Portugal

Portugal is an European Nation

in 1956, Portugal still has a colonial empire, controlling mostly Angola and Mozambique on the African continent, but it is a declining colonial empire, collapsing due to Decolonization and the Cold War...

since 1933, Portugal has been governed by the authoritarian regime of the "***Estado Novo***", a Fascist and conservative regime, which is seeking its colonial empire by every means, engaging in bloody conflicts against the independence movements of Angola and Mozambique, the last large colonies Portuguese still remaining in Africa...

the Sino-Brazilian government of Lang Fang begins to support the anti-colonial and independence movements of Angola and Mozambique, but this increases political and military tensions between Portugal and Brazil...

*Not to mention that after the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, oil could be imported from the Soviet Union on a large scale. The oil purchase agreement signed by Fangyuan Petrochemical and the government of the Portuguese colony of Angola alone could greatly alleviate Brazil's oil shortage.*

*It has to be said that in the past two years, Fangyuan Group and Ridgefield Petroleum Company jointly established Fangyuan Petrochemical, and they have indeed invested a lot of energy in the international crude oil market. They have not only begun to search for oil shares in the Persian Gulf, but also started from Dutch Shell. A large crude oil order was obtained.*

*Privately, it has quietly extended its tentacles into the African crude oil market on the other side of the Atlantic, which has not yet received much attention from Western capital countries.*

*Among them, the investment in the Portuguese colony of Angola was even greater. Not only did it purchase a large amount of crude oil from the Portuguese, it also began negotiations with the Portuguese government to obtain the right to exploit oil in Angola.*

*Although the Portuguese government has not yet agreed to Brazil's request, most people believe that Portugal will not be able to hold on for long. After all, Brazil is not only negotiating with Portugal in the commercial field.*

*Secretly, they are also in contact with the local indigenous people of Angola. As for the purpose of the contact, it is naturally self-evident. This can be seen from the increasingly restless form of Angola.*

*Portuguese authorities believe that if Portugal continues to insist on not allowing Brazil to intervene in Angola's oil exploration, Brazil is very likely to support Angola's independence.*

*This made the Portuguese authorities very angry, but somewhat powerless. After all, Brazil's global influence during this period had actually surpassed Portugal's. Just the close ties that Brazil had established with European countries through the European aid plan alone meant that Portugal could not Comparable.*

*In order to cope with Brazil’s continuous penetration into Angola, Portugal had to make Angola its overseas province earlier than in history. Reduce Angola's colonial attributes as much as possible.*

*But this obviously cannot really solve the problem, because no matter how hard Portugal tries to reduce Angola’s colonial attributes, it still cannot change the fact that it is a Portuguese colony.*

*﻿At this time, when Brazil appeared in Angola and acted as a troublemaker, it made Portugal very uncomfortable. What's even more disgusting is that Brazil's purpose is very clear. All it wants is oil, and it is willing to pay for the oil it mines.*

*Rather than plundering like the colonists, this made the locals in Angola have a very good impression of the Brazilians. They not only sent them food and clothes, but even built public facilities such as schools and bridges for them.*

*Under such circumstances, in February 1954, the Portuguese government had no choice but to approve Fangyuan Petrochemical’s right to exploit oil in Angola. Of course, the extracted oil requires high mineral taxes to be paid to the Portuguese government.*

*Fangyuan Petrochemical doesn’t care about this at all. After all, the price of extracting oil by itself, plus mineral taxes, is much lower than the price of buying oil from the Portuguese. To this end, Fangyuan Petrochemical began to build a large number of oil fields, oil pipelines, and terminals in Angola to directly transport crude oil through pipelines to ports and to Brazil.*

*For the sake of long-term interests, Fangyuan Petrochemical's oil extraction operations in Brazil are not predatory. They have also compensated the local people to a certain extent, not only providing a large number of jobs, but also building schools, roads and other public facilities for the local people. facility.*

*﻿This gives Brazil a much better reputation in Angola than Portugal.*

*In addition, Fangyuan Petrochemical has also focused on opening up relations with its neighboring country Venezuela. It not only imports a large amount of crude oil from Venezuela, but also plans to build a crude oil pipeline connecting the two countries.*

*Of course, this pipeline was built in a very confidential manner. The purpose of this is naturally to prevent the Fangyuan Group from still being able to import oil from Venezuela after Venezuela and the United States fall out and the United States imposes an embargo on Venezuela.*

*﻿The starting point of this pipeline in Brazil is the city of Cucui, Amazon State, on the border with Venezuela and Colombia in the northwest of Brazil.*

(Chapter 698)