PENINSULAR WAR, TIIE. The struggle carried on in the Iberian Peninsula from 1807 to 1814 between the Emperor Napoleon on the one side and the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the English on the other. After the Treaty of Til sit Napoleon resolved to Seize Portugal in order more perfectly to enforce his Continental System (q.v.) against England. With the connivance of Spain, a French army limier .runt invaded Portugal and occupied Lisbon on November 30, 1807. The flight of the royal family to Brazil left the Portuguese for the moment leaderless, but the English soon came to their assistance and, the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, ,Innot, at Vimeiro on Ammst 21, 1808, and by the Con vention of Cintra, nine days later, forced him to evacuate Portugal. In the mean while the family affairs of Spanish royalty gave Napoleon a pre text for interfering. in Spain. Armies under the direction of Murat occupied the e?amtry and on ,Tune 6, 1805, ,I0Aelill n011a pa al' 1111 S luovlainuvl King of Spain. (See Cumu.ns IV.: FERDINAND VI].) Din• of the divisions of the French army of occupation was trapped by the Spaniards and forced to surrender at Bailen (q.v.) on July 20, 1SOS. This disaster so startled Napoleon that immediately after the Congress of Erfurt he in person undertook a campaign in Spain with three large armies and occupied Madrid on Deeember I, 10,0S. Ili: army was lured away from by an English army under Sir John Moore, who invaded Spain from Portugal and then conducted a skillful retreat to Coruna. During the pursuit turned over the command to Soult awl hurried away to prepare for the campaign against Austria. While Napoleon's marshals busy completing the conquest of the Penin sula, an English army under Wellesley Lindell at Lisbon on April 22, 1809. Having taken Oporto from Soult, Wellesley invaded Spain and fought a drawn battle with King .loseidi and .1Iarshal Victor at Talavera de la 13eino on July 27th-280. This battle saved Portugal from further harrying by the French, who, however, won a series of suc cesses in Spain, including the victories of Al nionacid on August Ilth and Ocana on November ltith. By the beginning of the summer of 1810, the French had subjugated practically the whole of Spain. The Province of Galicia and the forti fied towns of Cadiz, Valencia, Itadajoz, and Ciudad Rodrigo were the only important places still held by the Spaniards. During 1810 Napo leon hoped to take these places and to drive the English out of Portugal. With this purpose, a large army under r.11assilna laid siege to Ciudad Rodrigo, which was captured on July 19th. In vading Portugal. MassOia captured Almeida on August 26th, and after a repulse by Wellington at 13usaeo on Scptemlwr 27th, continued the pur suit of that goner al , who retired behind the well fortified lines of Torres Vedras. The devastation of the country by the Portuguese, the incessant guerrilla warfare waged by the Spaniards, and the jealousies of the French marshals spoiled the plan of campaign. Soult captured Badajoz on March II, 1811, but failed to cooperate with
.Massi.no, who was forced to :diandon the attempt to earry the lines of Torres Vedras in order to prevent the recapture of Almeida. Wellington defeated Mass(ho at Fuentes de (Moro on May 5th and the English Almeida. Div ing the year the French, under Sonit, were defeated at Albuera on May 16th, and un der at Arroyo Alolinos on October 213th, and their only success was in Aragon and Valencia under Suchet, who captured the city of Voli•ncia on January 10, 1812. In the same month Wellington took the offensive, cap tured Ciudad 11ndrigo on January 19th, and Ba dajoz on April 6th, and defeated Alamo/it at Salamanca on July 22d, but failed to capture Burgos and retired into winter quarters in Por tugal. Elsewhere in Spain the French held their own until the withdrawal of troops from the Peninsula for the campaign of 181:3 in Germany. The resumption of hostilities by Wellington forced King Joseph to abandon his capital and retreat toward the northern mountains. Welling ton pushed the campaign with vigor, defeating Joseph and Jonrdan it 1'itoria on June 21. 1813, capturing San SebasthIn on August 31st, and in vading France. Sault failed in successive at tempts to cheek Wellington's victorious advance in Southern France in the battles 011 the Nivelle, on the Nive. at Orthez on February 27, 1814, and at Toulouse rot April 10th. Suchet succeeded in withdrawing his army from Aragon without loss and was marching to the assistance of Soult when the news of Napoleon's abdication arrived. The termination of the war at this moment enabled the English to transport many of Wellington's veterans to America to take part in the cam paign of 1814 against the United States. Po litically the invasion of the Peninsula was the most costly error in Napoleon's career, for there 1.e first aroused that spirit of nationality which was destined to bring disaster on him not only in Spain, but in Germany as well. From a military point of view the war in the Peninsula was a stupendous blunder for Napoleon, for it made a NV11111011 increase in the number of his foes, it gave England her longed for opportnnityof fighting hint on land, while its campaigns and its guerrilla warfare cost Napoleon thousands of men and proved demoralizing to the (.1liciency of his army, so that in Ids final campaigns he found himself with a formidable foe at his rear and was therefore unable to put in the field against his great Con tinental enemies, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. the full military power of the French notion.
Bitimoutmenv. The best brief sketch is Shand, The War in. the Peninsula (New. York, 1898). The standard works are: Napier, History of the liar in the Peninsula (London, 1828-40) : and Foy, il-/oirc dc /a yucrrc de la !wncnsitlt sous Nopoh'on (Paris, 1827). The best works of recent scholarship are Gomez de Arteche y Moro, Cuero,. delta independencia. (14 vols., Madrid, 868-190:3) ; Latino Coelho, i1lsrogin politica e unfitor desAdc os fins do 1S scculo ate (Lis bon, 1886); and Oman, History of the Peninsular Mar (New York, 1902).