Throughout the 1700s and 1800s Portugal's power slowly began to erode. Her first dictatorship came under Sebastião de Melo, first minister to the king at the time, Joseph I. Melo gathered more and more power to himself during a series of crises, including an earthquake that destroyed the capital, Lisbon, and an assassination attempt on the King. But Joseph's heir, Queen Maria I, disliked Melo and there his power ended. Also in the 1700s, Spain and France tried to force Portugal into the Bourbon Contract, meant to counter the power of Britain – Portugal and her leaders agreed that they didn't care about this; Spain invaded but was pushed back with British help. (Seven Years' War) An interesting side note is that, despite an alliance with Britain, Portugal was the first non-involved nation to acknowledge American independence after the Revolutionary War ended.
Portugal was invaded by Napoleon during his conquests – and she was furious at having to bow to France's short little boss. In 1820 she lost Brazil, and in 1890 she was betrayed by England's bosses, her military forced out of Mozambique and Angola in order to further British interests. The only reason she doesn't blame England for this is because as far as she knows, it was not his idea. She believes this fully – if it's true or not, who can say? This, however, led eventually to such discontent among her people that her government collapsed.
The 20th century was a time of upheaval for her. She had a republic starting from the October 1910 Revolution, but her politics remained fractured. It only got worse when she involved herself in WWI, officially joining in 1916. The infighting continued afterwards – there was a brief civil war in 1918 – eventually ending in the New State (Estado Novo) a dictatorship that lasted until the 1970s. In the last decades of the 20th century, Portugal let go of the last of her colonies, ending with Macau, who returned to China with Hong Kong (let go of by Britain) in 1997.
Today she is part of the European Union, NATO, the UN, and still recovering from decades of a dictatorship that quashed development and forced a conservative regression. But she is getting there, and is very much a modern country. She;s just still trying to adapt herself to being such.
Re: [Fandom OC] Portugal/Madalena Almeida|| Axis Powers Hetalia || no reserve || 1 of ?
Portugal was invaded by Napoleon during his conquests – and she was furious at having to bow to France's short little boss. In 1820 she lost Brazil, and in 1890 she was betrayed by England's bosses, her military forced out of Mozambique and Angola in order to further British interests. The only reason she doesn't blame England for this is because as far as she knows, it was not his idea. She believes this fully – if it's true or not, who can say? This, however, led eventually to such discontent among her people that her government collapsed.
The 20th century was a time of upheaval for her. She had a republic starting from the October 1910 Revolution, but her politics remained fractured. It only got worse when she involved herself in WWI, officially joining in 1916. The infighting continued afterwards – there was a brief civil war in 1918 – eventually ending in the New State (Estado Novo) a dictatorship that lasted until the 1970s. In the last decades of the 20th century, Portugal let go of the last of her colonies, ending with Macau, who returned to China with Hong Kong (let go of by Britain) in 1997.
Today she is part of the European Union, NATO, the UN, and still recovering from decades of a dictatorship that quashed development and forced a conservative regression. But she is getting there, and is very much a modern country. She;s just still trying to adapt herself to being such.