Rebirth of an Empire "O Renascimento de um Império" v2.0

Lusitania

Donor
very interesting
Thank You, we glad you enjoyed it.

This growing militarism is going to need an outlet.

I like that Portugal is setting itself up to Rival Britain, either by being an alternative or simply making their own. I really hope it could stand toe to toe to the British Empire by the 1900s.
Yes the Portuguese Empire will not be dependent on the British for its survival and for protection like iOTL. With added strength will come added responsibility and possibilities both good and bad. There are a lot of situations that the Portuguese were spectators either due to not being directly affected by the conflict or simply did not have the resources or ability to take advantage. While I will not specify the specific issues that affect the Portuguese in the 19th and 20th century the expanded empire will be in direct conflict or vicinity of many zones of future "conflict" or better yet problems. How it will interact both with other colonial powers and locals will determine its future.

very good update , Portugal is advancing quite well , good i hope that we become as strong as the British empire , and when WW and WWII happen , we are on the side of the Allies . can hardly wait for the next update .

Hm... funny you should mention World Wars, I originally started the TL based on playing the WWII game "Hearts of Iron", wanting to both modernize and increase the size of the Portuguese Empire. My first major mistake in writing the TL was to do both but to ignore the fact that 200+ of history as we portrait it would result in major political and military situation throughout world in the 20th century. So will there be a WW1 and WW2? Maybe, but it will be different and our conception of Allies and Entente will be complete different. The prospects of "great war" anytime after 1890 is high due to nationalism and imperialistic ambitions colliding. iOTL it was coincidental that it occurred only in 1914 and not earlier. So suffice to say there will be conflicts and at this moment (and not for while) we will not speculate on the nature of such a conflict / war.

What are Portugal West African colonies?

Thanks, but in the update was mentioned Sierra Leone.
OK we will be delving into the development of the various colonies when we post Minister of Navy and Colonies. At this time we wish to state that Portuguese African colonies along the Atlantic composition does undergo major changes. Some of which was already covered in the Angola expansion posts and more to follow in both he colonial and the three year war. As for specific Thrudgelmir2333 was correct in specifying Cape Verde and Guine since those were the two primary colonies in which the Portuguese navy and army projected power into the Atlantic while the composition of Portuguese Guinea will change and expand from our perceptions. In some ways it will be same as saying Brazil which encompassed all Portuguese South America from Amazon to the Rio de la Plata but in reality was composed of several very different provinces. So too will this be the case in West Africa where all lands there be considered Portuguese Guinea even if they encompass territory that iOTL were separate colonies from other countries.

Given Portugal is now searching about fuel, how is going treated "white coal" or waterpower?
We already have touched a little on this in discussing the paper industry, there will be additional discussions on this when we discuss the Ministry of Health and Agriculture. Note: In many parts of the Iberian Peninsula there would need to be investment in terms of building reservoirs to take advantage of waterpower. As for "white coal" its use in Europe more importantly Britain the primary user of it was supplanted by charcoal or coal and only recently has it regained interest. The Portuguese efforts were concentrated on coal and securing sources of it, although as outlined in post only available in both Brazil and supposable in East Africa.
 
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Rebirth of Empire (2 of 2) - The Last Years of Pombal (1777 - 1782) - Minister of Army & Foreign Affairs (1 of 2)

Lusitania

Donor
Rebirth of Empire (Part 2 of 2) (Cont.)

The Last Years of Pombal (1777-1782) (Cont.)


Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs (1 of 2)

In 1777 the Portuguese Armed Forces were in the midst of major re-organization and training commenced by Count Lippe. The re-organization had proven itself in various theaters. In South America, the Atlantic Army had not only driven the Spanish colonial troops out of ‘Rio Grande do Sul’ but had defeated and driven them west of the Uruguay River. A combined Atlantic and Metropolitan force had been able to defeat Morocco and increase Portuguese presence in North Africa for first time in over 200 years. Finally, in India, the re-organized Portuguese forces had been instrumental in expanding Portuguese influence and Territory.

The sudden death of Count Lippe had been a terrible shock to the army and government especially the Ministry of Army and Foreign Affairs. The Ministry had been re-organized and streamlined by Lippe and all ministry staff were dedicated and devoted to Lippe. The fear in the Ministry and many in Military was that all of Lippe reforms would be for naught and without the correct man leading the Ministry the reforms would flounder.

Two weeks after the Count of Lippe death, following the funeral mass and accompanying the coffin to the Portuguese warship sailing to Hamburg with corpse of Count Lippe King Joseph II paid a surprise visit to the Ministry’s offices. After a tour and introduction to many of the staff the King addressed a packed meeting in front of the large entrance doors. He pledged to continue with the Lippe’s reforms and to rebuild Portugal’s military might while continuing Lord Manuel’s diplomatic efforts to keep Portugal independent and strong.

On 19 November 1777 Aires de Sá e Melo Viscount of Anadia was appointed as the new Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs and Cipriano Ribeiro Freire as Secretary of Foreign Affairs & Portuguese Diplomatic Corp.

The Administrative Count

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Count John Almeida Castro of Linhares
Born 23 January 1756
Died 18 January 1814
Portuguese Ambassador and Statesman
Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs 1777 - 1786

Born in Amoreiras, Aires de Sá e Melo attended University of Coimbra and in 1761 went to work for Pombal and was transferred to the Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs at the time of Count Lippe appointment. In 1763 he was appointed Portugal’s Ambassador to Madrid where for next five years he attempted to maintain cordial relationships with the Spanish Court at the time of the Undeclared War. In 1769 he was the principal Portuguese negotiator at the Treaty of Paris 1769 between Portugal and Spain.

In 1770 his diplomatic skills were called upon again when he led the Portuguese negotiations with Morocco ending the Morbeia War. For his actions and diplomatic skills, he was given the title of Viscount of Anadia by King Joseph I on 1 January 1771. From 1772 to 1774 he toured several European capitals promoting Portugal during the publication and promotion of the ‘The Chronological and Analytic Deduction’. In 1775 he returned to Lisbon and became a Secretary in the Ministry under Lippe.

In 1777 he took over the Secretary of Foreign Affairs upon the death of Lord Manuel. While not having a military background he was an able administrator who employed skilled military and diplomatic assistants.

The Armed Forces – Officer Reform
In 1778, a solid core of soldiers was formed, but the number of officers available to lead them was limited. This was because military education was, due to economic and social biases, almost restricted to aristocratic and burgher segments. Meanwhile, officer practices had grown complex due to the introduction of Unlawful Order regulations which prohibited the legal argument of soldier-to-officer obedience when answering to a martial court. Moreover, while manpower was being drawn from all territories, officers were recruited mostly from Metropolitan Portugal, where educational infrastructure and economy was better.

This created a difficult situation for the army, as it was manned by an insufficient number of officers of privileged background now restricted in how to motivate and command their inferiors.

Literate NCOs would not be introduced until the Napoleonic Wars, when siege difficulties made it obvious that there was benefit in promoting grunt soldier education. This meant that the Army Ministry had to find an alternative in the late 1770s to counter a situation of unbalance between grunt manpower and officer manpower.

As the Luso-Mysore War ended in 1778 and the war annotations were documented, the Army Minister Count Linhares issued the following measures:
  • Officer Appointment Reform: Building upon the Prussian Antiquity system of promotion by merit, a template of requirements for officer positions was formalized to ensure all officers had a minimum set of skills. This was meant to further prevent unfair or inadequate appointment before any officer recruitment reform took place;
  • Military Study Loans/Subsidies: This meant allowing the education costs for soldiers in military schools to be postponed, bringing the recruitment bar to candidates with lower financial means and to enrolled professional soldiers;
  • Colonial Military Schools: The establishment of Military Schools in Brazil and Goa to increase advanced military training in these territories;
  • Immediate Oceanic Army Enrollment: Officer documentation was reform to include their Oceanic Army appointment to promote an extra-colonial identity in colonial officers and manpower dynamism;
Setting aside a formal number of requirements by military rule to be officer had a small catch; it theoretically raised the issue that illiterate soldiers that proved themselves in combat could not be promoted despite their bravery and efforts, which could hurt combat initiative and army meritocracy, but it was true that a man who could not read and interpret battle plans could be allowed a leading position. To counter this, the Study Loan was extended to said soldiers, with superiors being allowed to cite combat feats in recommendations for otherwise inadmissible students.

The Royal Academy for Artillery, Fortifications and Design (por. Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho) was created in Rio de Janeiro, 1792, through a decree issued by the Portuguese authorities as a higher education school for the teaching of the sciences and engineering to potential officers. Combined with other schools raised in Goa and the Military Study Loans & Subsidy plan, this allowed for the number of eligible officers to increase almost 90%. This did not guarantee officer quality; in fact the average skill and qualification of the officer was later on observed to have decreased, but this countered a much more urgent problem which was not having enough officers to lead the army effectively in the first place.

‘Royal Road’ Militarization & Semaphore System

By 1775, the first phase of the Royal Roads project was completed, thus establishing a basic set of quality roads for commerce and troop movement. However, there were concerns that the hard-worked-for project was strategically dangerous. One of the ancestral military defenses of the territory had always been the marching conundrum the hilly north and the river-cut south caused, making invading armies susceptible to ambushes and counter-marches ever since the days of the Roman Empire. The presence of the Royal Roads, however, eliminated this problem; an army invading through Spain could make use of them to streamline movement straight into important urban spots.

Accompanying this military concern were the limitations of the Letter Road Project, which had streamlined communication but not physically enhanced it. Channels reserved to military use were susceptible to interception and could move no faster than a man on horseback.

In order to counter these difficulties, the Portuguese military government under the Marquis of Alvito and the Count of Lippe had begun investigating a system of communication that would allow the central government to receive intelligence and to transmit orders in the shortest possible time.

Several methods being advanced throughout Europe at the time were investigated. Eventually two Engineers Sebastião Guimarães and Alexis Silveira developed an “Optical Telegraph” or Semaphore system based on a proposal by a British man Robert Hook. The system was based on ten collapsible iron shutters. The various positions of the shutters formed combinations of numbers, which were translated into letters, words or phrases via codebooks. The telegraph network consisted of telegraph stations positioned at about six miles from one another.

In 1785 they demonstrated the successful use the Guimarães-Silveira Semaphore system by transmitting a message from Porto to Lisbon in less than two hours. By 1798 the Semaphore system had been built adjacent to the Royal Roads throughout all of Portugal proper. Each Portuguese Army headquarters also carried a portable Semaphore. This system was eventually copied by other European countries and continued to be used both for military as well as commercial use until the advent of the electric telegraph.

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Semaphore system at work

The Semaphore system, however, was highly experimental; the message script could only carry simple messages and it was susceptible to replication mistakes along its travel. It did, however, allow the reconnaissance ability of HQs in continental Portugal to increase dramatically and no longer rely on shady channels. Using this newfound line of sight, the army documented ambush plans for critical spots on the Royal Roads to turn the infrastructure into deathtrap. In some critical paths gunpowder charges were even locked under the rock to allow the state to blow the path to smithereens with enemies on it.

Military Emancipation - Part II – ‘Open Barrack’ Decree

African blood is spilled for you. Defend their land like they defend yours.
- ‘Open Barrack’ Decree opening statement

The ‘Portugal Seguro’ project was still in force between 1778 and 1782 and its urgency was galvanized by the wars with Indian and Dutch powers throughout this small period of time. Victories against Hyder Ali and expansion of Goan territory had both excited recruits and scared families, for the death toll was nothing to glaze over but the validation of the army reforms had returned prestige to military careers in Portugal.

Marching along this unsure tendency was the growing burgher interest in colonial warfare, which had proven itself profitable along the latest decade. Politics were then shifting, against Pombal’s best desires, from cautiously avoiding conflict towards politically supporting and promoting warfare in theaters with potential. This attitude was still limited by a fear of greater powers, of course.

As of 1778, approximately 40,000 soldiers were fully trained, not counting garrisons, Marines, Light Troop regiments and myriad brands of non-professional troops, such as colonial non-Caucasian irregulars.

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The ambition of the project by 1792 was a total of 90,000 professional soldiers as a core of a decentralized imperial-colonial Corp of three armies supported by garrisons and Marines. The observed growth was spiked by the initial professionalization period (1763-1766), the more intense years of the Undeclared War (1767-1770), the approximately simultaneous Berber pirate raids and Morbeia War (1768-1770), and the growing tensions period in India (1772-1774). Against the growth were mainly war losses, recruitment difficulties and disease outbreaks, the latest which was most intense in the 1770-to-1772 period.

Following 1778, the tendency of growth was irregular for a conflict of reasons; while there was much greater political backing and soldier health innovation (such as inoculation and sailing citrus diet), the manpower recruitment potential was nearing a drained phase as the population, especially the Latin-Caucasian segment, could no longer supply as many voluntary soldiers as before. This was problematic due to the high demands for flexible manpower that maintaining an expanding force needed.

In the meantime, philosophical concerns in Portuguese society from the events of the Progressive-Verneyist Revolution exacerbated by the liberal radicalism of the French Revolutionaries left social climate in a delicate state, raising concerns in the higher segments of society that civil order was at stake. The danger of foreign intervention in Portugal to curb dangerous progressivisms was also a rising popular concerns. The King of Spain had been known to have assured his aristocrats and bishops that the anti-status-quo scandals that occurred in Lisbon would not be repeated in Madrid, with only the recent catastrophe of the Fantastic War making the thought of a direct intervention unpleasant.

This forced the government to take a drastic step. In 1778, restrictions were officially lifted on racial recruitment. By order of the War Ministry, the ‘Open Barracks’ decree was announced, eliminating barriers in military careerism for non-Caucasian and colonial inhabitants all the way to the rank of General.

This was controversial due to the nature of the Bluecoat as a sign of professionalism and earned citizenship; serving with the uniform granted automatic citizen status to immigrants and colonial natives since the reforms passed by the Count of Lippe and this clashed with long standing interpretations of African and Asian rights in Portugal (not that Caucasian citizen rights were formal in any sort of way). The most basic criticism of the lifting of restrictions was that it undermined the hard-earned prestige of the Bluecoat.

Another criticism was its perceived impracticability. The actual ability of the nation to build an army of 90,000 soldiers by 1792 was dubious and only given credibility by the 1777 mark of 50,000 soldiers having been met by July 1773 (war losses in India would turn the number back down, but the goal was re-met in late 1775). A significant segment of pacifists, plutocrats and economists against military buildup in the country argued that the 90,000 goal was beyond national limits and heavy to maintain, so opening the ranks even further to non-whites was interpreted as a marginal benefit for significant social costs.

The actual military limits of the country depended on colonial support, subverting the typical rule of European empires in which the mainland provided the most population for the army. It was estimated that alleviating military needs in Brazil by allowing it a self-defense force would allow the steering of several tens of thousands of professional Bluecoats born in Brazil to other theaters, ‘de facto’ increasing army size available for oversea conquest in Africa and Asia.

The power allowed to Brazil, however, depended heavily on Navy Ministry policies. As of the ‘Open Barracks’ Decree passing, Brazil was allowed judicial and legislative independence under the MAD doctrine, but executive powers rested with the Crown, creating a two-way loyalty. Combined with significant economic and political autonomy, this meant that by 1778, Brazil had more in common with a Dominion than a Colony.

The lifting of restriction caused a troubling political phenomenon; African-descendants in Brazil began taking military careers to escape Brazilian slavery, not because of the prestige, but because the Army’s placement policies would most likely send them to Goa or Metropolitan Portugal, where slavery was banned and combated. Between 1778 and 1782, approximately 8,000 African male teenagers and young adults living either in Northern Brazil or in ‘Free States’ bordering Northern Brazil signed up for the Bluecoat, Mariner and Light Troop training, knowing it would have them shipped away from the land that was hunting them down illegally.

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Guinean Battalion Exercises
A significant portion of this period’s recruits were Afro-Brazilians from the Bahia state

Following the influx of these men, who were highly charged in a political sense against the ongoing legality of slavery in Northern Brazilian States, the army took extra steps to reinforce the anti-segregation laws in military positioning, which meant preventing the African descendant units from being gathered into fully-ethnic platoons. Of these 8,000 men, half were positioned in the Indic Army, 3,000 in the Metropolitan Army and only 1,000 in the Atlantic Army and officers were instructed that they were ‘expected to enforce a disciplined cohesion’. They would play an instrumental role in India’s land fighting due to their dedication to proving themselves worthy citizens in the face of their white counterparts and many applied to the elite Mariner training to further distance them from the risk of disrespect.

This was not an unprecedented phenomenon; during the American Revolution, approximately 100,000 slaves escaped to British lines thanks to promises of freedom and it was in response to this that George Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army. Five thousand served in defense of Washington, including Peter Salem and Salem Poor, and 20,000 would serve for London.

The inclusion of further non-white soldiers in professional units rose concerns over unit cohesion which could undermine efforts to maintain discipline, loyalty and the putting down of mutinies, at least in theory according to long-standing British naval practices. Portugal, however, could not afford to limit its sea and land manpower and was forced to adapt. A big part of this adaptation was, of course, the practice of pitting soldiers into ethnically unfamiliar territory, where they would be forced to see each other more as allies against an unfriendly environment, but the removal of ethnicity detailing in military bureaucracy, making it a martial offence to disrespect official army platoon race quotas, and making official the ‘Bluecoating’ of Luso-Africans was used to fight this volatile situation.

The ‘Bluecoat’ issue, however, was difficult to enforce and maintain. By 1792 many colonial garrisons would still lack proper professional uniforms, with only unquestionably and historically validated units, such as the ones that would fight the Luso-Indian Wars, tolerating ‘Black Bluecoats’.

Note:
We continue posting the Last Years of Pombal 1777 -1782. The Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs is divided into two parts, this post deals with the many advances in military matters as the ministry continues its work in advancing the country's military. These were crucial to provide the forces and organization the country needed for its many endeavors and activities and more importantly defending the country and its interests. Questions/Comments

Please return Sunday May 19 as we post the 2nd part of the Rebirth of Empire (2 of 2) - The Last Years of Pombal 1777 - 1782 (Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs).


 
very good new update , the Portuguese armies ,and very good to defend Portugal and its Colonies , soon i suspect the Napoleonic Wars will start . can hardly wait for the next update
 

Lusitania

Donor
The time of the French are approaching

very good new update , the Portuguese armies ,and very good to defend Portugal and its Colonies , soon i suspect the Napoleonic Wars will start . can hardly wait for the next update

Thanks, and the French are coming a little sooner than the Napoleonic wars, for the closeness of Portugal and Britain and also the fact that our king is married to British monarch's daughter make us a much greater target. How the Portuguese react to the 3 year war be very important for its future plans. iOTL the Portuguese were targeted by both Spain and France for its closeness to the British while iTTL we have a vastly different country. More so as the years go by. The cumulative affect of the changes instituted by Pombal and cabinet and witnessed by the Portuguese make contrast of the two Portugal's that much greater as each decade happens. By time 1777 - 1782 we have close to 30 years of change. We can no longer think of Portugal in the same terms anymore as iOTL, what we are looking at now is the political and social events during that time and how the Portuguese will react and what impact they have on the country and in time on world.

See you Sunday in our next installment of the Ministry of Army and Foreign Affairs.
 
Rebirth of Empire (2 of 2) - The Last Years of Pombal (1777 - 1782) - Minister of Army & Foreign Affairs (2 of 2)

Lusitania

Donor
Rebirth of Empire (Part 2 of 2) (Cont.)

The Last Years of Pombal (1777-1782) (Cont.)

Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs (2 of 2)


Military Equipment - Part II: The ‘Gun Drill’ Revolution

The Seven Years War established organized artillery as a vital part of the battlefield for the first time, with the cumbersome cannons having only been used until then as support for infantry deployment and combat. By far the biggest innovators and organizers of guns as of the 18th century was the French. While men like Gustavus Adolphus, King of the Swedes, and later on Frederic the Great, King of the Prussians, had contributed major cannon tactical innovations and roles, the French had been the only one to actually standardize and carry out effective cannon designs, particularly the 4-to-24 pounds designs of Florent-Jean de Vallière of 1732. These guns were powerful and organized but failed to accompany the war of movement due to their weight and imprecision.

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The classical French cannon was powerful in sieges but inflexible in combat, especially in India

The secret of the flaws of cannon firing and movement at the time lied in their production; they were cast as a single iron piece in specialized furnace designed to include a clay cylinder core. When the iron cooled, forming the gun, the clay would be pulled out to leave the hollow section. Only the simple wood crafting of the trunnion remained. This however failed to create a ‘perfect’ hollow section of equal width throughout its length, causing empty spaces in the bore that prevented tight-fitting. This meant that not only was a significant amount of energy from gunpowder explosion wasted, but the ‘rattle’ of the ball throughout its flight across the imperfect bore before leaving the gun would generate a shot path inefficient in both accuracy, safety and range.

There was a method available to develop superior cannons, one created by the Swiss Jean Maritz back in 1713, the vertical drilling of the single cast gun. This was a long, delicate process, however, so he improved upon it in 1734 with the horizontal drilling, in which the gun not only was worked on by the drill horizontally, but it was the gun that rotated and not the drill. This allowed the creation of a tight-fit bore that reduced cannon weight and accuracy significantly without sacrificing range.

The gun drill method would become the basis of the Gribeauval system, which would take the French cannon production doctrine by storm decades later and turn it into the best artillery in Europe. While some pieces were exported to other armies, such as the American army during the revolutionary war or the Swedish artillery regiments, other countries, however, failed to follow suit in a widespread manner and continued to use the inefficient methods which produced heavier guns. It was not until the Napoleonic Era, when Napoleon began supplying allied armies (such as the Spanish), that the Gribeauval system began to be seen in wider fashion and even then, British cannons were approximately 50% heavier.

In 1779, the ‘Silver Arm’ weapon complex was founded in Lisbon and began producing weaponry at the utmost national capacity, from muskets to cannons to naval ordinances, pooling resources and technologies from all around the Metropolis. One of the designs proposed to choose the machinery by was the lathe drilling conceived by Maritz, but concerns arose due to whether the method was sustainable considering the Portuguese tool production. An unexpected help came from none other than the glass industry, which was resurging in the capital as a national brand product. ‘Vista Alegre’ porcelain and glass furnaces demonstrated that hollowing of several dimensions, long, short, wide or large, was possible through specialized perforating tools on correctly warmed materials, allowing for products of much higher construction quality, variety and speed. Upon the factory’s founding, the ‘Artillery’ branch operated entirely on drilling methods, producing tight-fit cannons that followed the Gribeauval system.

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‘Silver Arm’ Horizontal Cannon Drilling

Even large naval guns could be more effectively hollowed through this method, producing lighter weapons and stronger, more precise firing

The result was a boom in national cannon production; previously an expensive enterprise, now a much lighter and manageable industry. Through methodological, space, logistical and resource organization following the ‘General Theory of Productivity’ theories, workers in this pre-industrial plant managed to make use of primitive machinery to hollow approximately an average of two large guns per workshop per day. Scientific testing of these new guns then later on demonstrated their vast superiority to previous cannons employed by Portugal, firing faster, more safely, with greater power, greater range and less weight. This warned of the advent of a major artillery regiment reform that could yield spectacular results over time, especially in India where the empire was hard-pressed to secure its domains.

This improvement, however, did not limit itself to cannons in Portugal.

Unlike most European armies of the time, the Portuguese relied on light infantry and medium cavalry for many important operations, and these troops employed what was known as the Crespi system, a set of prototypical carbines and muskets that employed a breech-loading method. These guns were not superior to the average musket due to flaws in their tight-fitness and production complexity. The Austrian Army had also reported several safety issues with the gun, claiming escaping gases badly burned numerous soldiers. They were employed nonetheless by the Light Cavalry during the Undeclared War because of how these men, trained in skirmish, relied less on firepower and more on firing speed.

Thanks to developments and growth in glass industry, hollowing methods and tools were available in significant quantities to Portuguese workshops, which continued to try to correct weapon manufacturing problems, especially after the creation of the job-creating ‘Silver Arm’ complex. It was theorized that improvements on the musket and carbines could be made by using new bore tools to develop previously unsustainable models, such as rifling (which was only used on special guns gifted to aristocrats) and fit-tightness. A major project was commissioned by the complex for a new, standard model using the latest, most widely sustainable production methods for an infantry musket that could surpass all others.

The result was the SAM Musket, also known as the Heavy Musket, and the SAM Carbine.

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The SAM (Silver Arm Manufactory) weaponry line was a musket production that seemed to have more in common with carbines than the average infantry weapon, boasting a fully standardized model from bullet to muzzle that resulted in lighter weight, more precision, slightly shorter muzzle and easier manufacturing. While it still followed the typical muzzle reloading, the SAM Musket could fire more accurately and at longer range thanks to improvements on the muzzle bore. Its actual reload process was also improved, with the tweaks in the handle, muzzle tightness and breech allowing the priming, projectile insertion and ramrod storing to be done more reliably and comfortably, resulting in quicker, more effective reloads (though the actual time was only reduced by a few seconds out of an average of twenty to thirty, meaning the benefits were in the ease of training soldiers with them than the actual reload time).

Known for its darker wood complexity, loading effectiveness and firing range, the SAM Musket could deliver a precise shot at 13% longer range than the typical musket and could function as an effective ‘fire across the Line’ at 30% longer range, making it significantly superior in the contemporary warfare. It would become streamlined across the army, replacing many of the colonial muskets still used in India and Africa. While the materials were not necessarily more expensive, the production required greater care and skill, meaning only advanced manufactories could produce a reliable SAM Musket. It’s added range and lessened misfire across the infantry line would grant it the nickname ‘Heavy Musket’ due to how it tilted Portuguese musket firing to follow a more ‘at-range and louder’ approach.

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1782 Bluecoat Equipment
The slightly shorter SAM ‘Heavy’ Musket had longer bayonets and firing accuracy
Reformed firing drills made the weapon known for its loud sound despite no actual volume difference
Extra equipment was carried to support sapping and fortification

As for the SAM Carbine, it continued to make use of the Crespi Breech loading mechanism, albeit added the improvements on muzzle bore that allowed for the correction of micro flaws, resulting in more reliable and precise firing.

The delicate manufacturing of these guns and the retraining needed to optimize their employment by the infantry, however, would significantly delay the replacement process. By 1782 only 20% of the army possessed one and by 1799, despite a significantly increased industrial capacity, only 80% of the battalions were authorized to ‘fire at a SAM range’. It still became a staple of weaponry technology advancements in the country and would influence battles from the late 1770s to the Peninsular War.

Secretary of Foreign Affairs & Portuguese Diplomatic Corp

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Cipriano Ribeiro Freire
Born 5 May 1749
Died 4 June 1824
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs, 1777 - 1797

Cipriano Ribeiro Freire was born in São João da Cova on 5 May 1749 Son of António Ribeiro Freire e de Teresa Maria Rosa. After graduating from University of Coimbra he went to work for the Portuguese Foreign Affairs Department and was placed as assistant Portuguese Ambassador in London. While in London he continued his studies and joined the Royal Academy of Sciences and developed good personal relationships with several British politicians including John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire.

In 1776 at age of 27 he was picked by Viscount of Anadia to be his assistant in Lisbon.


Diplomatic Consolidation & Expansion

Whatever you do, never say ‘no’ to them.
-Count of Barca, advising his protégés during instruction, referring to the foreign powers Portugal traded with

To diversify Portugal’s trade and open new markets to Portuguese goods, the Portuguese government sought to increase its trade with Russia, Prussia and other Baltic countries. In 1778, following the Luso-Maratha War, Portugal signed a commercial trade agreement with Russia and later on signed agreements that would allow a continent-encircling trade length from Lisbon shores to Russian Siberia, forming the basis for one of the most synergetic trade relations of the era. The economic ties between German territories and Portugal were strengthened and Portugal entered into several trade agreements with both Denmark and Sweden. In the meantime, trade influx from the Americas through Lisbon grew and morphed due to two events; the diversification of Brazilian exports and the increased British dominance in the Caribbean and Newfoundland.

This allowed the Lisbon Chamber of Commerce to strategically position itself as a crossroad for multiple commercial and docking theaters, significant increasing its importance and prestige in a short span of years. As a result, the diplomatic burden and responsibilities had increased several folds in an equally short period.

The Portuguese government sought to strengthen Portugal diplomatically; the wars with France and the Dutch between 1780 and 1784 had created great anxiety in Portugal. While Portugal had benefited greatly from these wars both in prestige and territory it had also exposed Portugal to terrible danger of an invasion.

As a result, the work done by the diplomatic branch of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in this period focused on creating conditions for a more flexible and grander diplomatic office that could juggle the multiple factions the country needed support from in coordinated manner. Portugal could not continue to maintain its privileged position in Hamburg, for example, without assuring both the British and Germans of their good intentions and could maintain these new diplomatic ties with Russia without providing similar guarantees of cooperation and restrain to the Czar, the Chinese Emperor and the Baltic kings. A lot of wealth became all of a sudden reliant on a strong diplomatic answering machine.

Luckily, Portugal enjoyed a rather good reputation in Europe and prestige in Asia, so Secretary Cipriano Freire focused his first efforts in departing from Portuguese traditional diplomacy, which focused on pleasing British, French and Spanish embassies, to instead seek mutually beneficial relations with a wide array of European powers, small as they may be. Another reform was the mandatory training on aggressive diplomacy to ensure Portuguese interests were served in treaties; ambassadors had to understand correctly what they were not allowed to concede and how much they could negotiate in Portuguese favor.

Expenditures in the diplomatic branch therefore increased significantly during this time, but this was required to maintain an even higher commercial and political gain. It was controversial in the cabinet, however, just how much the new expenses were justified by the boons. The Ministries of Armament & Industry and Navy & Colonial Affairs, for example, demanded budget steering towards them, often arguing they could obtain the same gains of prestige, reputation and opportunities through force of ship cannons and factories.


Note:
We continue posting the Last Years of Pombal 1777 -1782. The Ministry of Army & Foreign Affairs is divided into two parts, this post deals with the many advances in military matters as the ministry continues its work in advancing the country's military. These were crucial to provide the forces and organization the country needed for its many endeavors and activities and more importantly defending the country and its interests. Questions/Comments

Please return Sunday June 2 as we post the 1st part of the Rebirth of Empire (2 of 2) - The Last Years of Pombal 1777 - 1782 (Ministry of Navy & Colonial Affairs).
 
So for awhile in TTL Portugal will have the best equipped army. Until Napoleon shows up and tries to rule all of Europe.
 
As long as they fight strategically and defensibly Portugal should be relatively safe from invasion.

How's the coastal fortification going?
 

Lusitania

Donor
So for awhile in TTL Portugal will have the best equipped army. Until Napoleon shows up and tries to rule all of Europe.

The Portuguese were slowly developing a modern army and investing in developing morder-me weapons be they canons, rockets in India or better rifles all in bid to best equip their forces which were facing countries that at times could field armies that outmatched Portuguese 2-4x so the Ministry was trying to gain advantage in tactics, weapons to give Portuguese troops an advantage.

In many ways Napoleon did the same. Faced with multiple opponents he used tactics and ingenuity to overcome many.

As long as they fight strategically and defensibly Portugal should be relatively safe from invasion.

How's the coastal fortification going?

This depends on the adversary. Portuguese tactic in many theaters will be to attack which we will get to soon, but with facing adversaries like France and Spain in Europe it relies on defensive strategy. That includes both coastal, and strategic fortifications as well as mobile military units.

Included in the strategy is use of communication, improved road system and military command.

As for fortifications, they continue to be built per the fortification specs outlined in Minister Lippe recommendations.
 
Portugal looks to be very progressive in the views of racial ethics compated to most europe.

Only relatively-speaking and out of necessity. Minorities are not allowed to wear the 'Bluecoat' uniform, for example, and the logistics of the ethnic manpower distribution are still very much based on convenience, proportion control and making sure you're fighting away from your native home. It is also partially motivated by Verneyist religious moralism than actual progressivism. At the end of the current book, politics will be discussed and the breakdown of mentality will be explained in more detail.
 
Only relatively-speaking and out of necessity. Minorities are not allowed to wear the 'Bluecoat' uniform, for example, and the logistics of the ethnic manpower distribution are still very much based on convenience, proportion control and making sure you're fighting away from your native home. It is also partially motivated by Verneyist religious moralism than actual progressivism.

Although, I could see these policies of pragmatism having a social effect on the next generation, working, living, and fighting alongside people of a different colour and perhaps even religion to themselves. They might choose to look positively at the centuries of cohabitation between Christians, Muslims, and Jews under the Al-Andalus, in contrast to the dogmatism following Reconquista that, they would argue, ultimately led to Portugal and Spain stagnating culturally and intellectually and thus being unable to keep their lead on the Dutch, French, and British in the imperial game.
 

Lusitania

Donor
Although, I could see these policies of pragmatism having a social effect on the next generation, working, living, and fighting alongside people of a different colour and perhaps even religion to themselves. They might choose to look positively at the centuries of cohabitation between Christians, Muslims, and Jews under the Al-Andalus, in contrast to the dogmatism following Reconquista that, they would argue, ultimately led to Portugal and Spain stagnating culturally and intellectually and thus being unable to keep their lead on the Dutch, French, and British in the imperial game.
Yes for centuries Portuguese and Spanish rule meant Catholicism and in worse cases inquisition. For in many places being Portuguese and Catholic was one and same.

The British in India also at first attempted to “modernize” or introduce many British customs and laws. That all stopped after the 1st rebellion in the 1850s. The British pulled back in their pushing of English language and customs even laws and chose instead to rule by proxy having limited interaction with administrators who then dealt with the average people in their language.

Here in Portuguese empire we are starting to have both introductions of Portuguese law, kinder and more humane Catholic Church, introduction of Portuguese language. To advance and succeed people slowly learned the language, some converted while others tested the waters keeping their religion.

As you have indicated from small beginning something profound can happen. We will delve more profoundly both on a regional as well as nationally on the beginning on this topic later in the end of current book.

Next Update on weekend.
 
I have just finished reading this excellent timeline and I am impressed! It is very well researched and very thorough.
So, I predict that in this TL Napoleonic wars the French will have an even harder time in Spain than in OTL.
 
Rebirth of Empire (2 of 2) - The Last Years of Pombal (1777 - 1782) - Minister of Navy & Colonial Affairs (1 of 2)

Lusitania

Donor
Rebirth of Empire (Part 2 of 2) (Cont.)

The Last Years of Pombal (1777-1782) (Cont.)

Ministry of Navy & Colonial Affairs (1 of 2)

Ambassador Castro proved to be a very capable administrator who is considered to be one of Portugal’s most important officials. While he was in constant competition for funds and resources with Count Lippe he none the less was able to make great strides in the rebuilding and re-structuring of Portugal’s naval capacity. When he took over the Ministry of Navy & Colonial Affairs the navy like the rest of Portugal showed signs neglect and was greatly understaffed and weak. His reforms galvanized not only the navy but also lead to the birth and expansion the Merchant Navy, which would become a critical branch of Portuguese power projection.

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Castro remained as minister of the Navy & Colonial Affairs

In late 1770s the Portuguese shipbuilding industry was in the midst of massive change in not only size and ability but, more importantly, technology and mindset. Private enterprise, which until the 1760s had very little input into the decisions regarding naval powers and projection and capability to transport the growing Portuguese goods, now was front and center in the Ministry’s decisions and considerations. This allowed the skills and organization of talented minds and wealthy pockets to be willingly applied in a more adequate financial and productivity model, essentially reviving Portuguese ship-building.

Ambassador Castro, as he was referred by all, had worked with private companies and individuals to increase Portuguese shipbuilding capacity. By doing so they had documented Portugal’s limitations and determined how to overcome them. The solutions were a mixture of population migration, training of non-Europeans such as Goans in the trades but more radically opening all of Brazil to the shipbuilding.

By mid 1770s the Brazilian shipbuilding capacity had approached Portugal’s in the 1750s and was on track to surpass Portugal’s by end of century. Most striking was that for most part almost all of Brazil’s shipbuilding capabilities was being financed by private enterprise with the Portuguese stock market being in the forefront.

Brazilian State Reform

Since 1768, slavery had been banned in non-Brazilian ports, but its smuggling had continued and even increased since 1768 as a result of the growth in Northern-Brazilian plantations. At same time a growing anti-slavery movement in Brazil had emerged in its South. It’s spreading, first in Cisplatina, then in its overseeing state ‘Rio Grande do Sul’ and finally in Rio de Janeiro in 1771 had angered many North Brazilian landowners. In 1778 the center state of Minas Gerais, which focused its economy on the mineral sector, also banned slavery, leaving only the northern states as pro-slavery and forming a trinity of Free States strong enough to hold their position. In 1780, due to continued pressure from anti-slavery Brazilians, the government in these Free States enacted several additional slavery restrictions that went beyond port closing:
  • the selling of slaves became prohibited, even to slave states;
  • Slave traffic became prohibited;[1]
The large landowners became incensed and several of them started believing the government was going to set their slaves free. In 1780, rural Brazil revolted and the Vice-rei in Rio tried unsuccessfully to regain control and fearing further revolts kept the soldiers in the cities. After its approval, the governor called for the Portuguese government, which ordered the Atlantic Army in Rio Grande do Sul to move north and crush the revolt. By 15 October 1781, the government forces had regained control of all of Brazil, over 1,000 rebels were killed in the fighting and 200 estates confiscated.

After two separate revolts against its rule in Brazil the Portuguese government was very worried regarding the administration of its largest province. It was felt that the province of Brazil was too large to be ruled from Rio, the demands and interests of the agricultural northern parts were many times in contradiction of those in the industrial south. After two years of government studies, Dom Joseph II travelled to Rio, called forth a continental-wide assembly with representatives and proclaimed the Brasilia Administration Agreement of 1785.

Brazil was divided into ten separate states: Grão-Pará, Maranhão, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Cisplatina and the capital region of Rio de Janeiro.

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Map of Portuguese American provinces

Pro-Slavery provinces (Grão-Pará, Maranhão, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Bahia)
Anti-Slavery provinces (Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Cisplatina)

The status of Brazil did not change but the Vice-Roy’s powers did; each provincial governor’s powers were increased. It was hoped that the decentralized administration would allow each provincial government to respond appropriately and fairly to the needs of the province while continuing to provide a contribution to overall nation building. Border lines were reorganized for a more optimal trade, political and production organization and mingling, with a more defined and solid west border between the states and the federal bands and a more concise state-to-state division ensuring that interaction was promoted and facilitated. All these states were guaranteed political choice in many policies dear to them, particularly slavery, court and self-taxation.

As a state, they had a number of common obligations to the Portuguese crown; they were required to provide the country with privileged information, privileged commerce, citizen access, taxation and loyalty to the king. Moreover, they were not allowed to exercise hostility towards other states or determine colonial policy. In return, however, they were granted limited legislative powers and full judiciary powers (executive powers still rested with the crown’s forces). This allowed them self-determination and self-regulation while still depending on Portuguese enforcement.

Individually, each state was allowed to choose its political stance and be guaranteed protection and execution by the Crown. The King was sovereign, but the law was self-determined and supreme. This impassioned the loyalist cause, which began to employ Portuguese just sovereignty as an argument against political rivals. In 1778, when Bahia proposed fugitive slave capture in Cisplatina in return for monetary compensation, it was successfully barred by the Southern states that then went on to protect themselves with the MAD clause of sovereign Brigandine lordship. Similarly, attempts from the Southern states to tighten slave product (particularly sugar and tobacco) tariffs were blocked in 1781 with the same law.

A new dimension of political interaction was thus born, where the actors were Brazilian, and the theater guards were Portuguese. Dispute and conspirator energies were directed internally, allowing loyalism to rise significantly and Portuguese stakes in Brazil to lower, creating a new ambient of Luso-Brazilian cooperation.

Political imprisonment by the overlord was also prohibited, but states were now allowed exile sentences, sending prisoners to Portuguese African colonies from where there was often was no escape.

As for religion, Brazil was now under the ‘Rio de Janeiro’ Patriarchy of the new Portuguese Catholic Church, which was a great enemy of Jesuits in Brazil but also a great ally to the innate Indo-Brazilian syncretism. The combat on heresy was relaxed, which worried faithful citizens, but in turn attracted a great number of natives that were previously subject to Jesuit influence against the state and saw friendship and asylum under the new priests which adopted local idols as part of Christian lore and faith.

The Spiritualist and Protestant faithful, in particular, thrived under the new religious observance, being allowed for the first time to openly practice many of their differences from traditional Catholicism.

Initially chastised for its tropes of sensuality, the syncretism with Spiritualist and Animist faiths adopted festivity dance as a spiritual celebration. Of particular importance was the Syncretism with Angolan culture arriving in Brazil, especially the Lundu, a popular music and dance practice, which merged with classical Portuguese music playing to form what would be known as ‘Samba’, and the ‘Capoeira’, a slave martial art that was previously deemed as a rebellious practice.

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Lundu thrived under the Syncretism laws, allowing the ‘Samba’ festivities and ‘Capoeira’ training to surge under religious blessing

This process of normalization of ‘wild’ practices was critical to Brazilian and Portuguese cultural growth past the birth of the Portuguese Catholic Church. It was unfortunately used as an example of ‘death of values’ during the late Pombaline period but also allowed the flourishing of a mutual culture of tolerance and acceptance of a more modern and liberal church. Unfortunately the state church, as, well, a state church, was more subject to citizen law than the overbearing Catholic Church, which could be said to impose its law on countries.

This meant that the new Portuguese Catholic Church could officially be limited in its innovation on a state-by-state basis. In the north, for example, laws preventing the promotion of heretical culture were passed under MAD protection, thus limiting Church flexibility here, while in the South the persecution of heretics was instead legally, and ironically, reinforced with the religious-moral argument, thus limiting Church conversion there. It became a complex dynamic between law and religious that was but an aftershock of what had also occurred in Lisbon during Prelate Verney’s campaigning for the Religious Council.

The military was also reorganized; ever since the MAD, the Kingdom of Portugal was required to allow and support an ‘Army of Brazil’ with limited responsibilities to the crown and specialized role of protecting Brazilian interests and justice. Officially a subsidiary of the Atlantic Army, this army’s make up and reorganization was yearly debated on the 19th of February, when the colonial states and Lisbon were allowed to agree on a balanced compromise depending on contemporary circumstances. Brazil had more powers over its employment while Portugal had more powers over its size and organization. Under no circumstances could the balance of powers be permanently shifted, including war time, as de jure guaranteed by the MAD and de facto supported by the ongoing political rivalries between the states and Lisbon’s limited intervention capacity.

The military forces in Brazil were divided into three separate commands; ‘Northern Command’ was situated in Pernambuco, Central command in Rio de Janeiro and Southern command was situated in Rio Grande do Sul. To facilitate coordination with Lisbon and the Atlantic Army, the HQ was officially situated in Bahia despite it being a ‘slave state’ and thus possessing no neutrality on the ongoing North-South slavery debate. While the army was armed, manned and fed on Brazilian resources, it was officially paid by the Portuguese Crown to maintain order and safety in Brazil.

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Early refreshing in Rio de Janeiro, showing off the citizens interacting with the Army of Brazil

The position of Vice-rei was forever changed with the appointment of Prince John as the new Vice-rei. The hope was the presence of a Royal Prince in Rio de Janeiro as a representative of crown and the delegation of provincial powers to the different regions would allow each region to continue to grow and provide a more stable political environment.

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The diversification of Brazilian exports across the years


Flores & Timor Province Reform & Scientific Exploration

You are denying us our duty, by Athena, we must explore!
-Domenico Vandelli, voicing in the Lisbon Royal Academy the argument towards renewed prospection of the Portuguese possessions in the Spice Islands

As of 1772, Portugal’s far-eastern possessions were by far the most underdeveloped ones, simultaneously in the typical colonial sense as well as in the context of the reformist movement of Pombal’s Age. This was due mostly and almost exclusively to the three factors of the extraordinary distance (with Timor in particular being located almost literally on the other side of the globe), the resistance of local natives and lack of visible potential for productivity. The islands were mostly seen as a relic-outpost for the spread of Christianity, Portuguese language and the spice trade, all these priorities being far outdated in the 18th century competitive context of Europe.

Portuguese sovereignty was also debatable. As written by the English privateer William Dampier in 1699, the Topasses, the main loyalist tribe in the Flores archipelago, “(…) acknowledged the King of Portugal as their sovereign, yet they will not accept any officers sent by him. They speak indifferently the Malayan and their own native Languages, as well as Portuguese.” This meant that Flores and Timor could more closely be described as a far-off vassal territory than an actual organized province.

The Portuguese had been present for over 250 years at this point yet were, however, overshadowed by the VOC, the company state set up by the Dutch with the capital in Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia) that held a virtual monopoly over the region as well as the protagonism in humanist matters like science, culture and the arts. In 1778, while the Royal Academy of Lisbon was still merely in its infancy and spreading its tentacles to the Congo Basin, the Dutch set up the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in the VOC capital, showing off how deeply rooted their dominion over the area was in all aspects imaginable.

However, as already stated, as a consequence of the 4th Luso-Congo War, the Royal Academy of Lisbon gained immense prestige by securing the Congo Basin as a scientific sphere of influence for itself and its scientists, attracting a great deal of new members. One of these was Domenico Vandelli, who became a Chemistry and Natural Sciences lecturer but also one of the mentors of the Academy’s early years. Seeing the benefits gained by the Academy in the establishment of pharmacies and laboratories in Luanda to gather knowledge, he began heading a factional movement within the Academy to politically push for the repetition of this feat in other areas under Portuguese control, namely the Amazon but also the Spice Islands.

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Domenico Vandelli was a respected member of the RAL thanks to his contributions to botany and natural history and successfully pushed for a scientific approach to colonization in the country

The movement reached the office of Minister Castro, who at the time worked with the king in the plan to reform Brazilian state organization. While there was no lack of desire from the government to secure gains in territories like Flores & Timor, what the RAL requested required a firmer hand in the region, one the navy and the overall Portuguese presence could not guarantee.

The forces in the area, however, superseded the intrigues of Portugal; the VOC, the main power in the Spice Islands, was in growing financial pains in the 18th century due to being assailed by problems of smuggling, corruption and overall mismanagement, weakening the influence of the company in the region. Much like the Portuguese their factual possessions consisted of coastal fortresses with tremendous soft power in the area, and not a direct, assimilating annexation, meaning a lot of Dutch control relied on them keeping their books tidy and British cannons pointed the other way. The Dutch did brave attempts to assert their presence through development but more often than not either their customs prevented adaptation (as in the case of masonry where their settlers insisted on their iconic architecture in a region very badly suited for it) or incurred the wrath of local powers.[2]

This period of financial and colonial nervousness coincided with consolidation of Portugal’s institutions in Asia under the religious Patriarchy of Goa and Vice-Roy’s Frederick Holstein’s tenure of aggressive assertions in the sub-continent of India. The Dominican Order, loyal to the Verneyists thanks to their generous legal favors during the Pombaline Revolution, turned its attention away from Muslim islands and instead focused on securing Christianity among pagan natives while the Dutch kept compromising with the Javanese and Sumatrans to avoid risky conflicts. This meant that the diplomatic balance in the region was tilting in Portuguese favor, who had less land to fight for and a more concentrated position.

The Navy & CA Ministry saw this as an opportunity to encroach power. In 1777, in coordination with Duke John Minister of Science and Education, Castro arranged with the help of the Diplomatic Corps new settling expeditions to Dili and Dili alone with the intention of establishing a scientific HQ akin to the one in Luanda to rival the Dutch knowledge pool. This was part of an overall change of mentality in colonization in Portugal from simple military conquest to the pursuit of scientific prestige, something that would eventually allow the colonies to secure the Amazon, the Congo and more.

The intended area of influence would be of a crossroad between Java, the Spice Islands and the yet-unexplored land mass then known as New Holland (Australia).

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The expedition sought to uncover the mysteries of the non-colonized areas around Portuguese possessions so as to turn Dili into a local scientific center (they failed)

The Portuguese were unable to establish a proper HQ, however, due to a combination of factors related to lack of infrastructure and Dutch naval claims in the region, which implicitly forbid gestures that could be interpreted as Portuguese aggressions (such as moving ‘explorers’ into Ceram). It did, on the other hand, equip Dili with a number of scientifically-minded settlers who sought to put their training to use and work for the betterment of their new land and form a quasi-knowledge pool that allowed the NCA Ministry to upgrade the territories into the status of province of Timor & Flores.

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Although a separate island in its own right, Flores was included inside Timor’s jurisdiction as most Portuguese capital was centered there

This promotion was communicated to Timor settlers and natives alike against the rival claims of not only the VOC but historical native kingdoms of Majapahit who originally named it. Not only that, but they included the equally sized Flores island inside its jurisdiction. While the factual settling was laughable, especially in the eyes of European rivals, the act in itself was still provocative and viewed as a gesture of lingering Portuguese resentment. The friction resulting from this act would help accelerate the triggering of conflict between the Portuguese and the Dutch.[3] Since the islands themselves were poor, however, it would still be many years before any shot was fired.

The intentions of the new settlers, though, still followed their original intent and plan of studying the outlying region scientifically so new exploration parties were organized and contact with tribes began to be worked on. The Portuguese territories, after all, faced the prospect of bankruptcy as well and new means had to be found to make them profitable.

To boost this effort, in 1778, the Lisbon Chamber of Commerce (LCC) interfered directly by encouraging European investors to buy stocks on Timor development, advertising a project to turn the island into an exotic goods exporter and scientific outpost. At the time, bilateral relations between Portugal and Germanic-Scandinavian countries was at an all-time high, especially Luso-Hamburg and Luso-Swedish relations, so a number of enthusiast investors were available to listen to the proposal.

Swedish Consul to Lisbon Albert Kantzow, who arrived in Lisbon the year before at a time where there was no Swedish firm in Portugal, decided to cater to this effort to avoid involving himself further in trade relations with France, at the time growing increasingly unstable thanks to both the Anglo-French War and the rising of revolutionaries. In return for increased benefits in establishing Swedish interests in Portugal, Kantzow agreed to lead a mercantile investment in Portuguese Timor consisting of low-interest loans, allowing an otherwise unproductive province to fund its development and pay off with unskilled labor profits.[4]

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Timor & Flores - Development (1770-1780)

Red: Effective Settling 1770
Grid-Red: Settling Growth by 1780
Blue: Dili-Lifau-Tabana Ferry Network
Cyan: Maumede-Tabana Road

Commerce (Dotted Arrows) (internal trade not included)
Orange: VOC Imports (spices & misc.)
Light Green: Goa & Macau Imports (weaponry, clothing & manuf. goods)
Dark Green: Timor-Flores Exports (sandalwood, coffee, scientific trickles)

Thanks to Portugal’s reinvented bureaucracy, the loans were effectively applied, and the Governor of Timor received the funds necessary to renovate the Dili port, establish a ferry-road link through Tabana into Maumere, the capital of Sicca in Flores, reorganize farms, expand coffee plantations, educate citizens and generally get an economic and internal trade effort started. This was essential to Timor being an effective province in the long run, pay off its debts to the LCC and become minimally productive. By 1780, although debts were not paid, Timor’s finances were stable enough for it to stand as a province and maintain its delicate commercial economy, allowing scientific studies to develop normally and commercial networking to develop.

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The arrival of the scientific community in Dili brought a new age of statehood to the province and symbolized a change in Portuguese colonial mentality from religious annexation to scientific exploration

This, however, would attract Dutch rivalry, which would attempt to establish the Kupang settlement to the southeast of Timor to ultimately curb Portuguese Timor development, exacerbating the tense climate and contributing to the outbreak of the 2nd Luso-Dutch War.

Naval Infrastructure – The ‘Castro Plan’

The construction of ships for commercial and military use was one of the most complex and resource-sapping industries in Europe at this time, but one that translated directly into military and commercial power. All countries with strong shipyard industries could deploy bigger fleets at lesser costs with stronger technology and ship power was one of the primary advantages the European Continent had over wealthy Asia and the hardy Americas.

In Portugal, warship building was mostly conducted by the Royal Navy Arsenal, which took over warship construction after 1755. The historically important “Ribeira das Naus” (lit. por. ship river) was destroyed during the Lisbon Earthquake and most of the shipyard rebuilding since focused on commercial ships, such as the ones constructed by the Algarve Company to serve the dispossessed fishing communities.

The largest expansion in shipyard before 1777 had been made in Brazil, where there were many natural harbors and a very long coast. Brazilian ship construction for Portugal had been done for centuries; one of the largest and most powerful galleons in history, the ‘Padre Eterno’, with 2,000 tons and 144 pieces of artillery, had been constructed in Rio de Janeiro for the Portuguese Navy as early as 1663, right after the Restoration War. During the Pombaline Cabinet period, investment set aside for shipyard construction was mostly reserved for Brazil, where dockyards were built in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and later on Cisplatina, but projects were begun in Metropolitan territory and Goa, as well.

Minister Castro had wished to prepare a naval expansion plan since he entered office, but his budget had been mostly syphoned to the Army Ministry, which faced the momentous task of rebuilding the armed forces from scratch. After the victories in the Morbeia, Luso-Mysore and Luso-Congo wars, though, the government was in a more comfortable position to fund the Navy Ministry and Castro was allowed to initiate his work. Furthermore, rising tensions with the Dutch and the French stemming from mercantile rivalry and the French Revolution, respectively, accelerated the sea emergency meter to top levels by 1778.

Building upon his earlier, and very important, naval doctrine and naval architecture reforms which put an emphasis on Third-Rate ships and sustainable sea warfare, he laid out a plan of construction. The ‘Castro Plan’ (por. Plano Castro), laid out the guidelines and budget for a massive ship and dockyard building program to be implemented ASAP:
  • Dockyard & Shipyard Chartering: Strategic locations for the storage of ships and the construction of ships, separately, were laid out based on resources, manpower, natural harboring and response time. Active ships ceased to be dock in shipyards and instead were instructed to use designated harbors with crew quarters were their land work, mothballing and maintenance could be done peacefully, inexpensively and without hindering construction of other ships;
  • Investment Gathering: To reduce burden on the limited budget and maximize construction speed, navy size potential and professional crewing, work was done to attract private investment and contracting on the construction and maintenance of naval vessels and infrastructure;
  • Nationalistic Charge: Ongoing tensions with the Dutch were used to rally construction and impressment, associating the hard work done to the popular fears of the coming war. The emergency in the country was used to great effect, motivating a lot of private initiative towards the naval program in order to protect private interests;
  • Naval Hospital Establishment: Infrastructure was projected in ports to act towards the well-being of sailors and the enforcement of sailing diet;
  • Privateering Programs: Letters of Marque were handed out to anyone willing to assist the Portuguese Navy clandestinely against the Dutch. It was in the context of this measure that William ‘Piranha’, a major pirate figure of the coming Luso-Dutch war, would be recruited into the navy;
  • Harbor Confiscation: Several fishing harbors were confiscated by the state with only occasional compensation, which was more or less well received by the population but greatly accelerated the rerouting of energy towards war;
Castro’s plan was ruthless but effective, and some of his more unpleasant years in terms of popularity came with this program. Protests were heard in several harbor towns near urban centers that depended on fishing and were confiscated of their established docks. It was between 1777 and 1780 that several projects to expand naval infrastructure initiated in the previous government period (1762-1777) were accelerated dramatically or even finished, preparing the territory to naval warfare.

By far the greatest port of transformation was the Viana Dockyard in the Lima River and northwestern coast. While the river was shallow it was wide enough to allow for the specialization of sectors located in it towards smaller vessels while the northwestern point was a strategic construction area, close to naval resources, which could optimally work towards building medium ships of the line. Docks, storehouses, kilns and de-silting work was done to improve ship construction and maintenance conditions and many sailors and architects left unemployed by the ending of the Seven Years War and settled in the area in the meantime found labor building and improving this area.

By 1779 over 1,000 people were employed in the industry, including shipbuilders, doctors, bureaucrats, blacksmiths, block makers, riggers, ropemakers and carpenters, all organized to work towards either supporting the sailor caretaking or in manufactory style towards supplying dedicated construction materials for both ships and the dockyards themselves. By the end of that year over a kilometer of coast had been reserved to the Shipyard, possessing two large docks and a naval hospital.

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The Viana Shipyard

Viana do Castelo became a major shipbuilding industry center on the national scale in just a few years

The new naval skeleton needed a massive financial feed, which was temporarily supplied mostly thanks to commercial expansions at the time. True financial sustainability would not come until the founding of the Bank of Portugal, which would only occur after Pombal’s death.
[1] Each slave owner was mandated to provide a list of all slaves, gender and their age, this list was to be available for audit by government officials.

[2] iOTL in 1825 the Java War started, majority of historians have theorized that the cause of the war was the VOC attempting to build a road across the Prince’s property.

[3] See Section: The Three-Year War (1780 – 1783) – The Second Luso-Dutch War (1782 – 1783).

[4] IOTL Kantzow was appointed in 1781. iTTL thanks to growing relations between London and Stockholm relations Kantzow was appointed four years earlier.


Note:
We continue posting the Last Years of Pombal 1777 -1782. The Ministry of Navy & Colonial Affairs is divided into two parts, this post deals with the advances and happenings in Brazil by far the most important Portuguese colony as well as Timor one of the countries most remote and least developed colonies. Here we can see the changes happening in both. Of special interest in the changing role of Brazil both internally and also within the Empire. While Timor can be seen as growing enterprise with investment finally being spent on the colony and growing political strength. Questions/Comments

Please return Sunday June 16 as we post the 2nd part of the Rebirth of Empire (2 of 2) - The Last Years of Pombal 1777 - 1782 (Ministry of Navy & Colonial Affairs).
 
This update really floats my boat.

It might be surprising to some, but one of the first economists to write positively about the publically traded limited-liability company (the ones that sell share on the stock market) was Karl Marx - earlier writers like Adam Smth were suspicious of divorcing the roles of management and ownership, while Marx admired the stock market's ability to raise capital on a scale no individual or small group of people could ever hope to match, no matter how rich they were, to him they were what made possible the massive steel mills being constructed in Germany in his time. The race to mobilise resources for the naval infrastructure boom could set somebody up to make a similar observation a few generations early. I'm sorry if it's been covered before and I'm simply forgetting, but what exactly is the government doing to direct private investment towards the shipyards? This is before the founding of a national bank, so one can imagine the Naval & Colonies Ministry issuing bonds affordable to the average Portugese, backed by the revenue collected from the consolidating and growing merchant fleet and colonial empire. Common Portugese people get a nice, safe, and not to mention patriotic investment to help grow their savings, and the government gets the influx of cash it needs for the Castro Plan.

It seems the Lusos are learning from their Anglo allies' mistakes; pay close attention to the grievances of your large American colonies, and make sure they spend more time fighting each other and less time uniting against you. Slavery seems to be slowly starving itself to death; intense plantation farming like that for sugar and cotton uses up the fertility of the soil, which is what pushed the Southern states in the US to try and make new states Pro-Slavery, it was so they could get new land for new plantations. In the case of the Brazilian slave states, the only 'options' to get more land is either infringing on the free states to the south or pushing west and trying to incite a war against Spain, doing either is sure to unite the rest of the empire in agreement that slavery as an instituation has become little more than a liability and has overstayed its welcome on Lusophone soil. With the immigration of Afro-Brazlians to Portugal, stories of the horrors of slavery coming with them, the narrative against slavery is only going to build and build - I could see private activism from abolitionists creating something like the Fairtrade certification to help conscious citizens avoid buying sugar or tobacco grown with slave labour, effectively putting a 'soft embargo' on North Brazil.

I'm predicting that Capoeira spreads across the empire through the army. It doesn't matter how busy you try to keep your soldiers with drills, marches, and the building of fortifications, men stuck thousands of miles away from home are going to get bored and irritable with each other. The choice is in whether that aggresion gets let out in a nasty brawl whenever they think the officers aren't looking, or if they have the oppourtunity to release it in a way that is more controlled and consciously done as a bit of fun between fellow soldiers, and does more to exercise their bodies rather than having them risk serious damage. Returning to the topic of social changes I mentioned in my last comment, I think learning from and sparring with Afro-Brazilians in this martial art could help white troops and officers grasp an important idea; assimilation is not a one way process of an inferior people being sculpted into shape by a superior one, it's a mutual exchange where two different but equal peoples find a middle ground.

Timor and Leste certainly seem to be the awkward step-children of the Lusophone family right now, but with the Portugese dividing New Zealand with the British they could potentially find new life as the hub in Portugal's Far East wheel, helping to ensure the Dutch aren't able to at will snuff out communication and travel between North Island, Macau, and Goa/the Atlantic. Of course, the Dutch are about to get very occupied in every sense of that word when Napoleon shows up, a Portugal that holds its ground in the Peninsular War is in a good spot to 'ask' the Dutch for some compensation in exchange for looking after their Far East possessions for them.
 
Timor and Leste certainly seem to be the awkward step-children of the Lusophone family right now, but with the Portugese dividing New Zealand with the British they could potentially find new life as the hub in Portugal's Far East wheel, helping to ensure the Dutch aren't able to at will snuff out communication and travel between North Island, Macau, and Goa/the Atlantic. Of course, the Dutch are about to get very occupied in every sense of that word when Napoleon shows up, a Portugal that holds its ground in the Peninsular War is in a good spot to 'ask' the Dutch for some compensation in exchange for looking after their Far East possessions for them.

You forget the luso-dutch war that keeps being referrenced in the last updates, if the pre-"censorship" index is right, whoever is in charge of the DEI after the war is going to have a much lighter workload do deal with.
 
You forget the luso-dutch war that keeps being referrenced in the last updates, if the pre-"censorship" index is right, whoever is in charge of the DEI after the war is going to have a much lighter workload do deal with.

oof, silly me :coldsweat:

I would've said that it was stretching reality for Portugal's navy to so quickly be in the state to take on a European midweight like the Dutch, but judging from the timeline this 2nd Luso-Dutch War is either during or just after the 4th Anglo-Dutch War, with the Netherlands coming out of it with navy and economy trashed. It'll be hard for the Portugese to not come off as being nakedly opportunistic, but I guess everybody who isn't Britain would at least be satisfied with Britain not getting all of the Dutch corpse to herself - every penny landing in the coffers of some irrelevant Iberian state is a penny not going to Perfious Albion.
 
This, however, would attract Dutch rivalry, which would attempt to establish the Kupang settlement to the southeast of Timor to ultimately curb Portuguese Timor development, exacerbating the tense climate and contributing to the outbreak of the 2nd Luso-Dutch War.

How this war will play with Revolutionnary Wars? Will the United Provinces be occuped by France, like OTL?

Thanks to Portugal’s reinvented bureaucracy, the loans were effectively applied, and the Governor of Timor received the funds necessary to renovate the Dili port, establish a ferry-road link through Tabana into Maumere, the capital of Sicca in Flores, reorganize farms, expand coffee plantations, educate citizens and generally get an economic and internal trade effort started. This was essential to Timor being an effective province in the long run, pay off its debts to the LCC and become minimally productive. By 1780, although debts were not paid, Timor’s finances were stable enough for it to stand as a province and maintain its delicate commercial economy, allowing scientific studies to develop normally and commercial networking to develop.

It might be surprising to some, but one of the first economists to write positively about the publically traded limited-liability company (the ones that sell share on the stock market) was Karl Marx - earlier writers like Adam Smth were suspicious of divorcing the roles of management and ownership, while Marx admired the stock market's ability to raise capital on a scale no individual or small group of people could ever hope to match, no matter how rich they were, to him they were what made possible the massive steel mills being constructed in Germany in his time. The race to mobilise resources for the naval infrastructure boom could set somebody up to make a similar observation a few generations early. I'm sorry if it's been covered before and I'm simply forgetting, but what exactly is the government doing to direct private investment towards the shipyards? This is before the founding of a national bank, so one can imagine the Naval & Colonies Ministry issuing bonds affordable to the average Portugese, backed by the revenue collected from the consolidating and growing merchant fleet and colonial empire. Common Portugese people get a nice, safe, and not to mention patriotic investment to help grow their savings, and the government gets the influx of cash it needs for the Castro Plan.

Speaking of which, how will corporate law be impacted by such moves? OTL, until late in the XIXth century, granting legal personhoog to entities was very restricted (until 1867 in France, for exemple). Likewise, banking laws migh have to change.

I'm predicting that Capoeira spreads across the empire through the army. It doesn't matter how busy you try to keep your soldiers with drills, marches, and the building of fortifications, men stuck thousands of miles away from home are going to get bored and irritable with each other. The choice is in whether that aggresion gets let out in a nasty brawl whenever they think the officers aren't looking, or if they have the oppourtunity to release it in a way that is more controlled and consciously done as a bit of fun between fellow soldiers, and does more to exercise their bodies rather than having them risk serious damage. Returning to the topic of social changes I mentioned in my last comment, I think learning from and sparring with Afro-Brazilians in this martial art could help white troops and officers grasp an important idea; assimilation is not a one way process of an inferior people being sculpted into shape by a superior one, it's a mutual exchange where two different but equal peoples find a middle ground.

The military might be one of the ways cultures merge in Portugal. For exemple, how will Indian cuisine be received in Brazil, and how will change to fit the local tastes?

Timor and Leste certainly seem to be the awkward step-children of the Lusophone family right now, but with the Portugese dividing New Zealand with the British they could potentially find new life as the hub in Portugal's Far East wheel, helping to ensure the Dutch aren't able to at will snuff out communication and travel between North Island, Macau, and Goa/the Atlantic. Of course, the Dutch are about to get very occupied in every sense of that word when Napoleon shows up, a Portugal that holds its ground in the Peninsular War is in a good spot to 'ask' the Dutch for some compensation in exchange for looking after their Far East possessions for them.

For exemple the reunification of Timor?
 
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