exchange for which
England promised to assume the friendly role of a protector in times
of need. It is undoubtedly this arrangement with England which
finally resulted in the aggressive action on the part of Portugal of
which we have just heard. Up to 1910 Portugal was a kingdom. In that
year, however, a revolution broke out chiefly on account of
oppressive financial measures which the Government had been in the
habit of passing and the reigning King, Manuel, was forced to flee
the country. Shortly afterward his former subjects exiled him and
decided for a republican form of government which in spite of
various slight monarchial revolutions has been maintained since. The
1910 revolution was preceded by two years by the murder of King
Manuel's father, Carlos I, and his older brother, Luis. After King
Manuel had been exiled, England assumed toward Portugal a part very
similar to that which England had assumed toward France after the
fall of the second empire. It offered a haven of refuge for the
exiled king and his relatives, but at the same time acknowledged the
establishment of the Portuguese Republic and showed in various ways
that it was in sympathy with the liberal movement in Portugal.

Immediately adjoining Portugal on the east is Spain, which is
separated from France on the north by the Pyrenees. Just as Portugal,
Spain had been in times past one of the great colonial powers of the
world, greater even than its neighbor. In fact, at one time in the
world's history Spain occupied very much the same position that
England occupies to-day. But this splendor belongs to the past and
gradually Spain has lost practically all of its colonies with the
single exception of the few comparatively small settlements and
islands in Western Africa which, however, still total 82,000 square
miles. Its last really important and valuable colonies in the West
Indies (Cuba, Porto Rico), and the Philippine Islands in the Far East
were lost as a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Some other
islands in the Pacific Ocean were sold in the year following, 1899, to
Germany. In more recent times, however, Spain has shown again more
aggressiveness in connection with the acquisition of colonial
possessions which chiefly centered in that part of north Africa which
is immediately opposite the south coast of Spain. Its activities in
that territory were not appreciated by the natives who at various
times with more or less success revolted aga