ferdinand II, can finally be launched and begin sea trials.

The news that this giant ship with a displacement of up to 1.3 tons was about to be launched immediately became the front-page headline of all Spanish newspapers.

The completion of the battleship not only represents a further improvement in the Spanish naval power, but also represents the continuous improvement of Spain's comprehensive national strength and international influence.

Witnessing the improvement of their country's comprehensive strength is definitely the most proud thing for the Spanish. If there is one thing that can be compared with or even surpassed, it must be the launch of more battleships for testing.

The Spanish government attached great importance to the launching ceremony of this battleship flagship. Carlo and the new Prime Minister Evan Blood attended the launching ceremony of the Ferdinand II battleship together and witnessed the official completion of Spain's first pre-dreadnought battleship.

After watching the huge warship leave the port, Carlo finally turned his gaze away with satisfaction.

Afterwards, Carlo inspected the construction progress of the third Monarch-class battleship, Carlos I, at the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. After confirming that there was no impact on the construction progress of Carlos I, he returned to the palace.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard attached great importance to the construction of the Monarch-class battleships. This also resulted in the construction time of each battleship exceeding one and a half years, and it was impossible to build two battleships at the same time.

Although this will lengthen the construction period of warships, it will ensure that the warships built by Spain are stable and reliable.

For Carlo, this time was worth waiting for. After all, World War I was still a long way off, and even the Boer War in Britain seemed to be several years away from breaking out.

The ship to be launched after Ferdinand II is Isabel I, which is also known as the Twin Kings of Iberia.

Although the Valencia United Shipyard has accelerated the construction progress as much as possible, according to the feedback from the shipyard, the completion time of the battleship Isabel I will not be until the end of May at the earliest, and may even be delayed until early July.

However, no matter how much it is delayed, it is certain that two Monarch-class battleships will be launched this year. With the support of these two battleships, Spain's naval strength is actually not weaker than Russia, and it is no big problem to say that it is among the top three in the world.

After all, other countries were also in the exploratory stage in terms of pre-dreadnought battleships. Only the British built the Sovereign-class battleship HMS Sovereign on September 1889, 9, which was also the world's first pre-dreadnought battleship.

Compared with the British, other countries were much behind in terms of pre-dreadnought battleships.

As the world's second largest naval power, France actually started developing pre-dreadnought battleships earlier than the British.

Unfortunately, the British battleship HMS Trophy was completed and launched for testing at the end of February 1891, while the French battleship Brennus, which was built half a year earlier, only entered the launching and testing stage at the end of last year.

Not only did the French pre-dreadnoughts take longer to build than the British, their naval testing phase was also much longer than that of the British.

The historical battleship Brennus was not successfully commissioned until 1896, which also proves how slow France's progress was in pre-dreadnought battleships.

According to Spain's five-year shipbuilding plan, around 1894, Spain's five Monarch-class battleships would be able to enter the naval testing phase.

By the time the battleship Brennus was commissioned, Spain's five Monarch-class battleships were able to join the navy and officially serve.

This also means that in the next few years, Spain's progress in pre-dreadnought battleships has far surpassed that of France. Of course, this speed is still slightly inferior to that of the British.

The British were quite satisfied with the Sovereign-class battleships that were built earlier than the French. But when they learned that Spain was also building battleships of the same level, the British government finally decided to increase investment in the navy.

Eight Sovereign-class battleships were built at one time, and the construction period lasted from 1889 to the end of 1891. It was expected that eight Sovereign-class battleships would be put into service in 1893.

This construction speed is quite exaggerated, which is why Britain has maintained its naval hegemony for a long time. They attach much more importance to the navy than other countries, and their investment in the navy is several times that of other countries.

The good news is that because Britain's colonies were spread all over the world, their battleships were also scattered around the world.

Spain's main warships are all deployed in the home fleet, while the African Fleet and the Philippine Fleet are all small fleets composed of small and medium-sized warships.

If we only compare the naval power of Europe, although Spain is still not as good as Britain, at least the gap is not that big.

If Spain can gain the support of another powerful country, its chances of winning will become greater when war breaks out with the British in the future.

The only reason Britain was considered a potential enemy was that it had become an obstacle to Spain's annexation of Portugal and Morocco.

As early as the Bourbon era, Spain showed an extraordinary interest in its neighbor Portugal. Since Carlo became the King of Spain, he has not stopped the strong interest in Portugal in Spain.

However, because the King of Portugal at that time was Carlo's brother-in-law, Carlo did not overly damage the relationship between Portugal. There was cooperation in the competition between Portugal and Spain, and the situation in the Iberian Peninsula was relatively stable.

But the good times did not last long. Carlos's brother-in-law, Louis I, died on October 1889, 10, and Portugal officially entered the era of his son, Carlos I.

Compared to his father, King Carlos I of Portugal had no ability. If he were not a king, he would have become an excellent painter.

But he became the king of Portugal, and was in control of a country whose situation was getting worse and worse.

This has to mention Portugal's Pink Map Plan. Portugal once had extraordinary ambitions, and their Pink Map Plan was enough to build a huge African colony.

Unfortunately, the enemy of this plan was Britain, and Portugal was highly dependent on Britain economically.

The situation in Portugal became increasingly serious after the Pink Map Plan failed. Some people who had originally had hope for the country turned to republicans, believing that only by overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a republic could Portugal be saved. In this situation, Portugal itself has entered a precarious situation. If the situation cannot be stabilized, either a revolution will directly overthrow the royal family, or assassinations by opponents will continue.

Faced with such a dire situation, what did Carlos I do?
Carlos I was very arrogant because he became the King of Portugal at the age of 26. He believed that he was fully capable of emulating King Carlo next door and making Portugal a world power again through reform.

There was certainly a lot of opposition to the reforms, and Carlos I's first move was to suppress the domestic opposition by force.

In fact, Carlo did the same thing in Spain, but Carlo did so based on the support of Prime Minister Primo, the reformists who controlled the government and the military, so the chances of success of the reform were very high.

But Portugal was different. There was no powerful reformer like Prime Minister Primo in Portugal, and Carlos I did not have much military power.

Carlos I, who had just become king, had high hopes for his cabinet, but he soon discovered that the Portuguese cabinet had no ability and was completely helpless in the face of the current situation in the country.

In a state of great dissatisfaction, Carlos I announced the dissolution of the cabinet and re-nominated a candidate he satisfied as Prime Minister of Portugal.

Who was this satisfactory candidate? His name was Franco.

Of course, unlike Franco, the dictator in Spanish history, Carlos I favored Joao Franco, a tough member of the Renaissance Party.

Joao Franco had worked in the judicial and customs departments more than 10 years earlier. After joining the Portuguese Parliament in 1884, he became a member of the Portuguese Regeneration Party and served as a Portuguese cabinet minister many times.

In João Franco's view, the government should intensify the repression of socialists, anarchists and republicans. Only by suppressing them can the situation in Portugal be kept stable.

This idea coincided with that of King Carlos I. King Carlos I was so delighted that he directly nominated João Franco as the Prime Minister of Portugal and used his own power to pass the nomination.

At the end of 1891, João Franco successfully became the Prime Minister of Portugal.

As Carlos I had expected, Joao Franco, who became prime minister, showed a very tough attitude. He also understood how he became prime minister, and Joao Franco was quite enthusiastic about the armed suppression of republicans and anarchists.

During the three months that João Franco became prime minister, the Portuguese government used the army and police on several occasions to forcibly suppress gatherings and marches by socialists, anarchists and republicans.

It turns out that armed suppression is effective to a certain extent. In the following period, there were indeed fewer demonstrations against the government.

At least on the surface, the Portuguese do not seem to be so opposed to the monarchy, and they seem to still approve of the current government.

Carlos I also thought so. He had misjudged the situation in Portugal and believed that after armed suppression, Portugal had become stable.

Joao Franco certainly knew that such a tough approach was only temporary. After stabilizing the situation in Portugal through repression, he announced that he would implement freedom of speech in Portugal and guarantee that the Portuguese government would have democracy.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese, who were very disappointed with the Portuguese government and king, no longer believed what the government said.

The Portuguese were already quite disappointed with the government after the failure of the Pink Map Project. The new prime minister's massive suppression of the opposition made them see the government's brutality and corruption.

If you want to save Portugal like this, it is impossible not to overthrow the current government. If you want to overthrow the current government, it means you must overthrow the current King of Portugal.

During the four months that Joao Franco became Prime Minister of Portugal, several parties, including the Republican Party, made clear their goal, which was to overthrow the king and the current government and establish a republican government with a republican system in which the Portuguese themselves had the final say.

It is definitely very difficult to overthrow the king and the current government. These parties have discussed many times in private and they believe that they need to take a two-pronged approach.

On the one hand, they needed to prepare armed forces, plan an armed uprising against the government, and overthrow the government and the king through force.

On the other hand, if armed uprising is not possible, it is necessary to consider forcibly overthrowing the current government through assassination.

The assassination would certainly be aimed at the head of the government, the king and current prime minister, Joao Franco.

Whether it was an armed uprising or an assassination, the difficulties they faced were great. But there was no other way. If they wanted to save Portugal, these difficulties had to be overcome.

When opponents led by the Republicans were meeting in private to assassinate the government and the king, a mysterious organization found them and expressed its willingness to provide them with some weapons and equipment and other intelligence.

Although it is not known where this mysterious organization came from, this support is invaluable to the Republican Party and other opposition parties.

If they were the only ones to raise weapons and equipment, it would be impossible to launch an armed uprising. Although Portugal, like Spain, did not ban guns, it was very difficult to raise thousands of rifles in the country.

Most of the time, you can only buy hunting rifles, which have a limited shooting range and are far less powerful than the rifles equipped by the troops.

What's more, the bullets of hunting rifles are limited. The opposition party's large-scale purchase of weapons and equipment will also arouse the vigilance of the Portuguese government. At that time, it is very likely to face a higher intensity of repression from the government, and the armed uprising will fail.

Within a few days after the Portuguese Republican Party agreed to cooperate with this mysterious organization, the mysterious organization provided the Republican Party with thousands of rifles and matching bullets.

It was precisely because of this batch of weapons and equipment that the Republicans believed in the promises of this mysterious organization.

At least with this batch of weapons and equipment, it has become possible to launch an armed uprising to overthrow the government. In addition, this batch of weapons and equipment can also be used to plan the assassination of the prime minister and the king.

Whether it is an armed uprising or an assassination, as long as one of them is successful, there is hope of saving Portugal today.

(End of this chapter)