The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was a war for control of the Peninsula between Napoleon and Bourbon Spain (with the British Empire and Ireland allied with the Kingdom of Portugal). During the Napoleonic Wars, Iberia was ruled by the Spanish. The conflict began in 1807, when French and Spanish soldiers invaded and conquered Portugal, and escalated in 1808, when France declared war on its former ally, Spain. The struggle on the peninsula lasted until Napoleon was defeated by the Sixth Coalition in 1814, and it is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation, significant for the creation of guerilla warfare on a grand scale.
The Peninsular War, also known as the Guerra de la Independencia Espaola (Spanish War of Independence), began on May 2, 1808, with the Dos de Mayo Uprising and ended on April 17, 1814. The French occupation of Spain demolished the Spanish government, which disintegrated into rebellious provincial councils of warriors. This was the bloodiest period in contemporary Spanish history, with twice as many deaths as the Spanish Civil War.
In 1810, a national government, the Cortes of Cádiz Giin, was re-established as a government-in-exile in Cádiz, but it was unable to assemble an army efficiently since it was surrounded by 70,000 French troops. British and Portuguese forces eventually captured Portugal, utilizing it as a safe haven from which to conduct campaigns against the French army and supply them with whatever supplies they could muster. While the Spanish army and guerrillas encircled major portions of Napoleon's force.
By limiting French control of the country, these often and irregularly assembled allied forces hindered Napoleon's Marshals from pacifying the rebellious Spanish provinces, and the war went on for years.
The British army, under General Sir Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, defended Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the reformed Portuguese army. The demoralized Portuguese army was reorganized and re-equipped under the command of General William Beresford, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of Portuguese forces by the exiled Portuguese royal family and fought as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army under Wellesley.
When Napoleon invaded Russia with Grande Armée in 1812 and failed miserably, an allied army led by Wellesley entered Spain, destroyed the French at Salamanca, and took Madrid. The following year, Wellington defeated King Joseph Bonaparte's army in the Battle of Vitoria. Field Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, who commanded French forces, could no longer get significant backup from a depleted France as he was pursued by British, Spanish, and Portuguese soldiers. During a winter retreat along the Pyrenees in 1813–1814, he became tired and discouraged.
The Grande Armée of France bore a terrible weight during the years of fighting in Spain. While the French won the battle, their communications and supplies were badly hampered, and their soldiers were regularly isolated, harassed, or overwhelmed, as well as viciously assaulted by adversaries. Man from the guerrilla army. The Spanish army was frequently humiliated and pushed to the periphery, but it recovered and chased the French ferociously. Because of France's squandering of resources, Napoleon, who accidentally provoked an all-out war, dubbed the battle the "Spanish Ulcer."
The Spanish Constitution of 1812, which ultimately became the foundation of European liberalism, was established as a result of war and revolt against Napoleon's occupation. The economic and social fabric of Portugal and Spain was devastated by war, ushering in a period of social upheaval, political instability, and economic stagnation. Civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions, commanded by officers educated in the Peninsular War, lasted until 1850 throughout Iberia. Interruptions of invasion, revolution, and restoration led to Spain's independence from most of the American colonies and Brazil's freedom from Portugal.
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