Chapter 358: The Northwest Became a Mess (Monthly Ticket Addition)

What European countries did not expect was that the biggest impact of the Portuguese Civil War was not Portugal, but Spain and Britain, which were closely watching Portugal.

Seeing that Portugal had been stirred into a mess by the Republican Party, and the Portuguese people also recalled the scene when Britain forcibly stopped Portugal's Pink Map plan a few years ago, the British were completely unable to sit still.

According to this trend, regardless of who the winner of this civil war is, in the future, Portugal will have nothing to do with Britain.

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

If Spain really integrates the Iberian Peninsula, Spain's geographical advantage is even better than Britain's.

Spain can also isolate itself from the European continent by blockading the Iberian Peninsula, and can also easily intervene in the pattern of the European continent by forcing it through both sides of the Pyrenees.

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

Unless Britain can give up Gibraltar, there is no hope for any reconciliation between Britain and Spain.

Faced with Portugal, which might lean towards Spain, what did the British government do?

A week after the rebellion broke out, the British government was completely unable to sit still. They first contacted the Portuguese ambassador to Britain and asked if Portugal needed Britain's military support.

The Portuguese ambassador first refused Britain's request to send troops, but after a few days, the Portuguese side again requested Britain to send troops to support.

There is no way, the domestic rebellion is completely unable to be suppressed.

The reason is also very simple. The Prime Minister Joao Franco, trusted by the King of Portugal Carlos I, made a "messy operation," which was to arrest socialists, anarchists, and republicans on a large scale in other areas where there was no rebellion, and those opposition parties that participated in the rebellion were not let go.

The Portuguese government, based on the principle of "rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go," arrested thousands of rebel elements in just a few days.

There were indeed many real Republican Party and opposition elements among them. Faced with the arrest of the Portuguese government, they carried out a powerful counterattack, causing huge casualties to the Portuguese government's army and police.

Joao Franco saw this, and immediately ordered the army to carry out more powerful suppression and carry out a major cleanup of the local area.

Such more violent rebellion was soon suppressed, and the "rebel elements" who were imprisoned soon increased from thousands to thousands, faintly showing a trend of breaking ten thousand.

Needless to say, at least half of these rebel elements arrested by the government were wronged.

The government's such violent behavior caused more intense resistance from the Portuguese, and the rebel army didn't even take much action, and the Castelo Branco and Guarda areas had already surrendered.

Only then did Carlos I realize that something was wrong, and he contacted the British government, requesting the British government to send troops to aid Portugal.

Although Portugal has a large number of troops in African colonies, the distance from these colonies to Portugal's mainland is much farther than the distance from Britain to Portugal, and "far water cannot quench near thirst."

More importantly, the combat effectiveness of the British army is far stronger than that of the Portuguese colonial army. As long as Britain is willing to help Portugal, quelling the domestic rebellion is a matter of time.

After receiving the request from the Portuguese government, the British government immediately mobilized the army and prepared 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 still very common for one country to help another quell rebellion. After all, the royal families of European countries are "broken bones and connected tendons," and requesting the assistance of their relatives is also very reasonable.

It's just that the Portuguese government and the British government ignored one thing, which is the attitude of the Portuguese people towards this rebellion.

In the eyes of the Portuguese government and Carlos I, as long as they can quickly quell this rebellion and arrest and liquidate those Republicans, this rebellion will not have too much impact on Portugal.

As for the Portuguese people, their dissatisfaction with the government should not be so strong, and the reason why they stood up against the government should also be the instigation of the Republican Party.

Is this really the case?

On May 22, 1892, when the British army set foot on Portuguese soil, the situation in Portugal underwent earth-shaking changes.

The rebel army and the Portuguese army fought back and forth, but when facing the regular British army, those resistances appeared a bit powerless.

The weapons Spain provided to the Republican Party came from various countries, which led to the logistical supply of the Republican Party's uprising army being quite difficult.

The bullets of weapons from various countries are not universal. If they want to provide bullets for all types of weapons, they need at least a dozen types of bullets with different calibers.

The Republican Party does not have the ability to maintain such logistical supply, and Spain cannot provide weapons and equipment to the Republican Party in a big way.

This led to the uprising army's weapons always being restricted, and coupled with the fact that more and more Portuguese participated in the uprising, the weapons and equipment as a whole showed a trend of becoming less and less.

The enemy of such an uprising army is the well-equipped British army and Portuguese army, and the result of the war is actually quite clear.

On the afternoon of May 23, 2,200 British soldiers, with the cooperation of nearly 3,000 Portuguese soldiers, fought a battle lasting three hours with the uprising army led by the Republican Party in the Portalegre area.

The uprising army ran out of ammunition and food, and finally ended this battle with thousands of casualties.

The casualties on the British and Portuguese army side were very small, and the total casualties added up to less than a hundred people.

Facts have proved that in front of the real regular army, the combat effectiveness of the uprising army, which was temporarily put together, is still too poor.

At this time, the uprising army listened to Spain's suggestions. They completely gave up the idea of attacking Lisbon to the west and turned to continue attacking north, attacking Braganca, Porto, and Real.

As for Portalegre, where the uprising first started, the uprising army could only helplessly give up. Before leaving Portalegre, the uprising army distributed a batch of materials to the local people in Portalegre, expressed apologies to these ordinary people involved in the war, and then headed towards Castelo Branco further north without looking back.

The people of Portalegre had just sent away the uprising army, and immediately welcomed the Portuguese army and the British army.

In order to prevent the existence of some hidden Republican rebel army in the local area, the Portuguese government carried out large-scale searches in the Portalegre area.

Including the food and other materials distributed by the rebel army to the local people, they were all collected by the Portuguese government, and some local people were also labeled as "collaboration."

While the rebellion suppression action in Portugal was in full swing, the British act of intervening in Portugal's internal affairs in such a big way caused extensive discussion throughout Europe.

Spain's major newspapers reported the news of the British army attacking the Republican Party's army, and also published several photos of Portuguese civilians being injured or even killed by the British army.

Such news caused extensive discussion in Spain and even the whole of Europe, and related news newspapers were also spread to Portugal.

The Portuguese people could no longer tolerate Carlos I. It's one thing for their own army to quell the rebellion, after all, the Republican Party was the one who launched the uprising and rebelled.

But what is going on with the government inviting the British army to quell the rebellion? It's not enough to point their own guns at their own people, and they also want others' guns to point at their own people?

Most Portuguese people had not yet walked out of the previous colonial conflict events, and now they faced the news event of the British army injuring Portuguese civilians, and they were completely disappointed with Britain and Portugal.

On May 25, 1892, large-scale parades broke out in the northern Portuguese city of Porto. Porto citizens strongly condemned the Portuguese government's act of inviting the British army to interfere in their country's internal affairs. They held high photos of Portuguese people who were killed or injured by the British army in this conflict, and indignantly demanded that the government repatriate the British army.

But clearly, the situation at this time was no longer what Carlos I could decide.

Portugal could invite the British army, but they could not send the British army away.

Moreover, the arrival of the British army did speed up the speed of quelling the rebellion. Without the help of the British army, Portugal could not have recovered the Portalegre area so quickly.

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

Joao Franco's worry was quite reasonable. Porto is a city located in the north of Portugal, too close to Spain's Galicia region.

As early as more than a year ago, an armed uprising planned by the Republican Party broke out here, but it was quickly extinguished by the local police.

At that time, the Republican Party had no support from other forces, and the Portuguese people still had a trace of hope for the government, so this uprising did not cause any impact on Portugal.

But after all, it was an area where rebellion had broken out. If there was no more precaution, it was very likely that the Republican Party would cooperate from inside and outside, leading to the fall of all the land from Porto to Castelo Branco.

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

In order to quickly suppress this parade, Braga in the north of Porto and Aveiro in the south were sending police to assist Porto.

The armed suppression of the police made this parade very chaotic. The parade was mixed with the families of the police, and not all police could shoot at the parade team.

The armed suppression from other cities did effectively stop the parade, but it also triggered a conflict between the police of other cities and the Porto police.

The police from other cities killed or injured the masses of the parade in the process of suppressing the parade, and many of these masses were the families of the Porto police.

Porto at this time could be described as "the northwest became a mess." The local police and the police from other cities formed a confrontation, and the parade masses and the police formed a confrontation. Everyone couldn't tell who was the enemy and who was the friend.

At this time, the Republican Party also exerted its strength. Theoretically, Porto is under the control of the Republican Party. The Republican Party has a large number of supporters here, and there is no lack of local police and police families.

Under the call of the Republican Party, part of the Porto police turned to the parade team, making the situation in Porto even more chaotic.

The initial confrontation did not rise to the use of firearms, but as the chaotic situation became more chaotic, I don't know who fired the first shot, and the confrontation between several forces turned into a chaotic gun battle.

This chaos lasted for several hours, and finally ended with the comprehensive victory of the parade team.

The parade team won the support of the Porto police, and there were only more than 100 police sent from the other two cities, which had no way to face the huge parade team.

Although the parade team won, this parade paid a huge price. Because the chaos lasted for several hours, thousands of people were injured or killed.

Only hundreds of citizens were killed or injured by police from other cities, but the number of citizens injured or killed due to stampede was as high as thousands.

Such a chaotic situation triggered a deeper thinking of Porto citizens: why did Portugal become like this?

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

Among them, the chaos event caused by the Porto citizens' parade was also reported, and the casualties of the parade masses and local police were also recorded in detail, which was talked about by the Spaniards.

Spaniards are very fortunate at this time that they met a king who, although young, is very capable.

When Gao Da became the King of Spain, his age was much smaller than the current King of Portugal, Carlos I.

But the abilities of the two are not as reflected by their age. Carlos I's Portugal is already chaotic at this time, and even if the civil war ends, it is destined to decline for a long time.

And Spain under Gao Da's rule is thriving. The Iberian "Twin Teeth" of the colonial era, Portugal at this time has been thrown far behind.

Compared to the Spaniards' talk, the Portuguese who had moved to Spain felt a bit fortunate.

They were fortunate that they came to Spain, otherwise they would likely be affected by this civil war.

This civil war has had thousands of civilian casualties so far, which is enough to prove how corrupt and mediocre 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.

Especially when the uprising army controlled the Portalegre area, they opened the railway from Portalegre to Spain, which led to thousands of Portuguese civilians fleeing to Spain in a week.

For these Portuguese who came to Spain to flee, Gao Da let the government carry out proper resettlement.

It just so happens that the population of Extremadura is not large, and resettling thousands of Portuguese is easy.

Gao Da sent enough emergency living materials to these Portuguese and let local officials comfort these Portuguese.

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

The Portuguese who got the promise were naturally grateful. Comparing the Spanish government and the Portuguese government, they finally discovered how disastrous the country they originally lived in was.

For these Portuguese who fled, Gao Da refused no one.

The Portuguese are the best population to assimilate, and their language and culture are not much different from Spain's. It is no exaggeration to say that the language and cultural differences between two cities in a province of a certain big country in later generations may be greater than the differences between Portugal and Spain.

As long as these Portuguese are allowed to deeply realize the differences between the two governments and feel Gao Da's love 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 this big family of Spain. These Portuguese who integrated into Spain are quite important to Spain. If they can annex Portugal in the future, these people will play a good demonstration role, letting the Portuguese safely invest in Spain's embrace.

This is like "buying a horse bone with a thousand gold." Let the Portuguese see the benefits of joining Spain, and they will naturally not exclude joining Spain.

The reason why Portugal in history requested independence after unification is actually that the interests of the Portuguese were not respected, coupled with the instigation of nobles and capitalists in Portugal, which finally led to the Portuguese thinking about independence all the time.

What about Portugal after the Republican Party revolution, where nobles were abolished?

Without the instigation of the largest force of nobles, the remaining Portuguese capital is not worth mentioning in front of Spain. The common people don't care much about whether they are Spanish or Portuguese. What they care about is whether their lives have been improved, and whether they can survive peacefully and happily.

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

Of course, for those Portuguese who really don't want to join Spain, Gao Da will not force them.

Anyway, Spain has large African colonies. At worst, transfer these Portuguese to African colonies and let them re-establish a Portugal in Africa.

I believe they will not be ungrateful. After all, Portugal's power is obviously much weaker compared to Spain.

Moreover, the power within Portugal is not unified. Some people really don't want to join Spain, but some people have expectations for joining Spain.

What Gao Da wants to do is to integrate these Portuguese who have a good impression of Spain and are willing to join Spain, and control the entire Portugal through them.

Spain, which has integrated Portugal, will become incomparably powerful. Whether it is an enemy of Britain or an enemy of France, it has the ability to confront them for Spain.

The unified Iberian Peninsula is solid as a rock. Even super major powers like Britain, France, and Germany need to pay a huge price if they want to attack the Iberian Peninsula.

5,200-word addition chapter, thanks for everyone's monthly tickets!

There is at least one more chapter of 4,000-word main text today, with a total update of over 9,200 words!

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