A nation that has not experienced a glorious past cannot understand the pain of falling from glory to rock bottom.
Portugal has a glorious past, and most Portuguese people are very painful about the country's decline. They long for the country to be strong again.
Portugal used to be one of the top powers in Europe at its peak, but in the end it declined to the same level as Denmark and the likes of Northern Europe. This sense of decline made it unbearable for many Portuguese people.
The history of the Portuguese is not very glorious among the nations of the world, but this does not prevent the Portuguese from being proud of their history.
From Lusitania in the classical period to the Kingdom of Portugal in the Middle Ages, the Portuguese experienced ups and downs, and finally achieved complete independence through the Reconquista movement.
After independence, Portugal made great progress, conquered North Africa, actively opened up new routes, and opened the era of great navigation and colonization.
The development of the Eastern Sea Route and the discovery of Brazil laid the foundation for Portugal's glorious development, pushing Portugal's national strength to the forefront of Europe in just half a century after the start of the great voyage.
Unfortunately, Portugal's glory did not last long. It began to decline after being annexed by Spain during the Portuguese Succession War.
Afterwards, Portugal experienced the Lisbon Earthquake, the Napoleonic Wars and the independence of Brazil. Portugal's glory disappeared, and Portugal was left to cling to the lap of Britain, living on its laurels to maintain this trace of dignity.
It's a pity that Great Britain never disappoints people in terms of being a good person. They killed Portugal, a centuries-old ally, and used force and diplomacy to smash the rainbow map. This shocked Portugal, and the country fell into chaos.
Decline again.
The Portuguese are eager to rise again.
Tang Ning is very clear about the Portuguese's desire for national rejuvenation.
After all, before time travel, his motherland also experienced this kind of history, and he was also experiencing the national rejuvenation personally.
After the establishment of the United Portuguese Empire, Tang Ning personally took charge of Portuguese affairs and timely shouted the slogan of making Portugal great again.
Make Portugal great again!
This slogan deeply shocked the Portuguese nation and quickly spread. It quickly became a political consensus from Portugal to Brazil.
Slogans can inspire and unite the people, but actual actions are indispensable.
If you just shout slogans and do nothing, you will end up becoming a laughing stock.
Taking advantage of the newfound dynamism of the empire, Tang Ning quickly brought Brazilian state capitalism to Portugal after purifying Portugal with iron blood.
Portugal's foundation is too bad, much worse than Brazil's. If it doesn't follow the path of nationalism and rely on non-interventionist nativism, Portugal will never be able to successfully revive.
Tang Ning is very clear about how bad Portugal is. Industry, agriculture, education, military and other aspects are all in ruins.
Except for the greater Algarve region under the governance of Francisco, Duke of Braganza, the rest of Portugal is at the level of the Balkan Peninsula.
It's no joke to say it's at the level of the Balkans.
Portugal is a little stronger than the Balkan countries in industry and agriculture, but it is far behind in military and education.
Militarily, the Balkans are a powder keg, and each country's military strength is not weak. Portugal's navy is slightly stronger than theirs, but its army cannot compare.
In terms of education, the Balkan countries have a strong national atmosphere. They actively promote national consciousness and pay great attention to education. Therefore, the literacy rate of the people is constantly improving.
The illiteracy rate in Portugal is horrifyingly high, with the entire country's literacy rate barely reaching 10%. This level is extremely low in Europe.
Both basic education and higher education in Portugal are not very good, especially basic education is almost non-existent.
There is no decent basic education in Portugal, and public schools are few and useless. Basically, citizens can only rely on churches and private schools for education.
In terms of higher education, the only one Portugal can offer is the University of Coimbra, and all the other higher professional schools are worse than the last.
The only thing that makes Tang Ning happy about Portugal's higher education is that compared with Brazil, it is still somewhat scrappy.
It turns out that there is almost no higher education in Brazil. No matter how bad the higher education in Portugal is, there is still a quite high-level University of Coimbra.
The University of Coimbra, founded in 1290, is the highest institution of learning in Portugal. No matter how bad Portugal is, it still knows how to do a good job in this school.
Except for the University of Coimbra, although all other higher education institutions are terrible, there are a few that are somewhat respectable.
Lisbon Higher Education School, Portuguese Conservatory of Music, Lisbon Higher Polytechnic School, Porto Nautical School, Porto Commercial School, these short ones are taller than others. Although their level is not very good, they can still be used.
Although the literacy rate of the people in Portugal is low, there are still some wealthy people, nobles and businessmen. Moreover, Portugal is closer to Europe than Brazil, so Portugal's higher intellectuals are much better than Brazil's.
Regarding the transformation of education, Portugal is much better than Brazil, at least it has a foundation.
After conducting an inspection of higher education in Portugal, Tang Ning fully studied the reorganization of universities in the history of her motherland.
The University of Coimbra and the University of Algarve will not move, and other higher education institutions will be completely reorganized.
The Lisbon Higher Education School merged with the Portuguese Conservatoire to form the University of Lisbon.
The Polytechnic School of Lisbon merged with the Portuguese Dental School to form the University of Lusitania, and the school moved to Santarem.
Four higher professional schools, including the School of Navigation and Commerce of Porto, were merged into the University of Porto.
All Portuguese churches and private colleges and universities were converted to public institutions, and the outstanding ones were added to the above-mentioned five universities, while the other unqualified ones were either downgraded to junior colleges or canceled directly.
Higher education was reorganized, and basic education was modeled on the Brazilian model, which made compulsory education compulsory. Private and church schools were nationalized, and small classes became large classes. Night schools were also opened to popularize adult literacy.
In fact, it is not difficult to rectify education. Portugal has a population of more than six million and insists on promoting education and literacy. The country actually does not spend much money.
Compared with education, what really costs money is industrialization. Almost all of Portugal's large-scale industries are concentrated in the Algarve.
Industry, especially heavy industry, is almost entirely located in the Algarve. As for light industry, there are some companies in other parts of Portugal.
The cost of heavy industry is undoubtedly very high, which means that Braganza has deep pockets to build an industrial zone in the Algarve.
After reconciling with the original Portuguese royal family, Francisco returned to Portugal and established an industrial zone from scratch in the Algarve under his administration.
In the early stage of establishing the industrial zone, the investment was actually quite large, but fortunately it was recouped after getting on the right track.
The only things Portugal had to sell in the past were probably wine and cork, and the rest were some mineral resources.
In terms of industrial layout, Portugal is too small and the development of industry does not require the exaggeration of Brazil. Tangning only plans to set up a large industrial zone.
The location of this industrial area is in the Great Bay of Tejo River between Sebatur, Lisbon and Santarem.
This chapter has been completed!