The establishment of the Portuguese Republic was the result of a coup d'état organised by the Portuguese Republican Party which, on 5 October 1910, deposed the constitutional monarchy and established a republican regime in Portugal. The subjugation of the country to British colonial interests, the royal family's expenses, the power of the Church, the political and social instability, the system of alternating power of the two political parties (Progressive and Regenerador), João Franco's dictatorship, an apparent inability to adapt to modern times – all contributed to an unrelenting erosion of the Portuguese monarchy. The proponents of the republic, particularly the Republican Party, found ways to take advantage of the situation. The Republican Party presented itself as the only one that had a programme that was capable of returning to the country its lost status and place Portugal on the way of progress.