Brotherhood of Portugal

The Brotherhood of Portugal (officially the Brotherhood's Republic of Portugal) was a nation in the Iberian Peninsula and Africa. It was bordered by so-called "white space" in Iberia, by France in Guinea-Bissau in Africa, and more white space in Mozambique and Angola. The Brotherhood's history was marked by high militarism and an unusually large army.

The Brotherhood began as a small movement by João Soares in Lisbon in late 1946 as the plague was beginning to get into full swing, and as Salazar's Portugal was beginning to fall, various groups began to rise to challenge his power. Though they started out very weak in comparison, the Brotherhood, through gaining access to military-grade firearms, parts of the old Portuguese military joining them, and sheer tenacity, won the long-lasting Portuguese Civil War, which ended when João Soares personally shot the last Communist rebel on December 18th, 1959.

Though the plague and the civil war demolished the civilian population of Portugal, the Brotherhood still maintained a very large military force, something close to a million soldiers, hundreds of armored vehicles, and a moderately-sized navy and air force.

Politics
The Brotherhood operated on a council, which had several members. João Soares served as the Head Councillor of Portugal, which made him the head of the executive branch of government and supreme commander of the armed forces. Councillor Elder Pinheiro, until his death in late 1973, was the Speaker of the Council and Councillor of the Legislative. Councillors typically consulted each other before making decisions.

Councillor Soares highly distrusted Communists, and as a result Communism and Socialism were taboo subjects in Portugal. It was never outright banned, however.

Military
Prior to the collapse, the Brotherhood's military consisted of the Portuguese Army, Portuguese Navy, Portuguese Air Force and the Brotherhood's Fist. The height of the Portuguese Army was 925,000 soldiers, numerous artillery and anti-air vehicles, and thousands of tanks and armored vehicles. The Portuguese Navy, at its height, included some two hundred ships, with the PNS Elder Pinheiro being the pride of the fleet. The Portuguese Air Force commanded some four thousands aircraft of various types.

The Brotherhood's Fist was known as the elite military unit in the Brotherhood, made up of die-hard supporters of Councillor Soares and nationalists, and were trained to be airborne, amphibious, heavy infantry, or scout snipers. Fist operatives, as they were commonly known, were deployed alongside all major operations and typically had first dibs on any and all new weaponry. It is not known where former members of the Fist have gone to.

The Portuguese military used a wide range of weaponry, from German-made G3 rifles, Russian tanks such as T-62s and T-64s, to WWII-era German and American firearms. The wide variety of calibers and weapons made standardization difficult.