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Britain and Portugal have been allies for several hundred years, and at worst have only been involved in disputes and ultimatums (except when Portugal and Spain were united from 1580 to 1640 and were thus on the opposite side from England). I'm thinking, for example, of the British Ultimatum of 1880 telling Portugal to get out of the way between Angola and Mozambique in southern Africa.

Concerning South America, if the British had been able to grab a foothold of somewhere in Spanish South America (e.g. Argentina or Peru or Venezuela) and there were territorial disputes with the Portuguese Empire, in the early 1800s, would there have been just disputes and ultimatums but not war? Would it have been the same thing between any of those British places and Brazil shortly after the latter's independence in 1822?
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