Presume that in the mid/late 19th Century, the other great powers decide to partition Portugal's colonial empire(including the azores/madeira) citing reasons like debt or Portugal being unable to fully control it's colonies. How is the internal situation of Portugal affected(I'm not talking about the fate of the colonies)? What changes politically, culturally, socioeconomically?
The only country that could have conceivably have taken over Portugal would have been Spain. Madeira and the Azores would have gone to Spain. It would have become a very colorful region. like Catalonia, with a strong independence movement.
Question: How would the Spanish Civil War been different? Would the Republican side have been stronger?
