The Republic of Portugal, called by scholars the Second Republic, is an authoritarian corporatist state at the western end of Europe, located within the Iberian peninsula. It is led by the charismatic economist-turned-dictator António de Oliveira Salazar under the principles of Catholic conservatism. The main preoccupations of the Portuguese state are to improve its education, grow its economy, and prevent the collapse of its colonial empire. For this last purpose Portugal has allied itself with the German Empire in the bloody Second Colonial War, despite being very neutral in affairs relating to the Cold War.