Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 361: The Great Northwest is in a Mess (Monthly Tickets Plus)
What European countries did not expect was that the Portuguese Civil War had the greatest impact not on Portugal, but on Spain and Britain, which were paying close attention to Portugal.

Seeing that Portugal has been thrown into chaos by the Republicans, the Portuguese people also recalled the scene a few years ago when Britain forcibly blocked Portugal's pink map plan. The British are completely unable to sit still.

If this trend continues, no matter who the winner of this civil war is, Portugal and Britain will have nothing to do with each other in the future.

This is absolutely unacceptable to Britain, because Portugal's geographical location determines that if they do not side with Britain, they must side with Spain.

It really allowed Spain to integrate the Iberian Peninsula, and Spain's geographical advantages are even better than those of the United Kingdom.

Spain can also isolate itself from the European continent by blocking the Iberian Peninsula, and can easily pass through both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains to forcibly interfere with the structure of the European continent.

The unified Iberian Peninsula will naturally turn its attention to Gibraltar. This actually means that even if Britain backs off on the issue of Portugal, there will inevitably be greater contradictions and conflicts with Spain in the future.

Unless Britain can give up Gibraltar, there is no hope of reconciling the conflict between Britain and Spain.

What did the British government do when faced with the possibility that Portugal might side with Spain?
A week after the rebellion broke out, the British government could no longer sit still. They first contacted the Portuguese ambassador to Britain to ask if Portugal needed British military support.

The Portuguese ambassador initially rejected Britain's request to send troops, but a few days later, Portugal again requested Britain to send troops for support.

There is no way, the domestic rebellion can no longer be suppressed.

The reason is very simple. Joao Franco, the prime minister trusted by King Carlos I of Portugal, made a bold move. He arrested Republican elements in other areas where there was no rebellion, and did not let any opposition parties involved in the rebellion go.

Adhering to the principle of "it is better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one go", the Portuguese government arrested thousands of rebels in just a few days.

Among them were indeed many genuine Republicans and opposition elements. They fought back strongly against the Portuguese government's arrests, causing huge casualties to the Portuguese government's army and police.

When João Franco saw that this was going to be disastrous, he immediately ordered the army to suppress the rebellion more forcefully and to carry out a major cleanup of the area.

This rebellion, which was more like a resistance, was quickly suppressed, and the number of "rebels" thrown into prison quickly increased from thousands to tens of thousands, with a tendency to break through ten thousand.

Needless to say, at least half of these insurgents arrested by the government were wrongly accused.

The government's violent behavior caused even more intense resistance from the Portuguese. Before the rebel army even took any action, the Castelo Branco and Guarda areas had already surrendered.

Realizing that something was wrong at this point, Carlos I immediately contacted the British government and asked it to send troops to assist Portugal.

Although Portugal still has a large number of troops in its colonies in Africa, these colonies are much farther away from the Portuguese mainland than Britain is from Portugal, and distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

More importantly, the British army's combat effectiveness was far stronger than Portugal's colonial army. As long as Britain was willing to help Portugal, it would be only a matter of time before the domestic rebellion was quelled.

After receiving the request from the Portuguese government, the British government immediately mobilized its troops to help its ally Portugal quell the rebellion.

In the eyes of the British, it is natural for them to help their allies. In this era, it is common for one country to help another country to quell a rebellion. After all, the royal families of European countries are connected by bones and tendons, and it is very reasonable to ask for help from their relatives.

However, both the Portuguese and British governments overlooked one thing, which was the Portuguese attitude towards the rebellion.

In the view of the Portuguese government and Carlos I, as long as the rebellion could be quickly quelled and the Republicans arrested and liquidated, the rebellion would not have much impact on Portugal.

As for the Portuguese people, their dissatisfaction with the government should not be that strong. The reason they stood up against the government was probably because of the instigation of the Republicans.

Is this really the case?

On May 1892, 5, when British troops set foot on Portuguese soil, the situation in Portugal changed dramatically.

The rebel army fought back and forth with the Portuguese army, but when faced with the regular British army, the resistance seemed a little weak.

The weapons provided by Spain to the Republicans came from various countries, which made logistical supply for the rebel army organized by the Republicans quite difficult.

Weapon bullets from various countries are not universal. If you want to have attack bullets for all types of weapons, you need at least a dozen different caliber bullets.

The Republicans are not capable of maintaining such logistical supplies, and it is impossible for Spain to provide weapons and equipment to the Republicans on a large scale.

This resulted in the rebels' weapons being restricted, and as more and more Portuguese people participated in the uprising, the overall amount of weapons and equipment showed a trend of decreasing.

The enemies of such an insurgent army were the well-equipped British and Portuguese armies, and the outcome of the war was actually quite clear.

On the afternoon of May 5, 23 British soldiers, with the cooperation of nearly 2200 Portuguese soldiers, fought a three-hour battle with the Republican-led rebel army in the Portalegre district.

The rebel army ran out of ammunition and food, and the battle ended with thousands of casualties.

The British and Portuguese armies suffered very few casualties, with the total casualties adding up to less than a hundred people.

Facts have proved that in front of the real regular army, the combat effectiveness of the rebel army, which was a makeshift army, was still too poor.

At this time, the rebel army followed the advice of the Spanish side. They completely gave up the idea of ​​attacking Lisbon to the west and instead continued to move north to attack Braganza, Porto and Real.

As for Portalegri, where the uprising started, the rebels had no choice but to give up. Before leaving Portalegri, the rebels distributed a batch of supplies to the local people in Portalegri, expressed their apologies to the ordinary people involved in the war, and then headed north to Castelo Branco without looking back.

The people of Portalegre had just seen off the rebel army, when they immediately turned around and faced the Portuguese and British armies.

In order to prevent the existence of some Republican rebel troops hiding in the area, the Portuguese government conducted a large-scale search in the Portalegre area.

All the food and other supplies distributed by the rebels to the local people were collected by the Portuguese government, and some local people were labeled as collaborators.

While the counter-insurgency operation in Portugal was proceeding vigorously, Britain's high-profile interference in Portugal's internal affairs caused widespread discussion throughout Europe.

Several major newspapers in Spain reported extensively on the news of the British army's attack on the Republican army, and also published several photos of Portuguese civilians being injured or even killed by the British army.

Such news caused widespread discussion in Spain and even throughout Europe, and related newspapers were also spread to Portugal.

The Portuguese people could no longer tolerate Carlos I. It would be fine if their own army put down the rebellion, after all, the Republicans were the ones who started the uprising and the rebellion.

But why did the government invite the British army to quell the rebellion? Are they not satisfied with pointing their own guns at their own people? Do they want others to point their guns at their own people as well?
Most Portuguese people have not yet recovered from the previous colonial conflicts, and now they are facing news reports of British troops injuring Portuguese civilians. They are completely disappointed with Britain and Portugal.

On May 1892, 5, a large-scale demonstration broke out in the northern Portuguese city of Porto. The citizens of Porto strongly condemned the Portuguese government for inviting British troops to interfere in their country's internal affairs. They held up photos of Portuguese killed or wounded by the British army in the conflict and indignantly demanded that the government repatriate the British troops.

But it is obvious that the situation at this time is no longer something that Carlos I can decide.

Portugal could invite British troops, but they couldn't send them away.

Moreover, the arrival of the British army did speed up the suppression of the rebellion. Without the help of the British army, Portugal would not have been able to recover the Portalegre region so quickly.

At this time, the rebels had already moved north from Castelo Branco to the Guarda region, which was only a few dozen kilometers away from Porto where the demonstrations broke out. In order to prevent the demonstrations in the Porto area from joining the rebel army, Portuguese Prime Minister João Franco issued orders to the municipal governments of Porto, Bucara and Aveiro, requiring them to organize police forces to quickly suppress the local demonstrations and prevent these demonstrations from turning into armed uprisings like Portalegre.

Joao Franco's concerns were justified. The city of Porto is located in the north of Portugal, too close to the Galicia region of Spain.

More than a year ago, an armed uprising planned by the Republicans broke out here, but it was quickly put down by local police.

The Republican Party had no support from other forces at the time, and the Portuguese people still had a glimmer of hope in the government, so this uprising had no impact on Portugal.

But after all, this is an area where rebellion broke out. If we are not more cautious, it is very likely that the Republicans will cooperate from inside and outside, resulting in the entire area from Porto to Castelo Branco falling.

The demonstrations launched by the citizens of Porto had no effect and their demonstrations soon attracted suppression by the local police.

In order to quickly suppress the march, Braga to the north of Porto and Aveiro to the south sent police to assist Porto.

The armed suppression by the police turned the march into a very chaotic one. The march was mixed with the families of the police officers, and not all police officers were able to shoot at the marchers.

Police from other cities did effectively stop the march, but it also sparked clashes with police from other cities and Porto.

Police in other cities killed or injured protesters in the process of suppressing the marches, many of whom were family members of Porto police officers.

Porto at this time can be described as a mess in the northwest. The local police and the police from other cities were in a standoff, and the demonstrators were in a standoff with the police. No one could tell who was the enemy and who was the friend.

The Republican Party also exerted its strength at this time. In theory, Porto is under the control of the Republican Party. The Republican Party has a large number of supporters here, including local police and their families.

At the call of the Republican Party, part of Porto's police joined the parade, making the situation in Porto even more chaotic.

The initial confrontation did not escalate to the point where firearms were used, but as the situation became more chaotic, it was unclear who fired the first shot, but the confrontation between the various forces turned into a chaotic gunfight.

The chaos lasted for several hours and ended with the parade's complete victory.

The parade received the support of Porto police, while the other two cities only sent more than 100 police officers, who had no way to deal with the huge parade.

Although the parade was victorious, it came at a great cost, as the chaos lasted for several hours, leaving thousands injured or dead.

Only a few hundred citizens were killed or injured by police in other cities, but the number of citizens injured or killed in the stampede reached thousands.

This chaotic situation has caused the citizens of Porto to think more deeply. Why has Portugal become like this?

At this time in Spain, major newspapers and media were reporting in detail the development of the Portuguese Civil War.

The chaos caused by the march of Porto citizens was also reported, and the casualties of the marchers and local police were recorded in detail, which was talked about by the Spaniards with relish.

The Spaniards were very fortunate at this time, as they met a king who was young but very capable.

When Carlo became King of Spain, he was much younger than the current King Carlos I of Portugal.

But the abilities of the two were not as good as their ages would suggest. Carlos I's Portugal was already in chaos, and even if the civil war was over, it was doomed to decline for a long time.

Spain under Carlo's rule was thriving, and Portugal, once the two Iberian territories of the colonial era, had been left far behind.

Compared with the Spaniards who are talking about it with relish, the Portuguese who have moved to Spain seem to be somewhat fortunate.

They were glad that they came to Spain, otherwise they would probably have been affected by the civil war.

The civil war has so far resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, which is enough to prove how corrupt and incompetent the Portuguese government is.

It is worth mentioning that since the outbreak of the war, many Portuguese capitalists have chosen to come to Spain with their families.

In particular, when the rebel army controlled the Portalegre area, they opened the railway from Portalegre to Spain, which resulted in thousands of fleeing Portuguese civilians arriving in Spain within a week.

Carlo asked the government to properly accommodate these Portuguese who fled to Spain.

It just so happens that the population of Extremadura is not large, so it is easy to accommodate several thousand Portuguese.

Carlo sent enough emergency supplies to these Portuguese people and asked local officials to express their condolences to them.

Spanish officials assured the Portuguese that as long as they came to Spanish territory, they would not be affected by the war.

The Portuguese were naturally grateful for the promises they received. When comparing the Spanish government with the Portuguese government, they realized how disastrous the country they originally lived in was.

Carlo welcomed all the Portuguese who came to escape.

The Portuguese were the easiest population to assimilate, and their language and culture were not that different from those of Spain. It is no exaggeration to say that the language and cultural differences between two cities in a province of a large country in the future may be greater than the differences between Portugal and Spain.

As long as these Portuguese people can deeply understand the differences between the two governments and feel Carlo's care for ordinary people, they will recognize Spain and give up their Portuguese identity.

As long as they give up their Portuguese identity, they can quickly integrate into the big family of Spain. These Portuguese who have integrated into Spain are very important to Spain. If Portugal can be annexed in the future, these people will play a good demonstration role, allowing the Portuguese to safely throw themselves into the arms of Spain.

This is like spending a fortune on horse bones. If the Portuguese can see the benefits of joining Spain, they will naturally not reject the idea of ​​joining Spain.

Historically, the reason why Portugal demanded independence after unification was actually because the interests of the Portuguese were not respected. Coupled with the instigation of local Portuguese nobles and capitalists, the Portuguese eventually thought about independence all the time.

What about Portugal, where the aristocracy was abolished after the Republican Revolution?
Without the instigation of the most powerful nobles, the remaining Portuguese capital was nothing in front of Spain. The common people did not care so much about whether they were Spanish or Portuguese. What they cared about was whether their lives had been improved and whether they could live in peace and happiness.

If the Spanish identity can bring them more benefits, I believe most Portuguese people will still choose to become Spanish.

Of course, Carlo would not force those Portuguese who really did not want to join Spain.

Anyway, Spain owns large African colonies. The worst that can happen is that these Portuguese can be transferred to the African colonies and let them re-establish Portugal in Africa.

I believe they will not be ungrateful. After all, Portugal is obviously much weaker than Spain.

What's more, the forces within Portugal are not unified. Some people really don't want to join Spain, but some people have hopes of joining Spain.

What Carlo had to do was to integrate these Portuguese who were fond of Spain and willing to join Spain, and control the whole of Portugal through them.

Spain will become extremely powerful after integrating Portugal. It will be able to fight against Britain or France.

The unified Iberian Peninsula is impregnable. Even for superpowers like Britain, France and Germany, it would cost a huge price to invade the Iberian Peninsula.

Additional chapters of 5200 words, thank you all for your monthly votes!
Today there is another chapter with at least 4000 words, and the total update exceeds 9200 words!


(End of this chapter)