Napoleon and Politics: Peninsular War and Trafalgar
Napoleon and Politics: The Peninsular War and Trafalgar
Stage 3: Napoleon and Politics in the Peninsular War and Trafalgar. Spain’s treatment of prisoners led Portugal to rescind its alliance with Great Britain. Godoy’s treatment of prisoners led Napoleon to declare war on Portugal. The first war was very short, denominated the “War of the Oranges.” In volume one, the small Spanish border town called Olivenza entered. When Napoleon saw this, he became furious. At that moment, he was trying to reach a truce with Great Britain, the Peace of Amiens, which was finally carried out in 1802.
The ineffective management of the government by Godoy provoked a large part of the court to become enemies with him. Their enemy number one was the successor, who sought and found support in the figure of Ferdinand VII, “The Desired,” who had just met most of the old guard.
Meanwhile, in France, Napoleon, who at that time was consul, used a referendum to be victoriously crowned emperor. It was then that Napoleon decided to carry out his plan to invade Great Britain, using the combined fleets of France and Spain. They would leave from Cadiz towards America as a decoy when their real destination would be the Netherlands to load the troops stationed there. The problem came when they left the port of Cadiz. On October 20, 1805, the Battle of Trafalgar, one of the most important battles of its time, took place. Another inconvenience was that the fleet was under the command of an inexperienced French admiral, Villeneuve. The battle was a complete disaster for the Spanish side. Their ships were destroyed, and with it, all the efforts made during the 18th century and Napoleon’s loss of America.
In subsequent years, Napoleon aimed at achieving hegemony in continental Europe, beating the Russians and Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz, and shortly thereafter, the Prussians. In the Berlin Decree, he approved a continental blockade of British trade, which caused an economic crisis in that country and forced it to sign peace. With that, Napoleon tried to isolate Britain from Europe. Since neither Russia nor Portugal met this agreement, Napoleon decided to undertake military campaigns against the two countries, which ended up costing him his empire.
On the Iberian front, Napoleon offered Spain to sign the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1807), in which Spain was offered full sovereignty over South America, the title of Emperor of the Americas for the king, as well as the disappearance of Portugal and its fragmentation into three kingdoms belonging to the Spanish crown. One of them, Lusitania, would go to relatives of the Queen, and the County of Algarve to Godoy. All that Spain had to do was give way, finance, and supply the French troops to invade Portugal.
The mismanagement on the part of the kings and their favorite led to the formation of the so-called “Fernandinos Party,” a grouping of the most representative groups (Aranda, reformers, nobility, clergy, enlightened…) that supported the monarch’s son to clear the way for the ineffective government. The heir saw an opportunity to seize power and attempted a coup, but Godoy warned him, and he was caught red-handed. Instead of going badly, the Spanish people thought it was an invention of Godoy, and the figure of the heir emerged stronger in all sectors of the population at the time. Furthermore, he apologized to his father, who, seeing him repentant, decided to pardon him.
Meanwhile, the French army entered the peninsula, and the Portuguese royal family (Braganza) fled to Brazil thanks to the British fleet. The army occupied Portugal, but a large contingent remained in Spain and began to carry out acts against the Spanish population, to which the king responded by making a proclamation (March 16, 1808) asking people to behave well with the allied army. This further aggravated the hostility of the people, who were now beginning to suspect that the French army came to stay.
A day after the publication of the proclamation, the heir to the throne, supported by the vast majority of senior estates, staged a coup disguised as a popular uprising, the Mutiny of Aranjuez, which forced the abdication of the king in favor of his son. Days later, the king reconsidered his position and returned to exercise his right to the throne, which caused a conflict within the royal family. Meanwhile, General Murat and 40,000 men were encamped near Principe Pio, prepared to take power under the orders of Napoleon.