The political situation in Portugal had degraded after the 1890 British Ultimatum. Further, between the 19th Century and 20th Century, the system of power that rotated between the parties was slowly dismantled; the divisions introduced by João Franco and José Maria de Alpoim resulted in the creation of splinter groups in addition to the two historical constitutional parties (respectively, the Partido Regenerador Liberal alongside the Partido Regenerador and the Dissidência Progressista from the Partido Progressista), which would alter the rules of political coexistence. A dictatorship created by João Franco after May 1907 (endorsed by King Carlos) was an episode of cumulative crises provoked by Hintze Ribeiro, leader of the Partido Regenerador, and José Luciano de Castro, responsible for the Partido Progressista. Teófilo Braga accompanied many of these events, as well as Francoist Spain, the regicide and enthronement of King D. Manuel II, of which the journalist João Chagas wrote: ...[Manuel II assumed the military regalia] when by now it was not needed. The republican cause had grown in importance, helped by the Republican Party, freemasons, the Carbonária Portuguesa and by numerous groups of doctrinarian idealists influenced by the cause.
