Napoleon and Spain

chris N

Napoleon's Intelligence service clearly indicated that the Austrians had forgotten their defeat in 1805 and were prepared to re-enter the war with British Money. The Emperor ordered the assembling of the Grand Army.
Even as the Emperor was preparing to deal with the Austrian threat,there was some uncertainty as to whether the Russians would also be entering the war. Prussia had suffered a serious defeat the last time and there was certainty that it would do nothing.
Meanwhile the British were planning on a strike against Frances ally Spain. The attack would take place in Portugal where it was planned to liberate the nation from the French and Spanish occupation. The British would be sending an army of 35,000 British and German troops plus the Portuguese Legion. The British were hoping to rebuild the Portuguese Army so as to increase their strength. More forces were to be sent and plans were for an uprising to take place in Portugal after the landing.
 

chris N

London_ Word had arrived that the Austrians were going to war with France. Hope was that the Russian Empire would follow suite. The Austrians were expected to strike into Bavaria and also Italy.
It was with this good news that the British government authorized an expedition to Portugal to liberate that nation and open another front.
General Moore was selected to command this army. He had commanded the Light division and had been evolved in making the British army much more capable. Also coming with him was the Portuguese Legion. They wore uniforms of Brown in the British style.Additional uniforms and weapons would be carried to allow for a major expansion of the Army of Portugal. The British Army would total more than 32,000 British and German troops.
 

chris N

General Moore had left England with one of the largest British armies in recent time. His force included British, Portuguese and German troops.
He was charged with the liberation of Portugal but he had also be warned not to lose too many of his Majesty's troops in doing the job. Morale was high, especial among the troops from Portugal. General Moore had been given lots of uniforms and weapons to rapidly rearm the Portuguese army. It was a bold venture. After the failure in South America attack on the Northern part with the considerable lose of life the government could not afford another major lose.
 

chris N

General Moore had been charged with the liberation of Portugal and it was hoped that he might also be able to knock Spain out of the War.
Even as he was sailing with his force to liberate Portugal another British Expeditionary force was enroute to South America to attack Buenos Aires.
The British would like to take over this region.
General Moore was meanwhile going over the plans for the invasion and liberation of Portugal. There was already word that the Portuguese Militia would rise up and fight and that the former soldiers of Portugal's army would flock to the colors.
Intelligence indicated that the French commander had failed to maintain the Emperor orders to rstore the defenses feeling that there was no threat and the Spanish had done nothing to make friends of the people of the new kingdom.
General Moore was pleased with the units that had been sellected for his command. He had a lot of well trained units. He was qurious as to how well the new rifle unit would do. The General was a big supporter of the light infantry.
 

chris N

General Moore pressed the navy to land his troops and all the equipment as fast as possible. It was his desire to be able to move as quick as possible against the French and the Spanish. The people of Portugal well glad to see that the English had not forgotten then.
He also began to retrain the Portuguese volunteers and reorganize them into Units. It was his hope that the Portuguese Legion would become a training pattern for the entire army.. One of the first battalions that landed was one of the light infantry battalion.
 

chris N

General Moore was moving as quickly as he could. He was at the mercy of the navy unloading both his troops and the supplies that he would need. Unfortunately the port that they held had only the capacity to unload a few ships at a time. He had made sure that in addition to his light troops the Portuguese Legion had also been landed.
Already the work had begun to turn volunteers into soldiers. Everything would take time and that was one thing that General Moore knew that he had a limited supply of. So far neither the French nor the Spanish knew that he had landed but he was sure that that fact would not remain a secret for too much Longer.
The Portuguese troops were anxious to liberate their country from the enemy.

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chris N

General Moore now began moving to liberate Lisbon from enemy control and thus provide his army with a port which would allow the handling of troops and supplies in a much better manner.
Marshal Jordan was either unaware of the threat headed toward him or over confident of his own ability.
The French had a little over 18,000 troops while the British -Portuguese force that was approaching him totaled over 36,000. The British inflicted serious loses on the French forces that were guarding the approaches to Lisbon. In addition an uprising in the city finally awoke the French Marshal that it would be best if he made a strategic withdrawal toward the Spanish border.
Thus British forces liberated the capital of Portugal and then continued to pursuit the Frnch. The Spanish were not forgotten in this either. Portuguese troops with British support clearly showed the Spanish commander that he had a real fight on his hand. In this case brutality was shown by the Spanish and Portuguese troops against one another. Only when the British were present were normal conventions followed.
Napoleon was now busy with a war with Austria when he received the word that the English had driven his and the Spanish troops out of Portugal.
 

chris N

The Campaign in Portugal took nearly three months to complete but General Moore was able to report that both Spanish and French forces had be run out of Portugal. If he could receive reinforcements he was prepared to bring the war to Spain and hopefully topple the Spanish government. The Portuguese Government that had come into existence had voted to support the British with Portuguese troops.
General Moore received word that he would be receiving additional troops from England.
 

chris N

The Anglo-Portuguese Army had managed to inflict great loses on both the French and Spanish forces that had occupied Portugal. Now the proposal was to take the war to Spain and perhaps topple the pro-French Spanish government . There was something of a risk in doing this as the allied forces would be preceived most probably as the invaders of Spain not its liberators.
Napoleon was too busy dealing with the Austrians and the Russians to be bothered with the affairs in Spain. Marshal Jordan had bungled things and the Emperor wonder if a new Marsshal might at least prevent things in Spain from getting worse.
 

chris N

General Moore ordered the push into Spain. The Anglo_Portuguese Army was well prepared to extract revenge on the Spanish forces. Yet General Moore ordered that the Portuguese defenses be strengthen and put back into proper order. While the general had received reinforcements from Britain, including the King's German Legion, he was counting on his Portuguese allies to help equal things.
The British had received some intelligence from those in Spain that did not care for Napoleon as well as those that wanted to see a new king on the throne.
Marshal Jordan had been recalled to France and his replacement was suppose to be on his way.
 

martin76

Early mistakes:

[FONT=&quot]Reports from the Emperor's intelligence service clearly showed that the Spanish Army was going to need a lot of training and weapons to turn it into an effective weapon.[/FONT]

First mistake. The Spainsh Army wasn´t bad in 1807... In fact, the Spanish Army had just defeated the British one in Montevideo and Buenos Aires (1807) and in Brion (1800). In the Campaign of Denmark (1807/08), Bernardotte regarded the Spanish troops of the best quality.
Of course, the army lost the quality with the dissolution of the state in May 1808 and with the begining of the Spanish rebellion had to develop a New Army.



[FONT=&quot]The Portuguese government failed to call up the militia to help defend the country and delayed asking for help from Britain. Thus the British Army arrived too late to be effective in the defense of the country[/FONT]


In fact, Portuguese government didn´t fail to call up because never call up nothing. The British Navy (Sidney Smith) was facing Lisbon from November 17, 1807. Next day, the British embassy in Lisbon was evacuated (Lord Strangford) and the French-Spanish Army didn´t cross the Portuguese border till November 19.

The British had enough time to deploy the Royal Marines in Lisbon or even having tried to confront the allied army ... although yes, it would be stupid and suicidal.

Spain desired to once again control the entire Iberian Peninsular.

Spain didn´t want to control the entire Peninsula... It is more, Madrid and Lisboa were working together from 1806 to stop the Napoleon aggresion. The Spanish government send a letter asking Portugal joined the blockade and avoid the entry of French troops in the Peninsula. And when the invasion happened, Spain didn´t annexed anything.
Portugal was split in three zones:
a.- For the Kings of Etruria
b.- For the Prince of Peace

c.- Its legal status would be set after the war but was supposed to be for the Portuguese princes or some French.


Spain never wanted any portuguese land in 1807 campaign.
 

chris N

As far as Portugal goes the Government of that country believed that it would be foolish to resist a French Invasion. Next the Portuguese Army was riddled with corruption. There was a lot of Portuguese officers that were receiving money for troops that did not exist.
Money that should have gone for training and equipment instead went into the pocket of corrupt officials both in and out of the military.
That is not to say that the Portuguese soldier was incapable of fighting as they proved that when properly armed, trained, equipped and lead they were capable of doing as well as any British unit.

Without a doubt the main reason for the invasion of Portugal was to make sure that the blockade of British goods was a reality rather than just lip service.
It must be noted that the Spanish did get themselves involved in the invasion.
In this time line Napoleon has no intention of invading Spain. In fact some advisers have recommended withdrawing the French forces that were able to escape from Portugal.
It would appear that the responsibility for the defense of Spain will rest in the hands of the Royal Spanish Army.
 

chris N

Napoleon decided to listen to his advisors and withdraw French forces from Portugal and Spain. Already the French Intelligence service was hearing whispers of a possible threat to form another alliance against the Emperor and the troops that were in the Iberian Peninsula would be of more use in France.
 

chris N

The withdrawal of French forces from Portugal and Spain would mean that there was no Spanish Ulcer to drain the Empire of Troops and Money. The Question is would the British have waged a war against Spain. The defeat of Austria would probably have be quicker. Might Napoleon have waged a different Campaign in 1812 perhaps taking St Petersburg and tempting the Swedes to join hin by offering Finland's return
 

chris N

Napoleon was looking at things and was annoyed that the Russian Czar was not joining the blockade of Britain. Frankly he was quite tired of the British who seemed to be willing to go into greater and greater debt financing wars against him. The British had restored the Portuguese Monarchy and then had done something stupid like invading Spain. That had stirred up a hornets nest. He was glad that he had not followed through with the idea of taking Spain over and installing brother Joseph on the Spanish throne.
He was undecided on whether to invade Russia or not but if he did he would misdirect the Russians making him think that he was taking Moscow while aiming the main thrust at St Petersburg.
 
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