Chapter 356: Chaotic Portugal

The new cabinet government had just taken office when it received absolutely good news.

The first flagship of Spain's brand-new Monarch-class battleship, the *Ferdinand II*, after a year and a half of construction, could finally be launched for sea trials.

The news that this giant ship with a displacement of 13,000 tons was about to be launched immediately became the front-page headline of all Spanish newspapers.

The completion of the battleship not only represented that the Spanish Navy's strength had gone a step further, but also represented that Spain's comprehensive national strength and international influence were constantly improving.

Witnessing the improvement of one's country's comprehensive strength with one's own eyes is absolutely the most proud thing for Spaniards. If there must be one thing that can be mentioned in the same breath or even exceed it, it must be the launch of more battleships for testing.

The Spanish government attached great importance to the launch ceremony of this battleship flagship. Gao Da and the new cabinet prime minister Evan Bradley attended the launch ceremony of the *Ferdinand II* battleship together and witnessed the official completion of Spain's first pre-dreadnought.

Watching this huge warship sail away from the port, Gao Da shifted his gaze with satisfaction.

Afterwards, Gao Da inspected the construction progress of the third Monarch-class battleship, the *Carlos I*, at the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, and after confirming that the construction progress of the *Carlos I* was not affected, he returned to the palace.

Regarding the construction of the Monarch-class battleship, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard attached great importance to it. This also led to the construction duration of each battleship exceeding a year and a half, and it was impossible to build two battleships at the same time.

Although this made the construction cycle of warships longer, it could ensure that the warships built by Spain were stable and reliable.

For Gao Da, this time was also fully affordable. After all, the First World War was still far away, and even the Boer War in Britain seemed to be several years away from breaking out.

The one to be launched after the *Ferdinand II* was the *Isabella I*, which was known as the "Iberian Twin Kings" together with it.

Although the Valencia United Shipyard had tried its best to speed up the construction progress, according to the shipyard's feedback, the completion time of the *Isabella I* battleship would not be until the end of May at the earliest, and it might even be delayed until early July at the latest.

But no matter how delayed, it was certain that two Monarch-class battleships would be launched this year. With the blessing of these two battleships, Spain's naval strength was actually not worse than Russia's, and it was not a big problem to call it the world's top three.

After all, in terms of pre-dreadnoughts, other countries were also in the exploration stage. Only the British built the *Royal Sovereign* battleship of the Royal Sovereign-class on September 30, 1889, which was also the world's first pre-dreadnought.

Compared to the British, the progress of other countries in terms of pre-dreadnoughts was much slower.

France, as the world's second naval power at present, actually started researching and developing pre-dreadnoughts earlier than the British.

But unfortunately, the British *Royal Sovereign* battleship was completed and launched for testing at the end of February 1891, while the French *Brennus* battleship, despite being built more than half a year earlier, did not enter the launch test stage until the end of last year.

The French pre-dreadnought not only took longer to build than the British, but their sea trial phase was also much longer than the British.

Historically, the *Brennus* battleship successfully entered service in 1896, which also proves how slow the French progress in pre-dreadnoughts was.

According to Spain's five-year shipbuilding plan, by around 1894, all five of Spain's Monarch-class battleships could enter the sea trial stage.

And at the time point when the *Brennus* battleship entered service, all five of Spain's Monarch-class battleships could join the navy and officially enter service.

This also means that in the next few years, Spain's progress in pre-dreadnoughts has far exceeded that of France. Of course, such speed is still slightly inferior compared to the British.

Regarding the Royal Sovereign-class battleship built earlier than France, the British were still quite satisfied. But when they found out that Spain also had battleships of the same class under construction, the British government finally decided to increase investment in the navy.

Eight Royal Sovereign-class battleships were built at once, and the construction cycle lasted from 1889 to the end of 1891, with 8 Royal Sovereign-class battleships expected to enter service one after another in 1893.

Such construction speed is quite exaggerated, which is also the reason why Britain has long maintained its status as a naval hegemon. They attach much greater 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 are all over the world, their battleships also have to be dispersed all over the world.

And Spain's capital ships are all deployed in the mainland fleet, while the African fleet and the Philippine fleet are all small-scale fleets composed of small and medium warships.

If only comparing the naval power in Europe, although Spain still cannot compare to Britain, at least the gap is not so wide.

If they can get the support of another major power, in the future when a war breaks out with the British, Spain's chances of winning will also become greater.

The only reason why Britain is regarded as a potential enemy is that Britain has become an obstacle to Spain's annexation of Portugal and Morocco.

As early as the Bourbon era in Spain, Spain showed unusual interest in its neighbor, Portugal. Since Gao Da became the King of Spain, he has not eliminated Spain's strong interest in Portugal.

However, because the King of Portugal at that time was Gao Da's brother-in-law, Gao Da did not excessively destroy the relationship between Portugal and Spain. The relationship between Portugal and Spain existed in competition with cooperation, and the situation on the Iberian Peninsula could be considered stable.

But good times didn't last long. Gao Da's brother-in-law, Louis I, passed away on October 19, 1889, and Portugal officially entered the era of his son, Carlos I.

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

But he happened to become the King of Portugal, and what he controlled was a country whose situation was getting worse and worse.

This has to mention Portugal's "Pink Map" plan. The former Portugal also had unusual ambitions, and their Pink Map plan was enough to establish a huge African colony.

Unfortunately, the enemy faced by this plan was Britain, and Portugal was highly dependent on Britain in terms of economy.

With the bankruptcy of the Pink Map plan, the situation in Portugal became increasingly severe. Some people who still had hope for the country turned into republicans one after another. They believed that only by overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a republic could Portugal be saved. Under such circumstances, Portugal itself had entered a precarious situation. If the situation could not be stabilized, either a revolution would directly overthrow the royal family, or the assassins of the opposition would be endless.

Faced with such a terrible situation, what did Carlos I do?

Because he became the King of Portugal at the age of 26, Carlos I was very inflated. He believed that he was fully capable of imitating the neighboring King Gao Da and making Portugal a world power again through reform.

Reform certainly has many opposition factions, and Carlos I's first step was to suppress the opposition at home by force.

In fact, Gao Da did the same in Spain. It's just that the basis for Gao Da doing so was the support of Prime Minister Primo, and with the support of the reformists who controlled the government and the military, the chance of reform success was very high.

But Portugal is different. Portugal does not have a strong reformist like Prime Minister Primo, and Carlos I does not have any military power in his hands.

Carlos I, who had just become king, placed high hopes on his cabinet, but he soon found that Portugal's cabinet had no ability and was completely helpless about the current situation in the country.

In a state of high dissatisfaction, Carlos I announced the dissolution of the cabinet and re-nominated candidates who satisfied him to become the Prime Minister of Portugal.

Who is this satisfactory candidate? His name is Franco.

Of course, different from the dictator Franco in Spanish history, what Carlos I favored was Joao Franco, a member of the hardline Revival Party.

As early as more than 10 years ago, Joao Franco worked in the judicial and customs departments. After joining the Portuguese parliament in 1884, he became a member of the Portuguese Revival Party and served as a Portuguese cabinet minister many times.

In Joao Franco's view, the government should strengthen the suppression of socialists, anarchists, and republicans. Only by suppressing them can Portugal's situation be kept stable.

Such an idea coincided with Carlos I. Overjoyed, Carlos I directly nominated Joao Franco as the Prime Minister of Portugal and used his power to pass this nomination.

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

As Carlos I expected, Joao Franco, who became Prime Minister, showed a quite hardline attitude. He also understood how he became Prime Minister, and he was quite keen on armed suppression of republicans and anarchists.

In the three months since Joao Franco became Prime Minister, the Portuguese government has repeatedly used the army and police to forcibly suppress the gatherings and parades of socialists, anarchists, and republicans.

Facts have proved that armed suppression has a certain effect. In the subsequent time, parades against the government have indeed become much less.

At least on the surface, the Portuguese seem to be not so opposed to the monarchy, and they seem to recognize the current government.

Carlos I also thought so. He had a wrong judgment about the situation in Portugal and believed that after armed suppression, the situation in Portugal had stabilized.

Joao Franco naturally knew that such hardline means were only temporary. After letting Portugal's situation remain stable through suppression, he announced that he would implement freedom of speech in Portugal and ensure that the Portuguese government had democracy.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese who were very disappointed with the Portuguese government and the King no longer believed in the government's words.

Originally, the Portuguese who failed in the Pink Map plan were very disappointed with the government, and the new Prime Minister's act of suppressing the opposition on a large scale made them see the cruelty and decay of the government.

To save such a Portugal, it is impossible not to overthrow the current government. Wanting to overthrow the current government also means that the current King of Portugal must be overthrown.

In the 4 months since Joao Franco became Prime Minister of Portugal, multiple parties including the Republican Party have clarified their goals, which is to overthrow the King and the current government and establish a republic-system government that is decided by the Portuguese themselves.

Wanting to overthrow the King and the current government, the difficulty is absolutely great. These parties privately discussed many times and believed that they needed to do two things at once.

On the one hand, they need to prepare armed forces, plan armed uprisings against the government, and overthrow the government and the King through force.

On the other hand, if armed uprisings are not feasible, they need to consider forcibly overthrowing the current government through assassination.

Assassination must be to assassinate the leaders of the government, that is, the King and the current Prime Minister Joao Franco.

Whether it is armed uprising or assassination, the difficulties they face are great. But there is no way. If they want to save the current Portugal, these difficulties must be overcome.

When the opposition led by the Republican Party was privately plotting the assassination of the government and the King, a mysterious organization found them and expressed willingness to provide them with some weapons, equipment, and other intelligence.

Although they didn't know where this mysterious organization came from, for the Republican Party and other opposition parties, these supports were very precious.

If they relied on themselves to raise weapons and equipment, launching an armed uprising was simply impossible. Although Portugal, like Spain, does not ban guns, it is very difficult to raise thousands of rifles in the country.

Most of the time, they can only buy hunting guns. The shooting distance of hunting guns is really limited, and the power is far from comparable to the rifles equipped by the troops.

What's more, the bullets for hunting guns are also limited. The opposition's large-scale purchase of weapons and equipment will also arouse the vigilance of the Portuguese government, and they will likely face higher-intensity suppression by the government, and the armed uprising will also fail because of this.

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

Precisely because of this batch of weapons and equipment, the Republican Party believed in the promise of this mysterious organization.

At least with this batch of weapons and equipment, launching an armed uprising to overthrow the government has become a possible thing. 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 armed uprising or assassination, as long as one can succeed, there is hope to save the current Portugal.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 357 =====