The Kingdom of Portugal under the House of Braganza was a constitutional monarchy from the end of the Liberal Civil War in 1834. The initial turmoil of coups d'état perpetrated by the victorious generals of the Civil War was followed by an unstable parliamentary system of governmental "rotation" marked by the growth of the Portuguese Republican Party. The years following 1868 were marked by continuous political disorder, although alliances were possible, and the preference for material progress and extensive public works damaged the State's finances: it was an illusory Regenerationist peace. This coalition against radicalism lasted until 1868, when insurmountable financial difficulties, turmoil in the streets and Parliament, and a succession of incompetent governments once again forced Saldanha to impose his will. Along with the army, he established a supra-party dictatorship in 1870 in order to impose political reforms, but he was never able to see that they had failed. In 1890, the British Government sent Portugal an ultimatum requiring immediate withdrawal of Portuguese troops from East and South Africa, from the territories some of which Portugal administered for centuries. The Portuguese government complied, which was widely seen by the population as a national humiliation. The situation culminated in a