Thread by @garius

Right. Friday history thread!

Let's talk about how not once, but TWICE, in WW2 a 650 year old treaty between Britain and Portugal (that the rest of the world had mostly forgotten about) was invoked to help the Allies win the war.

~~ wobbly lines ~~

It's 1385 and John of Aviz is standing on a hill with 6,000 soldiers, asserting his right to be King of Portugal.

Unfortunately, at the bottom of that hill is is the King of Castile, along with 30,000 Castillians, French, Aragonese and Italians who disagree.

Luckily, for John:

1) This is a REALLY steep hill. A good hill to (potentially) die on
2) The Castillians and French love to Zerg rush with armoured knights
3) He has crossbowmen
3) He has 200 battle-hardened English longbowmen.

Because the English have just pulled a Helms Deep

In 1373 the Kings of Portugal and England signed the treaty from the first tweet.

Your enemies are my enemies. Forever.

John invokes it in hope as much as expectation.

The English show up.

So when the Castilians and French decide to LARP the Battle of Crecy that day?

Well...

At the Battle of Aljubarrota, through better generalship, insane Portuguese bravery, and a LOT of bloody arrows King John wins a stunning victory and secures Portugal's place in Europe.

After? The Treaty of Windsor is signed, reaffirming the eternal Anglo-Portuguese Alliance.

FUN GAMING SIDEBAR: This is why, in @E_Universalis, The English and Portuguese are one of the few nations that start with an existing alliance.

And if you're RPing properly as either nation you should consider yourself a failure if you ever lose it.

~~ More wobbly lines ~~

It's now 1927. For centuries the Anglo-Portuguese Perpetual Alliance has held, through wars with Spain, Napoleon and more. But the British Government secretly start debating dropping it. Britain is strong. Portugal isn't. Is it in Britain's interests?

Sir Austen Chamberlain does a report. It IS worth keeping he says:

1) Britain shouldn't break alliances just because it can
2) The Navy are worried about the French taking the Azores
3) That 'perpetual' bit made the lawyers he spoke to say "Oooh. VERY interesting" in a scary way

And so the Alliance survives. Just. Although the Portuguese don't realise it.

Then the Nazis show up. And Franco in Spain. And France falls.

Suddenly in 1940/41 the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is one of the tiny threads on which British survival in the war hangs.

Portugal's Prime Minister (but quasi-dictator) is António de Oliveira Salazar. In his power now sit two things vital to the British war effort: control of shipping and airpower in the central Atlantic, through the Azores, and British access to the Mediterranean.

Salazar is conservative but no Nazi. But he's also a pragmatist. One in control of strategically vital geography and some of the world's richest tungsten mines.

He's also worried about Franco. Siding with Germany would neutralise that threat.

But Britain is his historic ally...

The Portuguese approach the British:

Assure us Britain would still honour the alliance if we're attacked and Germany will never get access to the Azores. We'll resist pressure to cut you off everywhere, even though they're clearly winning. We'll lean on Franco to do the same.

The British agree. Despite enormous German pressure, the fragile balance in the Iberian peninsular holds.

This is to the disbelief of the Americans, who CANNOT BELIEVE that Britain is trusting in a 600 year old treaty.

To the point where they start plans to invade the Azores.

As the war continues, it becomes critically clear to EVERYONE that the Azores are key to the war in Europe. They're in bombing range of America. They cover the Atlantic air gap. They control the undersea cables.

Control them, you win the Battle of the Atlantic.

Several invasions are planned, but each time the Americans are talked out of it. If Portuguese sovereignty is breached, it will trigger a domino effect and the Germans take Iberia, the British Foreign Office argue (and post-war files show they were right).

Trust in the Alliance.

Eventually, in 1943, with the Battle of the Atlantic raging, even Churchill concedes to Roosevelt's demand for an invasion. Planning for 'Operation Lifebelt' begins.

Eden and Clem Attlee argue Churchill down.

There's a better way to do this. Why don't WE invoke the Alliance?

Salazar is BIG on honour, they say. He asked us to stand by the strict terms in 1940. We did. Now is the time to YOLO it and finally flip that back on him.

It's time for US to invoke the mutual miltary aid terms in the Alliance. We ask for bases in the Azores, in return for arms

Eden wasn't gambling blind here. Ronald Campbell, the British Ambassador in Lisbon, and the Foreign Office had been putting the hard graft in.

They realised that by invoking the aid terms in the old alliance, written in an age of swords and muskets, it would give Salazar an out.

He could claim to Hitler that he was powerless but to respect the terms of the old treaty on military support, but ALSO doing Hitler a favour by staying neutral so he could supply him with Tungsten.

That was the theory. But would Salazar spot it and bite?

Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to allow the approach, while planning and training for Lifebelt got underway. In June 1943 the official approach was made.

As predicted by Eden and Campbell, the Portuguese government wasn't just ready to bite. They'd been waiting for it.

It was Portugal's turn to pull a Helm's Deep. Britain and ONLY Britain was granted the right to operate two airfields and one naval base in the Azores.

Hitler was furious. Salazar apologetic.

"Treaties, amirite? What can you do. How are you enjoying all that Tungsten btw?"

With the Azores bases under British control, the 'Azores Gap' in the Atlantic could finally be closed. Supplies better routed to Europe, the East and more.

And then, a few months later, the 'Friends to all Friends' clause was quietly invoked, to let the Americans in as well.

That (VERY broadly!) is how Portugal and Britain used the Anglo-Portuguese alliance to creatively navigate the geopolitics of WW2.

Demonstrating, like the post-war Knights Hospitaller airforce, that ancient international treaties can be very handy indeed

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1151832864494903296?lang=en

If you like this kind of nonsense then you can always buy me a coffee (or in this case a small glass of Port perhaps) over here:

Just to add: This is a broad overview. Trust me, the full story is pretty batshit. It's not possible to do it full justice ko-fi.com/garius

Bits I've left out:

1) Roosevelt trying to persuade the Brazilians to invade the Azores instead
2) SEfforts to build a US base disguised as a Pan-Am facility
3) German plans for troop transport U-Boats to invade
4) Britain losing the treaty and having to ask Portugal for a copy

That last one is even funnier than it sounds, because at some point in the 19th Century the English had cribbed their version from a history book to renew it.

When they got a copy of the original from the Portuguese, it had a LOT less obligations in it than the book said

So basically at some point in the 19th Century Britain had accidentally agreed to A LOT MORE economic and military obligations to Portugal than they needed to. All because they'd lost their copy and were too embarrassed at the time to ask the Portuguese for a copy of theirs. 😆

Historian tip for Parliamentarians: Never rely solely on secondary sources for your info. They will fuck you up if you're not careful.

And in the spirit of that, I'll say that if you've enjoyed this thread, don't take my word on how wierd the history of the Alliance text is. You should 100% read Chamberlain's report yourself!

The National Archives' reference for it is CAB 24/189/5.

SUPER FINAL ADDENDUM

I should make this clear. Because Twitter:

The goal with this thread is VERY MUCH to explain the Anglo-Portuguese treaty. Please do not take it IN ANY WAY as a suggestion that Salazar was not a terrible authoritarian dictator in his own right.

That is a story others are far better placed to tell.

What I will say is that one thing I think is MASSIVELY underexplored is just how much he used Azores basing rights, during and post-war to secure tacit British and American approval for Portugal's brutal colonial activity.

That's all over pretty much every correspondence and record you'll find in the archives from this time. Particularly with regard to the Americans. Them agreeing to that is what finally gets him to agree to activate the 'friends' clause for basing rights.