Chapter 420: Britain's Deterrence

When other European countries learned that the civil war in Portugal had broken out again, the situation within Portugal was already a mess.

At first, it was just the armed uprising launched by the Iberian Party, which the Portuguese republican government was not afraid of. After all, this could be considered their own path; since the Republican Party had seized political power through armed uprising, it was naturally impossible for them not to take precautions regarding armed uprising.

As early as before declaring the Iberian Party illegal, the Portuguese republican government had mobilized an army of tens of thousands of people to hold the towns east and north of Lisbon for defense.

Lisbon, as the capital of Portugal, was firmly controlled by the Republican Party. As long as the enemy was not allowed to attack Lisbon, these large and small armed uprisings would naturally not become a climate.

But the Republican Party never expected that before the Iberian Party decided to launch an armed uprising, they actually published a news article titled "To All Portuguese People."

In this news, the Iberian Party called on all Portuguese people to resist the dictatorial rule of the Republican Party. Before those civilians could react, the large and small opposition parties within Portugal had movements instead.

Although the military power of these opposition parties combined could not compare to the Republican Party, this would lead to a problem: armed uprisings would break out everywhere in Portugal.

Although the Republican Party was powerful, it could not achieve complete control over all parts of Portugal. Once these opposition parties launched armed rebellions and controlled the cities where they were located, Portugal would fall into a chaotic civil war, and ending the civil war would not be so easy.

The beginning of the armed uprising was the stage where the power of these opposition parties was the weakest. Once they controlled the city, they would have a large amount of manpower to use.

Don't underestimate the ability of these opposition parties to control people's hearts. Even in cities painstakingly managed by the Republican Party, once controlled by these opposition parties, the local popular support would no longer be with the Republican Party.

Less than a week after the Iberian Party published the article "To All Portuguese People," the armed uprisings within Portugal had already spread to dozens of large and small cities across the country. The number of opposition parties participating in the armed uprising reached several, and the number of people involved reached hundreds of thousands.

Braga and Porto in the north of Portugal, and Olhão and Lagos in the south were quickly occupied by the Iberian Party and other responding opposition parties. Even in Setúbal, around Lisbon, a medium-scale armed uprising broke out.

If it weren't for the Republican Party army quickly extinguishing the uprising in Setúbal, I am afraid this gateway southeast of Lisbon would have been handed over to others.

On July 12, 1904, after several days of development, the situation within Portugal had changed from an armed uprising by the Iberian Party to a civil war between the two sides, led by the Republican Party and the Iberian Party respectively.

The Republican Party controlled most of the armed forces of the original Portuguese government, and the army that could be mobilized locally was about 80,000 people.

The Iberian Party had currently expanded its army to 20,000 people, plus the armies expanded by other opposition parties, the total number of troops was about 40,000.

Although the Republican Party occupied a numerical advantage, these 70,000 troops could not all be used to suppress the rebellion. The republican government also needed to worry about Spain, which was eyeing them covetously on the side; at least tens of thousands of troops needed to be stationed on the border between Portugal and Spain.

This also created an awkward situation: the number of troops controlled by the republican government and these parties launching armed uprisings was not much different.

The combat effectiveness of the Portuguese Army was not high, which was also the reason why these regular troops and the armed uprising armies of the opposition parties were fighting back and forth.

The Republican Party army could not quickly resolve the armed rebellions in various places, and the opposition party's army could not quickly defeat the Republican Party army to seize the political power of the Portuguese government.

Although the Portuguese civil war looked evenly matched, for the Portuguese republican government, this was not good news.

Still the same sentence, in the early stage of this war, the republican government occupied a great advantage. They controlled most of the areas within Portugal, had an army of tens of thousands of people that could be mobilized, and could even mobilize troops from Portugal's African colonies.

And these opposition parties did not substantially control any city in Portugal before launching the armed uprising. As long as the republican government could use its early advantage to quickly resolve these rebellious opposition parties, they could easily survive this crisis.

But the behavior of these opposition parties responding to the Iberian Party caused the republican government's idea of quickly resolving the Iberian Party's armed uprising army in the early stage of the civil war to fall through.

Unable to quickly resolve the Iberian Party's armed uprising army in the early stage of the war, the Portuguese republican government could only accept the fact that its territory was constantly being eroded by the enemy.

The Republican Party knew that dragging it on would be unfavorable to itself. The Iberian Party could create such a great momentum, and it was highly probable that it already had the support of the Spanish government behind it.

12 years ago, the Republican Party relied on Spain's support to defeat the Portuguese Kingdom government; they naturally also knew that with Spain's support, the Iberian Party had become their greatest threat.

In order to preserve its power, the Republican Party decided to find an ally for itself that was comparable to Spain, so that it could compete fairly with the Iberian Party.

Who was this ally? From the economic alliance treaty previously signed between the Portuguese republican government and Britain, it could be seen that the ally the Republican Party was looking for could only be Britain.

The British government was naturally paying attention to the situation of the Portuguese civil war, and they also knew that Spain must be standing behind the Iberian Party.

Regarding the gradually rising Spain, Britain was very wary. Spain forcibly annexed Morocco during Britain's Boer War, which also caused the British government to raise the threat level of Spain by several levels.

In order to stabilize the situation in the Strait of Gibraltar, Britain increased its wooing of the Portuguese republican government, which was also the reason why the Republican Party, despite being supported by Spain, eventually leaned toward Britain.

For the Republican Party, Spain was obviously the greatest threat. This neighbor of theirs was simply too powerful; even if they were supported by Spain, it was impossible to give up precautions against Spain.

Portugal needed to guard against Spain, and Britain needed Portugal to help itself maintain the balance of the Strait of Gibraltar. These two countries could be said to have hit it off immediately; they quickly abandoned their opposition to each other and quickly determined a series of economic cooperation.

After the Portuguese republican government asked Britain for help, the British government immediately decided to intervene in the Portuguese civil war to help the Portuguese republican government win this war.

During the last time a revolution broke out in Portugal, the British government did not directly intervene in the Portuguese revolution for various reasons.

This also led to the overthrow of the pro-British Portuguese royal family, the Republican Party supported by Spain controlled the situation in Portugal, and it had been against Britain in the first few years of its rule.

If the Republican Party was overthrown by the Iberian Party again, Britain would not only lose a Portuguese ally that was pro-British again, but would also make these Portuguese parties pay more attention to Spain's opinions. ===== CHAPTER 421 =====