Definition of War of Independence

Historians attribute the causes of Napoleon's defeat in 1814 mainly to three causes: the invasion of Russia (a tactical error), the failure to finish off Great Britain, and the failed invasion of Spain, with the war of attrition that entailed. In this Article we will deal with the latter conflict.

The so-called "War of Independence" (name by which it is known in Spain) is the regular conflict and of guerrilla warfare that pitted the invading Napoleonic army against the Spanish rebel forces between 1808 and 1814.

It should be noted that in the War of Independence there is also a latent civil war; on the French side there were also Spanish sympathizers with the values ​​advocated by the new revolutionary or Napoleonic France, who were contemptuously known as “Frenchified”.

Meanwhile, on the Spanish side, both the reformist attitudes but the rejection of the French occupation coexisted with the reactionaries and traditionalists, which caused not a few internal problems although, in general, the Spanish side knew how to overcome them in order to remain cohesive.

This did not prevent these dissensions from breaking out after the French defeat, leading to a nineteenth century of great instability. politics, whose consequences splashed the twentieth century.

The presence of French troops on Spanish territory dates back to 1807, when they crossed the border under the Franco-Spanish alliance to jointly attack Portugal.

The latter country was an ally of Great Britain, and did not obey the naval and commercial blockade order against the United Kingdom issued by Napoleon, which caused a problem to the strategy French isolation from its main enemy.

Portugal showed no sign of obeying the dictatorship Napoleonic, and the Spanish monarchy and rulers showed great lukewarmness and indecision despite his theoretical alliance with France, probably out of fear of the republican anxieties of a part of his population and to play a bit on both sides with a certain fear of who would end up winning the fight at the European level.

In Spain, the situation is one of political struggle for power between Carlos IV and his son Fernando (the future Fernando VII), as well as the valid Godoy.

A riot breaks out in Aranjuez to protest against Godoy's movements and, as a result of this, Napoleon sees the chance to remove the Spanish royal house, taking advantage of the fact that its troops stationed in Spain already control vital cities and communications, to the horror of the Spanish military (who see the invasion coming), and the inaction of the class politics.

In the Abdications of Bayonne, Napoleon forced Carlos IV and Prince Ferdinand to abdicate each other and, of these, in his brother José Bonaparte, crowned King of Spain.

Obviously, the maneuver was not going to be accepted by a good part of the nobility and wealthy sectors of Spanish society, the army and the common people. The war was served.

The fuse was lit on May 2, 1808 in Madrid, with the people revolting en masse against the French occupation authorities.

The news of the uprising, as well as of its subsequent repression, spread like wildfire, in turn provoking uprisings and riots against the French invaders in other parts of the country.

The "rebels" (from the French perspective; for the Spaniards they are patriots) they take control of various cities and regions, scattered on the map, which conditions the evolution after the war. Examples of this situation will be the sites of Zaragoza or Gerona.

To control the situation in the scattered areas controlled by the rebels, defense boards are formed there.

Initially, the main territory controlled by the rebels is the south of the peninsula, the region of Andalusia, where many towns and cities foragita to the invader, although the first important defeat of the Gallic forces takes place in the port of the Bruch, in Catalonia.

The war in Spain will be marked by a regular conflict between Spanish and British troops against the French, and a guerrilla war by irregular Spanish patriots against the troops French.

This will cause a logistical headache for the Gallic forces, since they had to divert numerous forces to fight against the enemy behind the front lines.

In Bailén, the Spanish regular forces and militiamen take credit for being the first to defeat the Napoleonic army in the open field.

All this situation caused a strategic withdrawal of the Napoleonic troops towards the north of the peninsula, a space that they could control better, to later receive reinforcements and descend again conquering all the territory.

It is in December 1808 when Napoleon enters Spain with an army made up of a quarter of a million men.

With renewed momentum, the imperial armies act like a roller, entering Madrid first and later recovering Andalusia.

In January 1809 the task seemed "finished" by the French, Napoleon marching to prepare his new confrontation with Austria, which had declared war on him. Gallic troops were preparing to pursue the remains of the British Expeditionary Corps and enter Portugal.

But, again, it was the Spanish people who caused problems for the imperial army, starring uprisings in various places and maintaining a guerrilla war that caused constant attrition to the imperial.

In 1810 Napoleon granted independence to the region of Catalonia, endowing it with a government supervised by France.

In this way, it becomes a kind of protectorate. The emperor thus seeks to divide the Spanish, giving independence to a region that, historically, had not been directly under the rule of Castile until a century earlier. Spain is a state made up of several nations, Napoleon knows this and seeks to exploit it.

What Napoleon does not have is that in Catalonia they will resist the idea of ​​him. Thus, in 1812, Catalonia became directly part of the French Empire, being divided into four departments.

In 1812, and in the battle of Arapiles, the tables changed definitively, and the allied troops formed by Spanish, Portuguese and British, defeated the French.

From here, the French fought to retreat, beginning by losing Andalusia. The king hired by Napoleon, his own brother Joseph his, left Madrid.

The war did not end here, since coordinating with the other continental powers, the allies continued to push the French to the north, fighting in the south of France itself.

Spain, along with Russia, had sealed the fate of Napoleon and the French Empire.

Photo: Fotolia - Archivist / eugenesergeev

Issues in War of Independence