Chapter 356: Chaotic Portugal

The new cabinet government had just taken office when it was greeted by absolutely good news.

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

The news that this giant ship with a displacement of up to 13, 00 tons was about to be launched immediately became the front-page headline for all of Spain's newspapers.

The completion of the battleship not only represented a further step forward for the Spanish Navy, but also signified the continuous rise of Spain's comprehensive national strength and international influence.

Witnessing the rise of their country's comprehensive strength with their own eyes was absolutely the proudest thing for the Spanish people. If there had to be one thing that could be mentioned in the same breath or even exceed it, it would certainly be the launch and testing of even more battleships.

The Spanish government attached great importance to the launch ceremony of this flagship battleship; Gao Da and the new Prime Minister, Evan Brad, attended the launch ceremony of the battleship Ferdinand II together and witnessed the official completion of Spain's first pre-dreadnought.

Watching this massive warship sail away from the harbor, Gao Da finally shifted his gaze away with satisfaction.

Subsequently, Gao Da inspected the construction progress of the third Monarch-class battleship, the Carlos I, at the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, and only after confirming that the construction progress of the Carlos I was unaffected did he return to the palace.

The Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard attached great importance to the construction of the Monarch-class battleships. This also resulted in the construction time for each battleship exceeding a year and a half, making it impossible to build two battleships simultaneously.

Although doing so made the construction cycle of the warships longer, it ensured that the warships built by Spain were stable and reliable.

For Gao Da, this amount of time was perfectly affordable. After all, it was still a long way from the First World War, and even the Boer War in Britain seemed to be several years away from breaking out.

The next ship to be launched after the Ferdinand II was the Isabella I, which was known alongside it as the Twin Monarchs of Iberia.

Although the Valencia United Shipyard had accelerated the construction progress as much as possible, according to feedback from the shipyard, the completion time for the battleship Isabella I would be no earlier than the end of May, and it might even drag on until early July if delayed.

However, no matter how much it was delayed, it was certain that two Monarch-class battleships would be launched this year. With the addition of these two battleships, Spain's naval strength was effectively no weaker than Russia's, and it would be no problem to call it one of the top three in the world.

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

Compared to the British, other countries were lagging far behind in their progress on pre-dreadnoughts.

As the world's second-strongest naval power at the time, France had actually begun research and development on pre-dreadnoughts earlier than the British.

Unfortunately, the British battleship Royal Sovereign was completed and launched for testing by the end of February 1891, while the French battleship Brennus, despite having been under construction for more than half a year longer, only entered the launch testing stage at the end of last year.

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

Historically, the battleship Brennus only successfully entered service in 1896, which also proves how slow France's progress was regarding pre-dreadnoughts.

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

And by the time the battleship Brennus entered service, all five of Spain's Monarch-class battleships would be able to join the navy and officially enter service.

This also meant that within the next few years, Spain's progress in pre-dreadnoughts would far exceed that of France. Of course, such speed was still slightly inferior compared to the British.

The British were quite satisfied with the Royal Sovereign-class battleships built earlier than the French. But when they discovered that Spain also had battleships of the same class under construction, the British government ultimately decided to increase its investment in the navy.

Eight Royal Sovereign-class battleships were built at once, with the construction cycle lasting from 1889 to the end of 1891, and it was expected that the eight Royal Sovereign-class battleships would enter service one after another by 1893.

Such a construction speed was quite exaggerated, which was also the reason why Britain had long maintained its position as the naval hegemon. Their emphasis on the navy was far greater than that of other countries, and their investment in the navy was several times that of other countries.

The good news was that because Britain's colonies were spread all over the world, their battleships also had to be dispersed across the globe.

Spain's main warships were all deployed in the Home Fleet, while the African Fleet and the Philippine Fleet were both small-scale fleets composed of small and medium-sized warships.

If one only compared naval power in Europe, although Spain still could not match Britain, at least the gap was not so stark.

If they could gain the support of another major power, the chances of Spain winning in the event of a future war with the British would also become greater.

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

As early as the Bourbon era in Spain, Spain had shown unusual interest in its neighbor, Portugal. Since Gao Da became the King of Spain, he had not suppressed the intense interest within Spain regarding Portugal.

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

But good times did not last long. Gao Da's brother-in-law, Luis 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.

Yet he happened to become the King of Portugal, and the country he controlled was in an increasingly dire situation.

This brings us to Portugal's Pink Map plan. Once upon a time, Portugal also had extraordinary ambitions, and their Pink Map plan was enough to establish a vast African colony.

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

With the bankruptcy of the Pink Map plan, the domestic situation in Portugal became increasingly severe. Some people who had originally held hope for the country turned into republicans, believing that only by overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a republic could Portugal be saved. Under these circumstances, Portugal itself had entered a precarious state. If the situation could not be stabilized, either a revolution would directly overthrow the royal family, or there would be constant assassinations by opponents.

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 arrogant. He believed that he was fully capable of imitating the king next door, Gao Da, and making Portugal a world power again through reform.

Reform certainly had many opponents, and Carlos I's first move was to suppress the domestic opposition by force.

In fact, Gao Da did the same in Spain. However, the foundation for Gao Da doing so was the support of Prime Minister Primo; with the support of the reformists who controlled the government and the military, the chances of the reforms succeeding were very high.

But Portugal was different. Portugal did not have a strong reformist like Prime Minister Primo, and Carlos I did not have much military power in his hands.

Having just become king, Carlos I placed high hopes on his cabinet, but he soon discovered that the Portuguese cabinet had no ability and was completely helpless regarding the current domestic situation.

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 was this satisfactory candidate? His name was Franco.

Of course, unlike the dictator Franco in Spanish history, the one Carlos I favored was João Franco, a hardline member of the Regenerator Party.

More than a decade earlier, João Franco had served in the judicial and customs departments. After joining the Portuguese Parliament in 1884, he became a member of the Portuguese Regenerator Party and served as a cabinet minister in Portugal multiple times.

In João Franco's view, the government should strengthen the suppression of socialists, anarchists, and republicans; only by suppressing them could the stability of the situation in Portugal be maintained.

This idea coincided with that of Carlos I, and overjoyed, Carlos I directly nominated João Franco as the Prime Minister of Portugal and used his own power to pass this nomination.

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

As Carlos I had hoped, João Franco, upon becoming Prime Minister, displayed a quite hardline attitude. He also understood how he had become Prime Minister, and João Franco was quite keen on the armed suppression of republicans and anarchists.

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

Facts proved that armed suppression had a certain effect. In the subsequent period, parades against the government indeed became much fewer.

At least on the surface, the Portuguese people did not seem to oppose the monarchy as much, and they seemed to still approve of the current government.

Carlos I also thought so; he had a wrong judgment of the domestic situation in Portugal, believing that after armed suppression, the domestic situation in Portugal had tended to stabilize.

João Franco, of course, knew that such hardline measures were only temporary. After maintaining the stability of the situation in Portugal through suppression, he announced that he would implement freedom of speech in Portugal and ensure that the Portuguese government possessed democracy.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese people, who were very disappointed with the Portuguese government and the king at this time, no longer believed the government's words.

The Portuguese people, who were already very disappointed with the government due to the failure of the Pink Map plan, saw the brutality and corruption of the government even more clearly through the new Prime Minister's massive suppression of the opposition.

To save such a Portugal, it was impossible without overthrowing the current government. Wanting to overthrow the current government also meant that the current King of Portugal had to be overthrown.

In the four months since João Franco became the Prime Minister of Portugal, multiple parties, including the Republican Party, had clarified their goal: to overthrow the king and the current government and establish a republican system, a republican government where the Portuguese people themselves had the final say.

Wanting to overthrow the king and the current government was definitely very difficult. These parties held multiple private consultations and believed that they needed to act on two fronts.

On 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 an armed uprising was not feasible, they needed to consider forcibly overthrowing the current government through assassination.

Assassination would certainly have to target the leaders of the government, namely the king and the current Prime Minister, João Franco.

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

While the opposition, led by the Republican Party, was secretly 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 did not know where this mysterious organization came from, for the Republican Party and other opposition parties, this support was very precious.

If they had to rely solely on themselves to raise weapons and equipment, launching an armed uprising would be completely impossible. Although Portugal, like Spain, did not ban guns, it was very difficult to raise thousands of rifles domestically.

Most of the time, one could only buy hunting rifles; the shooting distance of hunting rifles was really limited, and their power was far inferior to the rifles equipped by the military.

What's more, the ammunition for hunting rifles was also limited. The opposition parties' massive purchase of weapons and equipment would also arouse the vigilance of the Portuguese government, and they would likely face even higher-intensity suppression from the government, causing the armed uprising to fail.

After the Portuguese Republican Party agreed to cooperate with this mysterious organization, not many days passed before this mysterious organization provided the Republican Party with thousands of rifles and matching ammunition.

It was precisely because of this batch of weapons and equipment that the Republican Party believed in the promise of this mysterious organization.

At the very least, with this batch of weapons and equipment, launching an armed uprising to overthrow the government had become a possibility. In addition, this batch of weapons and equipment could also be used to plan the assassination of the Prime Minister and the king.

Whether it was an armed uprising or assassination, as long as one could succeed, there would be hope for saving the current Portugal.

(End of chapter)