In 1750, at the end of King John V’s reign, Portugal found itself in a precarious position; the Portuguese Empire was a mere shadow of its former self, having at one time spanned the globe from the Americas to Japan and then gradually lost nearly half of it to war. The revenue from the plantations in Brazil as well as the Indian spice trade that Portugal had been relying on for the latest century was starting to decline and Portugal’s position within Europe was very weak.
Rebirth of an Empire ''O Renascimento de um Império'' v2.0
is a timeline by Lusitania, with the help of Thrudgelmir2333, on AlternateHistory.com or, more precisely, the reboot of an earlier timeline.
It tell the story of a Portugal where the Reformist Marquess of Pombal doesn't get dismissed after the death of King Joseph I. TTL, several events occurs such as the abolition of slave trade, the industrial development of Portugal and the modernisation of the Army.
However, Pombal and his successors are confronted to the protests of powerful actors such as the nobility and the Catholic Church.
This story also comports a separate narrative thread for stories occuring in this universe.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Or at least, for some of them, opposed to the reforms from Pombal which would endanger their priviledges.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: Played with: on the hand, the Church acts as an impediment to progress in Portugal but, on the other hand, it provides education services to the poor and the royal authorities are trying to better train the clerics to teach their pupils.
- Black Viking: Thanks to the PRP and the fact Lisbon needed to be rebuilt after the quake, Indians, Chinese and Africans have been sent in the mainland to work there, and some stayed.
- Corrupt Church: The Catholic church isn't shown as an instrument of progress but as an impediment to Pombal reforms, although some clerics are adhering to Pombal's reforms.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Before the reforms, Portugal's economy was mainly concentrated in mining gold and diamonds in Brazil, trading spices from India and farming, with trade viewed as a sinful occupation, and the Methuen Agreement further ensured the still-birth of the industrial sector.
- Crisis of Faith: The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake cause a crisis of faith among very pious Portuguese.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: What happened to most of the Távora family after having been convicted to attempting to kill the King.
- Disney Owns This Trope: Portugal introduces an intelectual property system.
- Easy Logistics: Pombal build roads across Portugal to ensure easier transportation of persons and goods.
- Elite Mooks: The Royal National Guard is a semi-militarized urban police force.
- Emergency Authority: After the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, Pombal sent the Army to keep order and suppress the bandits.
- Ethnic Menial Labor: Pombal imports workers from India, Africa and Brazil to rebuild Lisbon and, later, the PRP trnasport manpower across the empire to bring it where it was needed.
- Got Volunteered: Several Lisbon inhabitants and later overseas workers were dragooned into working, albeit with a pay, to rebuild their town.
- Intimidating Revenue Service:
- The building of roads allow Portuguese taxmen to be more efficient at squeezing the taxpayers.
- Even after the abolition of slave trade, Portuguese Guinea and Angola had issues with slave-smugglers. The solution? Tax the slave traders until plantations and mines can be established.
- Averted in the colonies due to the Colonial Profit Doctrine, later extended to the outlying islands.
- Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: Played with: the House of Trade set "suggestory" prices the traders can treat as a suggestion; however, some of their clients take these prices as mandatory.
- MegaCorp: Pombal creates several monopolistic companies, tasked with stimulating trade and industry of sectors such as wines, salt and fisheries, both in the mainland and the colonies. Revolts from disgruntled traders and farmers erupt because of them. Eventually, they are turned into quality assurance organisations.
- The Mistress: What Teresa Leonor, wife of Luís de Távora, was for the King, leading to the Távora Affair.
- Portuguese Men Of War: They are a part of the Pombaline reforms.
- The Land Army is divided in three parts, one for each major area (Metropolitan area, Atlantic and India).
- Military justice is reformed, in the sense of a greater fairness and justice.
- Recruiters Always Lie: Several songs and stories have been created in order to entice young men to join the Marines.
- Refining Resources: What Pombal's companies are encouraged to do this with the resources of the Portugese Empire.
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates: Was an issue in Portugal before the Lisbon Mint was established.
- Royal School: Colégios dos Nobres, or "Noble Colleges," have been established to teach noble pupils.
- Secret Police: The PRP, tasked with ensuring the free flow of the workforce across the Portuguese Empire, plays this role, along with the SIMP (Portuguese for Sistema de Informações da Monarquia Portuguesa).
- Even after its powers were curtailed, they are still able to hack the server of the narrator.
- Settling the Frontier: The PRP, or Provincial Resettlement Program (por. Programa de Repovoamento Provincial), is tasked with circulating the manpower across the Empire, and received also police powers on migratory questions. Angola and Mozambique are said to look like Brazil after this.
- Slave Liberation:
- Pombal orders any slave entering any harbor outside Brazil to be freed; while they are convinced Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil, they feared grave social and economical consequences if abolition was to be brutally done. Some of the freedmen have been sent to other territories by the PRP.
- The state of ‘'Rio Grande do Sul’' abolished slavery in its confines.
- Strawman U: The university of Coimbre was an institution mainly concentrated on theological studies until Pombal's reforms priviledgied scientific courses.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: The migrants of the PRP went totally voluntarily in Lisbon, and the PRP is totally not going to hack your mail account if you says otherwise.
- Unperson: The fate of the Távora family.
- Vestigial Empire: Portugal is this at the start of the story, since they lost most of their power and influence, and are mere puppets to the British, who treat them as mere Battle Thralls and a captive market.
- War for Fun and Profit: After the Fantastic War, Pombal succesfully asks for war reparations from Spain, to rebuild Portugal.
- Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The Navy is reformed, with Marines established and lauded as elite troops to entice more persons to sign up.
- A separate Merchant Navy has been established, to ensure the better flow of goods and persons across the Empire and to have well-trained sailors.
- You Will Be Assimilated: The PRP, the Colonial Profit Doctrine and the Mutual Assurance Declaration ensure that, over time, colonies are integrated to Portugal.
